Abandoned Mills

[Johnsond]

Currently helping a mate out on a site up In Colonsay, digs are up near Colonsay house and someone mentioned there was an old mill the estate used to run years ago. Early finish today so had a mooch about, the gardens must have been something else back in the day as would the mill set up. Bigger blade was 5ft diameter, can’t imagine it was very tolerant of complacency. And I’ll be the first to admit to those whom slate me for being on an arb forum 🤷‍♂️ no bloody idea what half the trees were in the grounds. 

Edited Friday at 17:13 by Johnsond

[Alan Smith]

Stunning!  Only ever sailed around Colonsay, never actually landed.

[dan blocker]

What’s the tank for? If it wasn’t for the braces I would have said for pickling stakes, posts and rails with tar ? But they would be in the way for lifting in and out?

[openspaceman]

20 minutes ago, dan blocker said:

What’s the tank for? If it wasn’t for the braces I would have said for pickling stakes, posts and rails with tar ? But they would be in the way for lifting in and out?

Yes looks likely for hot dipping creosote. The dry wood was loaded into tanks, normally in steel crates, cold.  Then heated to expel air in the wood, then cooled to suck in the creosote. I think they may have heated again to expel excess creosote. If the wood was wet it would foam over, like potato chips into hot fat, and the lot would go up.

[Johnsond]

1 hour ago, openspaceman said:

Yes looks likely for hot dipping creosote. The dry wood was loaded into tanks, normally in steel crates, cold.  Then heated to expel air in the wood, then cooled to suck in the creosote. I think they may have heated again to expel excess creosote. If the wood was wet it would foam over, like potato chips into hot fat, and the lot would go up.

👍makes sense, there were a few metal frames/cages roughly the size of each of the 3 openings in the tank and the remains of a overhead beam and roller set up lying around. You can see one of cages behind the tank.

Edited Friday at 22:14 by Johnsond

[spuddog0507]

That Ruston engine will of done a few days work in its time and would probably do a few more with a bit of TLC, made back in the day when we made things properly and had a engineering empire, it would of sat there all day popping away powering that rack saw and only used about 2 gallon of diesel for a full shift,   

[Mike Hill]

The tree in your last picture looks like a Macrocarpa.Interesting pictures!

[Mark Bolam]

Great find Dave.

Just looking at that blade gives me the shivers!

[Stubby]

Strangely placed shot gun cartridge . 16 bore ? , being blue ?

[AHPP]

Do engines that use cartridge starters also use a handle? Do you get it turning with the handle then throw the compression lever and fire the cartridge at the same time? I suspect it's just a perfectly ordinarily discarded cartridge in this instance but thought I'd ask for peripheral interest.