Industry > Mills
Upchurch Windmill
bertroid:
--- Quote from: Mike Gunnill on May 28, 2020, 07:57:27 PM ---
--- Quote from: bertroid on May 28, 2020, 06:39:50 PM ---No problem, Mike. I've actually got Medway down as Vol IV of my books, so it may not be around for a decade or more. I started with the same sources as yourself, but just noticed an increased number of anomalies in Coles-Finch as I looked deeper. Me and Smiffy on the old forum were finding all sorts of oddities in e.g. Chatham, which was a bit alarming as it was Coles-Finch's home town!
For the record, Coles-Finch missed up to 20-25% of mills, including a couple that were standing at the time of survey.
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How did his books become so important? Seems very strange research.
Regards
Mike
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He was the only one mad enough to do it. I can't vouch for his others, but with the Windmill one, most of the groundwork was done by a chap named Alfred Tiffin from Staplehurst, who at the time, felt it better to let an established author do it, with his way with words. Alfred actually write to every parish vicar, who in turn went to the oldest people in the parish for info. There was a questionnaire to fill in, which did provide amazing info from good memories, but also a lot of not so strong memories as well. I've seen some of the returned ones. To be fair, in the 1930s nothing on that scale had been attempted, and there are bits gathered which are invaluable. The problem since, is that we just rely on a book written 87 years ago as a windmill 'bible' without questioning it. Ironically, the entry for Wakeley's Mill at Upchurch is pretty strong.
I exchanged a couple of letters with Alfred in the 80s, then living in Australia, and in his 80s. And he just said he did it for fun, and not any money.
bertroid:
No problem, Mike. I've actually got Medway down as Vol IV of my books, so it may not be around for a decade or more. I started with the same sources as yourself, but just noticed an increased number of anomalies in Coles-Finch as I looked deeper. Me and Smiffy on the old forum were finding all sorts of oddities in e.g. Chatham, which was a bit alarming as it was Coles-Finch's home town!
For the record, Coles-Finch missed up to 20-25% of mills, including a couple that were standing at the time of survey.
KeithG:
--- Quote from: MartinR on May 26, 2020, 11:39:19 PM ---I'm not arguing with your greater knowledge of mills, but would just like to point out that most mills seem to have a fair amount of flour dust lying around the place as, well just plain dust. Mines likewise try to get the coal out ASAP, but dust gets everywhere, behind and on equipment, up on shafting brackets, in the floor crevices - the list is endless.
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Agree totally what you say... Having been in the building trade all my life wood dust in its finest form is also very dangerous and the finer the worse it is.
Not only is the dust that settles high on light fittings a great danger to our lungs as it goes really deep down as its particles are lighter and smaller but the dust can explode by sudden pressure or compression and does not necessarily need a spark to ignite or cause an explosion.
There was also a theory into why the RMS Lusitania sank so quick off the Irish Coast in 1915 when it was torpedoed.
It was thought that the torpedo entered the nearly emptied coal storage bunkers after its crossing and the dust also ignited causing a greater explosion thus blowing a larger hole in the hull?
bertroid:
--- Quote from: DaveTheTrain on May 27, 2020, 09:28:46 AM ---Thanks Bertroid, I had assumed it was bearing related.
Tallow is funny stuff, it can be really good and then suddenly disappear (by running thin like water) causing the bearing to run hot. I would imagine that as a miller, the greater risk to life is to get caught in the motion or line shafting. There have been even very recent fatalities caused like this.
DTT
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There are loads of horrible tales of millers being killed by their own mill, being dragged into a gear by a loose scarf etc
bertroid:
--- Quote from: Mike Gunnill on May 27, 2020, 02:34:08 AM ---
--- Quote from: bertroid on May 26, 2020, 08:02:37 PM ---
Just to correct a few bits on the history, which looks like it is taken from the book by William Coles-Finch, which is sadly riddled with errors. I'm slowly correcting it in five volumes. Coles-Finch lived in Medway all his life, and missed mills which he might have known as a young man.
The windmill was built in 1802, by a chap named John Peak. The first lessee was a lady named Elizabeth Medhurst. The Wakeley Brothers took the mill in the 1850s, and raised it then, rather than in 1902-3. They worked it until the 1890s, when they gave up probably due to the advent of steam. So it had a continuous working life of 90+ years.
It's interesting that they still renewed the insurance premiums every year up to 1910, which could suggest foul play, as with many other windmill fires around this era!
There was also an early windpump on Upchurch marshes, recorded in a sale notice of 1810.
--- Quote from: Mike Gunnill on May 23, 2020, 12:40:19 PM ---Upchurch windmill in 1903 on Windmill Hill, Upchurch. A working mill from 1819-1843 + 1858-1872 + 1903-1910. Owned by William Wakeley who raised the whole structure on a brick base in 1902/1903 to get better wind-power. Fire completely destroyed the mill in September 1910 and it was never rebuilt.
The general view of the windmill burning. A local photographer had taken the scene a few years earlier. He added a few dark marks for smoke and put the postcard out for sale again!
Pictures from Upchurch in old picture postcards by Mike Gunnill
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bertroid
Not totally disagreeing with your comments, but the picture was taken from a local Upchurch family who had relations involved in the Mill. My written detail comes from the same local source. It was after I compiled by book, Upchurch in old picture postcards that I came across [size=0px]William Coles-Finch. Which was/is treated like a windmill bible by Maidstone Archives and Library. The photograph was an original and was hanging in the families lounge, where it was returned there after copying.[/size]
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Mike, I'm certainly not questioning the authenticity of the photo, but the information that came with it, is a mangled version of what was in Coles-Finch. For example, the dates given as a working mill, '1819-1843 + 1858-1872 + 1903-1910' are the surveying dates for the first,second, and third Editions of the Ordnance Survey, as given in Coles-Finch. I.e. not the dates the mill was working. I could happily go on about Coles-Finch's inaccuracies in detail, but I'll leave it there.
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