Mostert’s Mill

+27 (0)82 771 6480
Rhodes Ave, Mowbray, Cape Town

Mill specifications and notes

– Measurements (specifications)

  1. Diameter of building (ground level / external) – 7,94 m
  2. Diameter of building (Ground level / internal) – 5,64 m
  3. Height of wall – 6,68 m ( random stone to 2,25 m then unbaked bricks to top of wall)
  4. Thickness of wall (ground level) – 1,15 m
  5. Diameter of earthen platform around mill – 15,44 m
  6. No of anchor points – 12
  7. Span of sails – 14,25 metres
  8. Diameter of brakewheel – 770 mm
  9. No of cogs on brakewheel – 47
  10. No of staves of lantern pinion – 16
  11. 1 revolution of sails gives 2,94 revolutions of runner stone
  12. Diameter of millstones – 1,175 m

Materials (with date of installation in brackets)

Wall – random stone to 2,25 m height Vertical shaft – …. (original; (possibly a sailing ship’s topmast)

Unbaked bricks around openings and from top of stone to top of wall
Brake wheel – oak (1995)

Lime plaster, lime-wash Roof – thatch on poles of poplar (1995)
Cogs of brakewheel – beech (1995)

Stocks – Corten steel (rust resistant steel)
Brake blocks – willow (1935)

Sails – sailbars and uplongs of red cedar
Staves of lantern pinion gear – acacia (1995)

Sailcloths – canvas Windboards – cedar
Runner stone – (original)

Tailbeam – teak (from original windshaft)
Bedstone – quote from old records – “een oude Duitse blauwe steen, afkomstig uit den vroegeren korenmolen van Leens (Groningen)” (1935)

Windshaft – Iroco (1986)
Dressing of millstones (cut grooves) – common harp dressing on runner-stone, sickle dressing on the bedstone