2023 Restoration Update 14
At our last Update #13 we described how the sails were being fitted to the Mill, and once this was completed the Mill looked its normal self from the outside as you can see in the photo. The crate which brought the second-hand millstones from the Netherlands is standing in the foreground. (They were paid for by a crowd-funding appeal in Europe, which raised almost R100 000 – thank you, Sven Verbeek!).
Just under the windshaft is the name board which owing to its position is called the beard. Here it is in close-up, giving the year of original manufacture (we think) as well as the name. The year 2022 is carved on the brake wheel inside.
Talking of Sven, he and two companions (Gerard van Wijngaarden and Leo Elbers) were able to visit us for a few days in April and they brought with them in their luggage the four new canvas sail cloths that were also purchased from the GoFundMe appeal. In the photo you can see the three visitors together with Chairman John Hammer, identifiable by his Scottie dog Jamie at his feet. Sven is on John’s right, and one of the new sail cloths has been tied loosely to the sail lattice. All thre visitors have been given Honorary Life Membership for their successful (and continuing) fund raising efforts and other assistance.
Despite its outward appearance, there was still much work to be done to install the rest of the internal wooden machinery. First of all were the heavy eucalyptus beams needed to support the two wooden floors inside the Mill. You can see them in the next two photos. The beams for the lower (mill)stones floor, are 300 x 300 mm in cross-section. They and the beams for the upper or dust floor rest on galvanised steel brackets set in the wall. All of these beams were cut to size and installed by Kimon Mamacos of Sentinel Timbers at Hout Bay.
The next item was the hurstings, which is a millers’ term for the slotted vertical posts that support a nearly horizontal bridge tree in those slots. An arrangement of levers allows the miller to raise and lower this bridge tree, which supports the vertical shaft and the upper, rotating runner millstone. This action of changing the gap by a few millimetres between the runner and the fixed bedstone enables the miller to adjust the coarseness or fineness of the ground wheat being produced by the mill. In the photos you can see the hurstings (the camera distorted the verticality of the one on the right), the bridge tree, and the vertical shaft coming down through the square hole in the centre of the floor beams, to the left of the ladder.
The hustings and bridge tree were made and installed by Andy Selfe, as well as the vertical shaft which he salvaged from the tail pole after the April 2021 fire.
Millstones
Back inside the Mill, the two millstones (bedstone and runner) need to be encased in a cylindrical wooden shell – a tun – to collect all the ground wheat (meal) and funnel it into a large bag, which is often set on a weighing scale. The next photo shows the tun ready to be installed.
Here is a photo of the reconditioned runner stone that was brought along with the bedstone from Holland, although they were originally mined in France. You are seeing the underside of the runner. The wheat is fed through the central hole, and the grooves are there to grind the wheat kernels into flour and work that flour to the outer edge.
As for the millstones that were in the Mill at the time of the fire, when their wooden supports and tun burnt away they fell from the stones floor to the ground and were badly damaged. But their remains have been set in the ground floor (last photo) so that visitors can see what the millstones look like – they are normally hidden from view inside the tun.
Another important step was to connect the brake wheel, which is a circular disk with pegs near its outer edge and a square hole in its centre, to the windshaft which was threaded through a hole in the brake wheel. The windshaft also has a square cross section of about 400 x 400 mm. The two components are fitted together with a series of slightly tapered blocks, as can be seen in the close-up photograph of the brake wheel.
Finally we show you a photo of the finished brake wheel, which gives the dates of earlier brake wheels – the originally one made in 1796, the second wheel when Mostert’s Mill was restored as a gift of the Dutch Government in 1935, the third one at the restoration paid for by the South African Government in 1995 (partly obscured), and the fourth date of 2022 (not visible behind the windshaft). We are immensely grateful to the Rupert family who have financed the majority of the restoration costs this time, as well as to many hundreds of donors and sponsors whose gifts large and small have all helped.
In the meantime a capstan made by miller and ex-committee member Dusty Miller of Pinelands (thank you Dusty!) was installed near the foot of the tail pole, as in the photo. This device winds up a chain hooked on to one of the iron rings set in the ground around the Mill, and gives leverage to the miller to enable the cap of the Mill to be turned so that the sails face the prevailing wind.
For detailed information on the whole restoration process, please visit https://mostertsmillafterthefire.blogspot.com/?view=magazine compiled by Andy Selfe.
Yours sincerely – the Mostert’s Mill Restoration Team