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Writer's pictureRothai Mill

Progress Report

It's been nearly three weeks since the last real construction work took place. We've just about recovered. But we can now report that the front wall is finished!!!

The wall is actually a fairly complicated piece of construction. It contains two doors, a window and a bunch of holes for the joists to slot into, in time... it wouldn't be a stretch to say that there was a moment when those holes nearly didn't go in... And the cornerstones!!! I heard a lot of cornerstone jokes, cornerstone complaints and cornerstone pleas. It seems our stone in less that favourable to dressing, let alone breaking in a way that a stonemason would like. It's supposedly metamorphosised limestone that comes out of a quarry wonky and wants to break on an angle.


On top of that, we found a bad day-roosting inside one of the joints. We found a way to work around him but we had to wait for him to vacate the premises (which he did at 22:32 that night), and deny him entry for a few days so he didn't get crushed during the partial ripping of that wall. Fortunately, his abode wasn't affected by the works and he was allowed to go back in a couple of days later.

Anyway, we got there in the end and here are a few shots of us messing around on the scaffold (after hours).

Apart from the front wall, we also managed to address the super dodgy diagonally collapsing stonework at the back. The base of the diagonal was bad because internally there was some kind of a hollow made within the stonework (it is unclear if this was on purpose for the winnowing machine or an accidental collapse but you could literally see across to the other side, or stick your arm through if you were brave enough). And the top was bad because of water damage and the year and years of slow washing out of mortar.

The footing was dug out (after a thin layer of leftover concrete was discovered covering a hollow beneath) and a prompt self-levelling mix was poured in to create a base for a new footing.

I know all this because I am busy preparing a progress report for the grant due on Friday. Oh, and because I was there for all of the drama!


And dramatic it was. The hursting on the grinding side was propped and than random stone (to my untrained eye) were pulled out. Long crowbars we're used to get out of the firing line... nothing bad happened. The hursting prevailed. The wall got rebuilt and raked out. All it needs is a bit of pointing next time.


And don't get me started on the pointing.

No, seriously, I won't go into it. But I might get a mixer...



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