BURSLEDON MILL

Bursledon Windmill was built by Mrs Phoebe Langtry in 1813-14 on the site of an earlier windmill. Although her mill was built to an old-fashioned design with wooden parts, it was in use until the 1880s. Changes in technology and a prolonged agricultural depression caused it to fall into decay.

Bursledon is a 5-storey brick tower mill, which is used to convert different kinds of grain into flour and animal feed.

The first windmill was built on this site in 1766-67, and some of its wooden machinery was incorporated in the present mill. built 1813-14 at a cost of about £800. A Mrs. Phoebe Langtry was responsible for its construction, and her son
William was miller for many years. The Windmill formed a part of the 'golden years' of English agricultural prosperity in the mid 19th century, processing wheat from the surrounding area into flour for local bakers, ships biscuits and household use, and making animal feed from locally grown barley and oats.

It last worked in the late 1880s. Like many other windmills, it was made redundant by major changes in flour milling technology. This coincided with a prolonged depression in agriculture which began in the late 1870s, and Bursledon Windmill was an early casualty of the period; major repairs were needed, but it was no longer worthwhile to undertake them.

The last miller was a George Gosling, who bought the Windmill in 1872 and set up as a threshing contractor. His decision to replace the cap with a flat roof preserved the internal machinery long after the stocks and sails had been
removed.

OUTSIDE THE MILL
Once inside, the Windmill you are effectively 'inside the machine'.
The boat-shaped cap (so called because it looks like the inverted hull of a boat) turns upon the top of the tower to keep the sails facing into the wind. Most surviving English windmills have a fantail which automatically keeps the sails facing into the wind. Bursledon has a simpler manually- operated mechanism to do this. This is known as an endless chain gear, and is operated from the
reefing stage.

When the mill is grinding corn the sails have canvas cloths spread upon them to catch the wind. Hardly any canvas is required in a strong wind, whereas 'full cloths' are needed in a fresh breeze. The sails are furled up and tied along the
leading edge of the sweeps when the mill is not working.

The reefing stage around the mill gives the miller access to the sails, and also allows him to operate the endless-chain turning gear and pull the
brake rope.

The brake rope works a friction band brake which encircles the brake wheel in the cap.

INSIDE THE MILL
The ground floor is mainly used for the temporary storage of newly-delivered grain, and for bagging off the milled meal and flour. The chain hanging through the trap door in the ceiling is part of the sack hoist. The power of the wind is
used to lift sacks of grain to storage bins on the third floor.

DUST FLOOR
This is known as the dust floor because it can so easily become dusty, greasy and dirty. From here you can look up into the cap. The sails are fixed to the oak
windshaft which spans the inside of the cap. The huge wooden brake wheel on the windshaft engages with the wallower on the top of the main shaft. The
latter goes down through three floors to drive the millstones.

The cap of the mill turns on a wood and iron kerb ring. The five truck wheels fixed on the underside of the cap frame stop the cap from sliding off the top of the tower.

BIN FLOOR
Sacks of grain are lifted on the sack hoist and emptied into the bins. These feed grain down chutes to the millstones on the floor below.

GRAIN TO FLOUR FLOW DIAGRAM

MILLSTONES FLOOR
Grain flows down the chute from the bin on the floor above into the hopper, and then into the trough-shaped shoe just above the millstones. The stones are
enclosed in a wooden casing known as a tun. At the bottom 'end of the shoe, grain is fed into the 'eye' of the upper or runner stone. The small bell warns the
miller when the hopper is nearly empty.

HOW THE WIRE MACHINE WORKS

The wire machine on this floor is used to 'dress' wholemeal flour. It is a mechanical sieve which removes most of the bran to make a whiter flour.

The grain is ground into flour as it passes outwards between the runner stone and the stationary bed stone. The flour emerges from the periphery of the stones, and drops down a chute to be bagged-off on the ground floor.
 

MILLSTONE ASSEMBLY

HURST FLOOR
A hurst is a traditional English name for a strong wooden framework. This contains the main mill gearing, which drives all of the machinery apart from
the sack hoist.

When the sails turn, the great spurwheel on the main shaft turns too. The runner stone rotates when the stone nut engages with the great spurwheel. This
is done with a slip-cog arrangement of three successive removable cogs which can only be inserted when the machinery is stationary.

SLIP COG MECHANISM

Another cog wheel below the great spurwheel connects with a layshaft to drive the wire machine and a small bean crushing mill.

The centrifugal governor helps the miller to keep the texture of the flour constant. It works automatically, adjusting the gap between the millstones as the wind strength varies.

FULL SCHEMATIC VIEW OF THE MILL
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