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Introduction
Late developer
Stuck in the mud
Rusty buckets
Breadwinners
When the Salvage Squad first see Waltham Chase Mill it's in a bad state: there are no floorboards, the millstone is lying in a corner and the waterwheel is in pieces. They have three months to fix the wheel so it will turn again and start grinding corn to make bread.
Waltham Chase Mill is a unique Victorian watermill that was built to provide flour and animal feed to the people of Bishops Waltham. Set in beautiful surroundings in Hampshire, the present mill dates back to 1830 but the site is mentioned in the Domesday Book, and there has probably been a mill here for over 1,000 years.
The mill machinery was built in 1890 but by then watermills were already old-fashioned, so although it represented the pinnacle of design, its future was soon in the balance. From about 1910 the mill produced only animal feed; it finally stopped operating altogether in 1957.
Its owner Jeremy Nedwell fell in love with it when he was looking for a new office and vowed to get it working again. This is a huge job for the Squad who have never had to restore a whole building before. They have to rebuild the waterwheel, lay a new wooden floor, restore the sack hoist, which carries sacks of grain from the ground floor to the grain bins, renew the wooden stone furniture, dress the millstone and replace many of the wooden teeth in the main cog wheel. They are ably assisted by restoration engineer Ian Clark.
The biggest task is rebuilding the waterwheel. Over the years it had sagged and its rims had sunk into the bed of the millstream.
But before work can start, Axel Cleghorn, Jerry Thurston and Claire Barratt need to don waders and start shovelling silt out of the millstream. Using just buckets, spades and lots of muscle power, they clear almost a tonne of debris in the pouring rain.
Then Axel and Ian Clark have to jack up the wheel to remove the worn bearing – one slip and the 100-year-old casting could break. Axel works on making a new bearing, and the huge oak block, which holds it in place, is also replaced. When it is running properly, the waterwheel should turn smoothly without shaking the whole mill.
The rusty old waterwheel buckets are beyond repair so Claire uses the best preserved one as a pattern for the 42 new buckets. They are formed using a 60-tonne press with a specially made pressing tool. The buckets are made from weathering grade steel, which does not need to be painted as rust provides a protective coating.
After bolting on the 12 new liners that surround the wheel with a steel cylinder, Axel and Ian have to drill hundreds of holes to secure Claire's buckets into position with nuts and bolts.
The Squad and Ian are absolutely delighted when the sluice gates are opened, and the waterwheel turns smoothly under water power for the first time in 50 years. But the best moment is tasting the bread made from their freshly ground flour.
Steam plough | Crane | Morgan | Tram | Steam car | Loco | Dustcart | Fireboat | Gallopers | Watermill
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