Bob's Mellor Mill Diary

Bob (Robert Humphrey-Taylor) is leading the excavations at Mellor Mill.
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Bob's Mill Diary - November 27, 2012

Some photos of the fire pit which is being revealed at the end of the coal cellar.  John G and John R any further thoughts on this? The brickwork seems to be fire brick.  Also now that I can stand in the fire area it is easy to note the remains of an arched ceiling/roof to the viewing platform. Something new every day!

Fire Pit

The fire pit.

Fire Pit
Fire Pit

The fire pit.

Fire Pit
Fire Pit

The fire pit.

Fire Pit
Fire Pit

The fire pit.

Fire Pit

From John Hearle: It's a good thing that we did not extend the viewing platform further.

That's true but once everything is uncovered we may want to move the fence line to give a view of the fire area and into the coal cellar.

Bob's Mill Diary - November 27, 2012

Yes this afternoon was definitely a "hard hat" one.  A few trees down and lots of large branches. However, Paul and I have had a good day, with the digger and the dumper, clearing spoil heaps and taking the surface debris away from the mill front wall adjacent to the coal cellar.  All my measurements to the ancillary buildings use the mill front wall as the datum.

Moving spoil heaps.Moving spoil heaps.

Bob's Mill Diary - November 22, 2012

This is the view from the other end to Judith's photo!! I think we have now narrowed the build date for the coal cellar down to between 1867 (Detailed plans Auction 1867) for the and 1872 ( OS map from Norman Redhead) and what we are looking at is the "ash pit" from an early heating boiler. John Glithero is working on what type it may have been.

Way into coal cellar.Way into coal cellar.

Bob's Mill Diary - November 21, 2012, to Rachel

Please find attached a map of the Mill area on which I have indicated the three areas we will sub-divide the site into for recording purposes.  A being the Mill itself, B the Ancillary buildings and C Mellor Lodge and the Bridge.

Are either of you down on site tomorrow?  I will be there with a digger and dumper.

Areas of the Oldknow ComplexAreas of the Oldknow complex:
A: Mellor Mill.
B: Waterloo wheel pit, workshops, gasworks, stables.
C: Oldknow’s mansion – Mellor Lodge.

Bob's Mill Diary - November 17, 2012, to Rachel

I have been working on some Mill Dimensions which should help us pinpoint where to open up next  to map the footprint.  It isn't easy to be very accurate as the zoomed in lines of the OS map are nearly half a metre across!!  Anyway it will put us more or less in the correct area of our next point to be excavated.

I have also worked out some rough distances from the mill to some of the ancillary buildings down by the river where we will need to put in some test trenches to confirm their positions during the development phase.  Weather permitting we should be able to start that fairly soon.

Mill PlanMill Plan.