Redbournbury Mill
A little gem south of Dunstable on the A5, between Redbourne and St. Albans is this mill. I understand that it has been in the hands of the same family for several generations and now the son of the family has renovated it with help from English Heritage.
But there is one slight problem - how do you work a watermill without water??
The banks of the mill race are slightly knackered.
Answer - install an internal combustion engine to do the job.
When I got - marginally - involved with the project, they were surprised to learn that the engine they had installed was known as a mill engine, being produced to replace the steam engines in cotton mills before the war. They were called Mill gas engines, because they ran on Gas Oil (35sec., Diesel or Derv is another name for it) and the name Diesel was patented by MAN in Germany.
Well worth a visit to see running - two bits of history together - the Water Mill and the Engine, in some nice quiet countryside, just sorry that I do not have any pictures within the Mill itself at the moment.
The Mill Engine - showing the single cylinder and lubricators.
Note the unguarded free end of the crankshaft, big no-no today!!
The Air Start receiver, has backup compressors but the idea was that the engine, when running, used it's momentum to pump it up from the exhust ready for the next start.
The giant flywheel
The waterwheel - sadly slightly dry!!
The Mill Race which 'aint
Nice view over the wheel