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Volunteers do essential work at ancient windmill
A dedicated team of volunteers have been out in force at Heage Windmill to carry out essential maintenance on the 200 year old structure.
The mill is still fully operational, and produces about three tons of ground flour each year.
This means that as well as looking after the building itself, the millstones have to be regularly checked and turned.
Alan Gifford, one of the volunteers at the Mill, said: "We need to lift the stones from time to time to check they are still sharp and flat.
"The job this weekend was to lift them and turn them over.
"We hope these stones will last another 15 years at the rate we're using them. We don't really know how old they are but we inherited them when we took over the mill in 1996. "There's every chance they're over 100 years old."
First the wooden casings round and above the stones were removed and a specially-designed lifting calliper fitted into holes in the side of the upper stones.
The stones were slowly raised until they were turned over, swung to one side and laid down with the milling faces exposed so they could be cleaned and the surfaces examined.
All was well, and the ancient milling tools were reset, all under the careful scrutiny of consultant millwright John Boucher. Five volunteers worked throughout the day on the nine-inch thick stones.
Although the mill is currently closed for the winter considerable maintenance work will continue to be carried out by the team until it reopens.
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Weather for Belper
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 2 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North
