So it’s Spring and very nearly Easter. The Mill is now starting to take on a Spring hue, trees are showing buds, the daffodils are out, very slowly the grass is starting to grow, but the ground is a bit dry, we drain very well at Path Head, not surprising with all that sand and gravel underneath us! Another sign of Spring is that a pair of Mallards have taken up residence on the pond and we are feeding them twice a day in the hope they will nest and produce a family.

Work on site moves on, we are in the process of rebuilding our office over the toilets in the tea rooms, this will be warmer and cleaner for electrical equipment rather than the bare stone walls of the inside of the mill. We have started to re-cog our Great Spur wheel with the diligent assistance of John, one of our longest serving volunteers. Ben and I are concentrating on the lineshafts to drive the woodworking machinery, so as soon as John has finished below, we hope to be able to turn all the shafts and bring to life some of the woodworking machines.

We are still making an effort to complete the crankshaft and flywheel display, we are cleaning up the old segments of water wheel, with the help of volunteers from Shaw and Gateshead Health, to go below the crankshaft and so complete that area of the site, and create a further area of lawn for picnics.

So if you have been to see us, do come again, things are changing. If you haven’t been to see us, then please do, we are only about ten minutes from Newcastle or Gateshead.

Now is a short article on re-cogging for which we are indebted to Windmills and Millwrighting by Stanley Freese.

Next Newsletter in Summer 2000 in July.
Trevor, April 2000

COGGING THE MILL

Cog ‘blanks’ are sawn from a heavy plank, preferably applewood, which must have been felled over nine years (or the cogs will eventually shrink), and the shanks of the cogs are accurately sawn to shape. All the cogs are driven into their mortises up to the shoulders with a heavy mallet; and any cogs found to be slack or easy-fitting are scrapped and done again. A trimming tool is now set in the stand, to turn up the two end-faces of all the cogs and give them their true breadth.

Now the surplus wood can be sawn away, leaving the flanks to be trimmed down to an exact curvature with a broad gouging chisel for the inner flank if this is concave, and a plain one for the outer face. These chisels should be extremely keen-edged because the wood is hard, and they must run true and parallel with the outlines across the breadth of the cog, or the work will be ruined; and the skilled craftsman can fashion a practically perfect set of bevel cogs without plotting the profiles of their small or inner ends, trusting to the eye to cut an evenly tapered surface from end to end.