Keeping the wheel turning at Barry Mill

Transcript

Three speakers: Mike Metcalfe, Visitor Services Supervisor; Frances Swanston, Conservation Maintenance Surveyor; John Wallis, Managing Director, Dorothea Restorations

Mike
I am Mike Metcalfe. I'm the Visitor Services Supervisor at Barry Mill.
Barry Mill's an 18th-century watermill. It has life that goes back, as far as we know, to 1539. People get really enriched with a visit to Barry Mill.
It's a relaxing place; everybody comments on that. It's a fantastic place to visit.

Frances
My name is Frances Swanston and I'm a Conservation Maintenance Surveyor for the National Trust for Scotland.
When the National Trust for Scotland acquired the building in 1988, it was very much the wish of the last milling family that the mill continued to operate, even if only for demonstration purposes.
30 years ago, when the mill was acquired, a lot of work was done and this is the next phase in ensuring continued operation into the future.

Mike
This perhaps now is the only working example left in Scotland, and it's wonderful that we are restoring it and maintaining it for our heritage going forward.
The education of life in those times is so important to keep its relevance and that, with this project, is I think what we're doing.
The aim of the current project here is to get back to demonstrating the working mill.
We have Dorothea Restorations, experts as millwrights at restoring mills, doing work to the waterwheel and to the milling stones.
The waterwheel requires a new axle, which is quite a big job, and that's actually what's happening here today.

John
We've been lucky enough to be asked to work on Barry Mill.
Over many years of use, it has gradually got to the point where it needs a little bit of care and maintenance.
So we're replacing bearings, replacing the main shaft into the waterwheel and generally setting it all back up again so it can mill and produce flour.
The major challenge we've found on this project has been the main waterwheel shaft that needs replacing.
It's almost certainly the original shaft here, although it has been slightly modified, but all of the wedges and everything that holds it in place were heavily rusted.
So it's been a real fight to get it apart, but we have; we've got it out.
The new shaft is going in today, so hopefully before long it'll be turning again.

Frances
I love old buildings, but I think this one is so unique for the Trust in that it's very small. I call it the ‘small and mighty’.
The fact that they have a complete working mill, with all the associated parts, I think is particularly special.

John
People who put them together, put them together well.
They were engineers who knew their trade, spent a lot of time learning their trade, probably as an apprentice.
So when we come to work on them, they are generally built well. They+'re built to last, which means that we can learn a lot from it.
We have apprentices working for us, so we can teach them; generally just carry on some of the traditional methods, which are still the only way to restore some of these waterwheels.

Mike
We had a visit from a member and he told us that he was donating a five-figure sum, which has kickstarted and enabled us to begin this project, which is just so generous and fantastic.
I think it's important to add that none of this is possible without the generous donation, without the help from our members and also without the contribution that our valued volunteers make in providing the end product, which is the visitor experience to our guests.
Everybody senses the magic when they come for a visit to Barry Mill.