Monday 18 January 2016

Memories of Mills by Derrick Rhydderch-Evans

Usually on a Saturday,or during school holidays,depending on the weather,I would go over to see Ben Felyn,the Miller, to see if I could do anything to help. 
I would be given some menial tasks,but sometimes he would tell me to go up the slope behind the mill and either close or open the paddles that controlled the force of the water in the leat that went over the mill wheel. If there was too much force, the mill wheel,which was not balanced, could shake out of control and cause quite some damage.
The other job I was given was to go up to the floor where the millstone was and wait for the ground flour to begin its journey. From the stone the flour went into a wooden trough that was metal lined. I had a short handled, but wide, wooden paddle, and I would push the flour along the trough to a round hole at the end.  This was attached to a canvas 'pipe' that went into the flour sack on the floor below that Ben would fill and then sew it closed with string. Job done!!
On the way home, after my efforts, I sometimes had a sit in his car, a bullnose Morris,and imagined driving to faraway places.
The mill was above and to the right of the station. This was not Coedllys mill, that was a woollen mill. I have a length of cloth that was woven there. It was bought by my grandmother who was a seamstress who lived in Plascrwn,where I was born and lived until I  joined the RAF.
Happy days.

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