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Special from BEAR’S MILL
Matt the Miller
visits Bear’s Mill
Greenville, Ohio August 2015.
On a hot and sunny Saturday morning, I set out from Loveland, heading
north towards Greenville Ohio and Bear’s Mill. This mill was chosen for
two reasons:
1. It was the closest working mill.
2. My favourite animal is the bear.
It took just under an hour and a half to drive the 80 miles, which
obviously in country the size of America is nothing to shout about but
when my commute to the mill is only 10 minutes on a pushbike I
appreciated the distance. Arriving at Bear’s Mill I was immediately
struck by its size and the sense of space that is around. The car park
could probably only fit about 10 cars in but they had a field that
could easily have fit about 100 extra if needed, even American cars
which are a darn sight larger than English cars.
Bear’s Mill is an attractive 4 storey building clad in American Black
Walnut which I was informed had been last been replaced in 2001 and
looked as though it was weathering very well. As you walk past the
front door you can’t fail to admire this beautiful 1929 Ford.
As I stepped thought the front door I was greeted with a well ordered
shop that sold not only flour, but exotic brands of tea and coffee as
well as jams, relishes and cooking sauces. As a man who loves relishes
and mills I was in heaven, but looking back on this visit what sticks
with me most vividly is the comforting smell of a baking building as
the sunshine hit the wood outside.
We were met at the door by Sally who was very welcoming and had been
asked to keep a look out for two Brits and to take us over to Terry
Clark the miller. He still had a few more checks to do before he could
mill so we met up briefly with Marti Goetze who has recently started as
the mills Executive Director. She was very interested in hearing all
about Eling and in particular the Lottery project that we undertaking.
Terry then ushered us back and we were whisked upstairs as he began his
tour which was filled with juicy gossip about corrupt millers, drunk
millers and security conscious ones as well, while taking down some of
the internal cladding Terry found a rifle! When Terry informed us that
his mill building dated back to 1848 he stopped to ask when Eling’s
first mention was. They were taken aback when they heard me say 1086.
The mill had a very productive life, after being converted to a flour
mill from a sawmill in the mid 19th century it continued to use
turbines to rotate French burr stones until 1882 when the mill was
converted to work with rollers. Luckily for us all of the original
machinery and the stones were left in place and can now be used again.
During his tour Terry gave me a brief milling demonstration, everything
was much as I was expecting but all of his controls were up on the
stones floor. He spun a wheel which opened hatches and allowed the
turbines to begin spinning about 10 feet below the water in the mill
race getting things turning. He made his tentering adjustments from
here and was also able to check the quality of the flour by lifting a
flap next to the tun cover meaning that he only needed to go back to
the ground floor to replace his flour sack when it was full.
We wound our way around the building with Terry pointing out items of
interest including photo albums that covered some of the mills history
along with many colourful tales about the old millers, including one
whose wife used to coat floors with flour so she could follow his
footsteps to find his alcohol stashed all throughout the building. Once
the tour was complete Terry wanted to show me one of his favourite
parts of the building, one of the central beams that ran the length of
the building, I believe there were twelve of them in all, 3 on each
floor and each without a single split or splice and 50 feet long. He
admired the craftsmanship involved in creating such a piece, and Terry
is a member of the Timber Framers Guild so he knows a thing or two
about wood.
After finishing up inside the mill I was taken by Marti to have a look
around at the externals and check out their dam and mill pond which I
must say is a breath taking sight that no camera can do justice. Their
mill pond is 2 miles which is roughly the same size as Eling’s. The
mill has 3 turbines, two to power the French burr stones within the
mill building and a third which is built into the dam about 200 metres
upstream from the mill, this third turbine powers all of the electrical
systems and lighting functions within the mill. This extract pulled
from their website states the water, “turns a 150 year old Leffel
vertical turbine, a drive shaft and a differential from an old Chevy
truck, a pulley system and two 3kW DC servo motors / generators. The
turbine itself with a seven foot head of water has the capability of
delivering 15kW of power” Now I’m not going to pretend to understand
the amounts of power that this creates but to me it was satisfying to
know that the four storey historic building is being powered through
green energy.
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