The Mill House.

I had a phone call from Sis this evening, she complained that I'm not keeping up to date with my blips. I'm actually running three days late and am just about to start catching up (again).

At the end of The Gunpowder Mill down in Roslin Glen, there is this mill house. It is the only substantial building left there now, the others having been removed some years ago as they were being used by drug addicts and were in danger of collapsing; I will refrain from making one of my usual cynical comments. I thought this building had been blipped before along with the mill lade in spate when some joker had removed the sluice gate but, it turned out - after much searching - I had put them in the folio.

The water wheel would have filled the space between these walls and its axle ran through the two "D" shaped openings in them. I should have taken a tape measure with me but I didn't, so I'll guess that the wheel was probably about fifteen foot diameter by four foot wide, it was used to grind the ingredients used in the manufacture. At this stage I was going to start discussing the technical aspects of the different types of water wheel but then I realised the extent of my ignorance and discretion kicked in. A few years ago there were plans to built an electric generator powered by an Archimedean screw (a modern replacement for a wheel), but nothing came of it and now the people concerned have lost interest. Although there is plenty water power available for the project, we now we have the problem that the weir holding the mill pool is becoming dangerously unstable. At the time I thought that the production of a working device could have been achieved, the difficult part would have been connecting to the National Grid; this site is a little remote.