Watermills & Windmills by Vic Newey

Norse Mill or Click Mill

Bellow: shows a restored mill on the Isle of Lewis and the exterior of the model is based on this. However, contemporary photographs, mostly from the early 20th century, show the thatching & roping to be a lot more untidy than this with the covering of thatch applied in a very haphazard way but it may be the result of fighting a losing battle to keep the mill in good order in a very bleak landscape. The 1930's seems to be when they finally fell into dereliction

The Norse mill or Click Mill is so called because of the clicking noise made by the 'clapper' dragging on the revolving millstone as it shook the 'shoe' below the hopper & sprinkled grain into the eye of the stone. This model shows how the click mill worked, the paddles were set horizontally below the floor of the crudely made double dry stone walled building. It was built & used by crofters in the Isle of Lewis & other Scottish islands following a design which originated in Scandinavia hundreds of years ago. Timber was scarce in such a barren landscape and the roof structure was built of timbers often salvaged from the beach & covered in crude thatching, various materials were used for the thatch including Barley straw, which was considered the best, alternatives could be moor grass, reeds or Heather depending on what was easily available.

Above: a woman carries away the basket of newly ground flour on her back using the same basket she brought the grain in earlier in the day whilst the old miller takes a rest. A pair of old discarded millstones add a touch of authenticity to the scene. The second model added to the diorama is a smaller building called 'the kiln', this was used to dry the grain to make it suitable for milling, improperly dried grain would be at risk of mould & also clog up the millstones.

The thatch was laid on top of sods of turf or in some cases large thin sheared stones, these would be crudely fixed using wooden pegs on top of the roof poles simply as a method of support for the thatching. The straw, heather, reeds or whatever was available close by was laid thickly on top of this, often in a very haphazard way and frequently screwed up in all directions and not at all like skilled traditional thatching using straight bundles of straw with pegs & dowels to keep the thatch in place.

Instead, In order to keep the thatch in place it was covered in old fishing nets and roped and weighted down with stones on top of the walling and also further up the roof in a neat rope twisted design with the end result looking most pleasing. A pole projects out of each end of the rounded roof (called crow poles) to give anchorage to the roping of the roof to enable the structure to survive in such an exposed windswept area.

RIGHT: underneath the millstones can be seen the undercroft with it's horizontal wheel and the lightening rod, this is what lifts the top millstone to set the gap and is adjusted by packing wedges under the lever as shown in the photo below. The stone lined chute that runs from the leat alongside the path can be seen at the back of the picture at the top.

The bottom photo shows the hopper and millstones during construction, the clapper can also be clearly seen complete with a piece of twine used by the miller to adjust the height over the millstone correctly.

Above: A restored Norse Mill on the Isle of Lewis,

Below: The model shown during construction, the hopper, clapper, shoe and millstone are visible. On this model parts of the walls and roof are cut out so that visitors can see the interior workings.