SP9952 : Stevington Windmill - the bottom level of the buck
taken 14 years ago, near to Stevington, Bedford, England

A post mill with four common cloth type sails, the last mill to use this ancient technology commercially. The building was built in 1770 and restored in 1921,1958 and 2004. All the internal machinery is intact, inside is one set of stones with a governor and iron tentering beam. There is no faintail, this is a very simple machine. Once called on a survey 'useless'. It was used mostly for grinding cattle feed until 1939 before purchased by Bedford Borough Council as part of the County's contribution to the Festival of Britain.
It is sometimes used, for example mills open weekend. Access can be gained via a key from the Royal George in the village.
In a mill context, tentering is changing the distance (gap) between the runner stone and the bed stone. Decreasing the distance results in a finer grain. As the stones go faster there is a natural tendency for the runner to rise and the tentering mechanism can be adjusted to counter this. In many windmills this is done by a governor that automatically compensates for the tendency of the runner to rise. In watermills it is done by hand with mechanisms of varying elegance. In this case, the second order lever at the bottom raises or lowers the footstep bearing that the spindle carrying the stone nut is supported by. The adjustment is by a vertical lead screw on the other side of the frame and in easy reach of the miller.
