Geograph - photograph every grid square

An 18th C mill on the River Stour; once the location of a 1086 Domesday mill. An undershot wheel powered two sets of stones. This was supplemented in the 1850s by a small steam engine to power a set of three stones. Later this was replaced by a Ruston and Hornsby engine (heavy oil).

Further modification saw electrified grist milling and even a cyclone hammer mill. The mill ceased use in the 1950s and is now owned by Essex County Council. The friends of Alderford mill open it up on the second Sunday during Summer.

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.