By Mildred Cookson
Flour milling towards the end of the 1800’s was becoming quite a scientific calling and on account of this severe competition in the flour trade millers were eager to take advantage not only of the best machinery and see that it effectively worked. On top of this they tried to place their mill so they could obtain a good supply of the raw material with ease, with the cost of handling down to a minimum.
The 4 December 1893 issue of The Miller reported that Mr JM Bird, a miller well known at the time in Downham, knowing the importance of building a mill in such a position, had purchased a most convenient site at King’s Lynn, a seaport at the mouth of the Great Ouse River, 48 miles from Norwich and 99 miles by sea from London.
The chief exports at the port at that time were flour, wool, oilcake and shrimps, whilst the chief imports were grain, coal, linseed, timber and manufactured goods. The statistics related to commerce showed proof of the growing importance of the place as a commercial centre for collection and distribution; several railway lines ran into the town and port, and so both land and water for carriage was provided. There were two docks, and vessels with a draught of 21 feet were able discharge direct on to the quays, and into the warehouses and mills.
The ‘Boal Roller Mill’ had been erected on the Boal Quay which was connected to the docks by three railway lines. The buildings themselves were very substantial and comprised the roller mill proper, with an area of 1000 square feet, the wheat cleaning house of 725 square feet and the silo house of 600 square feet. There were four lofty floors in the mill and six in the cleaning house, this, and the building containing the silos extended above the roof of the mill. Each of these departments were separated by brick walls.
In the roller mill itself the machinery for converting wheat into flour was arranged on several floors to provide ample room for getting to the various parts of the different machines, with plenty of light to see that the operations were being carried out satisfactorily. The capacity of the mill was seven sacks per hour.
In the basement were the main shafts, the elevator bottoms, the exhaust trunks for taking the hot air from the roller mills on the floor above, the break-meal conveyors and an automatic weigher for weighing clean wheat when it passes on to the first break roll.
On the first floor were arranged eight of Whitmore & Binyon’s improved gear-driven four-roll mills. The reduction of the wheat was done on the system of four breaks, which were done on a double roller mill fitted with four grooved chilled iron rolls, one 10 x 40 inches, one 10 x 30 inches and one 9 x 34 inches.
The reduction of the semolina, middlings to flour was done on three double roller mills each fitted with four smooth chilled iron rolls, 10 x 30 inches and two double roller mils fitted with four smooth rolls 9 x 24 inches. The flour and offal conveyors for taking the finished products to the sacking off department was also on this floor.
On the second floor were two-reel scalpers for the first and fourth breaks, four double ‘Victoria’ middlings sieve purifiers, two donkey sieve machines and a line of shafting from which the power required to drive the dressings machines was obtained.
The third floor had the reel scalpers for the second and third breaks, a Boby wheat grader, ten centrifugal machines placed on above the other which had reels of 30-inch diameter by two and a half sheets long, a dickey sieve, the exhaust fan and a ‘Tornado’ prism-type dust collector.
The fourth floor was arranged with four chop reels, constructed upon Gray’s patent, and each fitted with inter-elevator apparatus, there was also here an aspirator, the elevator heads and the line shafting for driving the same. The flour and offals were collected in five separate streams and conveyed to the adjacent packing store, the upper shaft of the mill being carried also across these buildings for actuating the very complete packing and mixing gears arranged here.
The wheat cleaning department had machines arranged as can be seen in the illustrations. On the ground floor were two pairs of millstones for barley and wholemeal grinding and the necessary elevator bottoms. On the first floor were cockle cylinders, the shaft to drive them and the grinding bins for supplying the millstones with their feed. The second floor had a wheat grader and a Eureka brush machine along with the shafting to drive these machines as well as those on the floor above. On the third floor the receiving separator, the zig-zag separator and the ‘Eureka’ scouring machines, whilst up on the top floors were the elevator heads, shafting and sack hoists and the receiving hopper for uncleaned wheat.
The wheat cleaning machines all blew into a separate building located over the top of the boiler house. The buildings throughout were constructed, as far as was possible, to meet the fire insurance regulations. The wheat silos were placed over the engine house from which they are separated by a fireproof door. The six silos were constructed with plank sides, an American fashion, and wrought iron plate bottoms with strong supporting girders and columns. The wheat silos had a capacity of around 8000 quarters, and the material could be mixed off in any desired quantity by one of the patent mixers and delivery worms.
Motive power for the roller mill plant and other machinery in the several buildings was derived from a horizontal compound and condensing engine by Messrs Woodhouse & Mitchell of Brighouse, Yorkshire. Steam was obtained from two Galloway boilers. The driving motion was done by ropes from the engine flywheel to the main shafts in the basement and on the third floor passing through the rope alley with connections to the wheat cleaning and stones, driving by leather straps and tension apparatus also in the rope alley. Electric light was fitted throughout the premises.
Mr Bird, who also owned other mills in Norfolk, had shown to be one of the most advanced millers in England, being the first to adopt the gradual reduction process by means of roller mills. His mills also had the great advantage of being situated in the finest wheat growing district in Norfolk.
