There is always something to see at the Mill…
Plan your visit – and see something special
There is always something to see at the Mill…
Plan your visit – and see something special
Enjoy a cracking Easter at Coldharbour!
Good Friday marks the grand reopening of Coldharbour Mill, Uffculme. After months of hard work over the winter the Mill come and see the new new welcome centre funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Over the weekend there will be Easter themed childrens activities and a special Easter Steam Day where all the machinery will not only be powered by the waterwheel but by our very own Lancashire Boiler. – see the steam pages for more information on steam at Coldharbour. Our popular pop up cafe will be also on hand for refreshments throughout the whole weekend while the builders finish our exciting new cafe.
The new shop will also be open where a large range of gifts and items made at the Mill will be available to purchase
…. and don’t panic if you don’t see everything, from Easter the Mill will now open weekends!
A record number of visitors to Coldharbour Mill’s New Year’s Steam Day kick-started its exciting plans for 2016. Despite the rain, visitors were treated to the sights and sounds of a working Mill taking wool to yarn and cloth exactly as it was in Victorian times.
Steam Curator John Jasper was delighted to see so many people: “it was fantastic to see so many people at the Mill on such a cold and wet day – needless to say the Lancashire Boiler proved very popular not only demonstrating the making of steam to power the Mill but also to warm up cold and wet visitors.”
New for 2016 are the free historic bus tours organised by WHOTT (West Country Omnibus and Transport Trust) who are now based at the Mill. The 40 minute round trip also connects with the trains at Tiverton Parkway carrying those who come by train to and from the Mill.
The bus tours were repeated at the February Steam Day, and will be available again at the Easter Steam Day on Sunday 27th March. See the WHOTT website for timetable.
On Steam Days, local Jazz musician Charlie Hearnshaw provides a musical tour at 1pm, using the sounds of the machines to compose imaginative improvised pieces with the various looms, line-shafting and spinning machines providing a percussive element to the pieces.
Also at Steam Days, the Culm Valley Model Railway Club displays its ‘SOLDOR’ layout, which can be operated by chidlren of all ages!
The Mill, recently awarded a Heritage Lottery grant to invest in its facilities, has been closed to the public since last November (except for Steam Days and pre-booked group tours) in order to carry out refurbishments. It will reopen to the public on Friday 25th March (Good Friday).
Coldharbour Mill is delighted to be one of the first sponsors of the Tivvy Bumper Sculpture Trail for 2016.
As one of the stops on the original line the Tivvy Bumper was a crucial link for the Mill to the rest of the country and beyond to transport both raw and finished material.
The trail presents an excellent opportunity to explore the local area and enjoy it’s unique history.
The trail runs between July and October 2016.
![]() | Steam Team | With a wide range of ages and skills from computing to engineering to farming our group of volunteers have one thing in common – enthusiasm and commitment. The Steam Team meet every Tuesday, from 19.00 to about 21.00 to maintain and improve the rare collection of steam exhibits at Coldharbour Mill Museum… but you will also find some of us with our engines on other days too! |
![]() | Tour Guides | Do you love talking to people? Our visitors love an enthusiastic guide who can make their visit into a day to remember. |
![]() | Weaving | Join Ian our weaver in weaving the Devon tartan and bespoke rugs. |
![]() | Friends of Coldharbour Mill | This is a group of like-minded people who have an interest in supporting the Mill and its activities. |
Award winning educational programmes for 5-16 year olds
We cater for a wide range of interests from steam and water power, industrial and military history, to weaving, spinning and wool craft. Visitors can discover the Mill at their own pace or we can arrange a tailored tour with one of our trained tour guides. We also welcome coaches to our waterside cafe which offers a delicious selection of hot and cold snacks, traditional Devon cream teas and delicious home-made cake.
The Mill is open 10am – 4pm daily for pre-booked tours throughout the year and group organisers are welcome to make a free preliminary visit to discuss your individual needs.
A visit takes approximately 3 hours.
Minimum numbers apply.
Pricing 2018:
Entrance and self-guided visit £9.00 Adult
Entrance and self-guided visit £4.50 Junior
Entrance and Guided Tour £11.00 Adult
Entrance and Guided Tour £5.05 Junior
(Min group size 16 adults)
Please contact us on 01884 840960, by email info@coldharbourmill.org.uk
With a Pollit and Wigzell Mill engine, Kittoe and Brotherhood Beam Engine and more steam remains at the heart of the Mill.
This duplex steam pump housed in its own building outside the boiler house has a “banjo” type rod mechanism, It drew water from the leat by the water wheel and pumped it into the hydrant main around the mill site, also up the rising main in the main stair of the mill building.
Although it is badly frost damaged it has been reassembled to appear to be in working order.
The inverted vertical engine at the far end of the beam engine house was built by Marshals of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire and features a Pickering governor making it suitable for generating.
It has been connected to a converted DC electric motor used as a generator and demonstrates the conversion of steam pressure to electricity.
No history is known of this small horizontal engine built in Birmingham. It seems to have been in its present location for a long time and is assumed to have driven the carpenter`s lathe, drill and grindstone.
You will notice various flat belt pulleys above the beam engine, these were installed after the original beam engine was scrapped. The twin pulleys above the sway beam against the side wall were driven by the Pollit and Wigzell engine next door and drove the overhead shaft by the cylinder. Flat belts then transmitted the power down to two generators on the floor where the beam engine is now.
In the corner of the boiler house is the original Pollit and Wigzell boiler feed water pump that was supplied with the engine and boiler as a complete installation. It is driven by a “fast and loose” flat belt pulley system from the compound mill engine. It has suffered frost damage at some time but we have patched it up enough to be able to pump cold water from the condenser waste up to a header tank in the roof This tank then supplies the water heating tank on top of the wall beside the 1910 boiler by gravity.
It is a cross compound condensing engine supplied new to the mill for £1,810 in 1910, (£218,000 at 2019 prices).
Originally developing 240 HP at 88 revs per minute the engine was later up rated to 300 HP and was the main power source for the mill until closure.
High pressure cylinder 14.5” diameter x 42” stroke. Low pressure cylinder 27” diameter x 42” stroke.
Steam from the boiler next door is admitted into the right hand cylinder and expands pushing the piston to and fro powering the rig
ht hand crank next to the flywheel.
The lower pressure steam is then exhausted through a large pipe under the floor to the left hand cylinder where more expansion pushes the piston and crank to the left of the flywheel.
This cylinder exhausts into the jet condenser by the engine house door where a vacuum is produced providing a 12% increase in the efficiency of the engine.
The pistons and valves are lubricated with steam cylinder oil, a heavy oil that is fed into the steam supply to each cylinder, atomised by the heat and carried around the moving parts. Attached to the low pressure cylinder is the brass twin cylinder steam cylinder oil pump driven by a leaver and ratchet from the exhaust valve eccentric rod.
All other moving parts are lubricated by various types of oiler positioned around the engine that are topped up by the engine driver. The crankshaft bearings are each supplied with oil pumped from a small tank into the “aquarium” above each main bearing from where it drops into the bearing
The cranks are set at 90 degrees to each other on either side of the flywheel which weighs about 12 tonnes. The spokes of the flywheel have been boarded in to reduce windage in the engine house.
Grooves machined in the outer rim carry cotton drive ropes which transmit all the power developed by the engine to different size pulleys on each floor of the mill.
This drive system is housed in what is called a “rope race” built on the end of the mill building. (This rope race is a rare surviving example).
The inlet valves on top of the cylinders are known as drop piston valves. These are pistons working in a cylinder with ports around the bottom which are uncovered by lifting the piston, thus allowing steam into the cylinder.
Condenser
Inside the hollow casing of the condenser there is a single acting piston connected to the low pressure piston.
It works in a cylinder with non-return valves at the outer end (by the engine house door) and a ring of ports at the low pressure cylinder end.
One side of the flywheel has gear teeth around the edge. Engaging into these with a sliding pinion enables a small single cylinder inverted vertical engine to turn the flywheel to the starting position or for engine maintenance, valve adjustment, or the like.
It is called a barring engine because it replaces the use of a long bar inserted in holes around the flywheel to turn the engine by hand.