(26) Kella Mill

T.A.Brew in one of his notebooks held at Manx Museum describes Kella Mill which the family bought in 1923 and worked until the late 1960s (the date of this description) thus:-

Kella Mill must be very old, it is easy to see which is the really old part, it is thecentre portion on the south end, here a small mill stood, complete with wheel, gearing and stones. Then another portion was built between it and the road, later the portion housing the kiln was added, and later the floors and roof of this portion were raised, the old windows are to be found at floor level.

The part on the west housing the threshing mill seems to be the last addition, it has good slates on it, and they are nailed, the older portions have Manx slates fastened on with pegs.

The timbers were dressed with an adze, and the lighter timbers cut with a pit saw, as the saw marks show. Whole trees were used for the heavy timbers, they were obtained as near as possible to the size and then squared.

Lime mortar is used throughout, I feel sure that this was something which was only done in Mills as newer dwelling houses in the village are built with mud mortar.

The old gearing on the original mill was similar to that found in the olden mills, the stones were 4ft, while the newer part had 5ft stones, these would have twice the capacity of 4 ft ones.

It must have been quite a job doing all these alterations. The present wheel was obtained from a Brick Works at Ballig Bridge, St Johns, new gearing seems to have been added at this time, and the contractor was a Tom Cain. A reconstruction did take place 100 to 120 years ago.

		Water powered Mills etc
Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor © F.Coakley , 2023