A summary of the early history to 19th


of the provender industry 11th


century By Paul Poornan


The modern feed industry is a fusion, descended from two ancient commercial enterprises: flour milling and oilseed crushing which gave rise to provender milling and compound milling respectively. Over the decades, the distinct meaning between these two terms has largely been lost. This article will focus on provender milling.


At the time of Domesday there were approximately 6000 mills all of which would have produced both wheat flour for human consumption and offals for livestock, serving a UK population of about 1.5 million when there were only 18 towns with populations exceeding 2000 people. The density of manorial mills appears to be uneven across the south of the country with 333 mills in Hampshire, 371 mills in Somerset, 98 in Devon and only six in Cornwall. Most mills were probably watermills, the remainder probably being powered by livestock. About 200 years after Domesday the wind-powered post mill arrived in England, useful for regions that had no access to running water, but less reliable than water-power. The stronger smock mill with its rotating cap was introduced in about 1650 and became the most popular mill design until the arrival of steam.


The mill-stone was the cutting-face of mill-powered technology for grinding wheat. The grist was ground once then progressively sieved to produce coarse flour and various types of offal; the same machinery was also used to manufacture provender such as barley meal, maize meal, crushed oats, etc. Most mills had a single pair of grinding stones, although advances in gearing meant that some mills had two or even three pairs.


Then came the Industrial Revolution. In 1784 James Watt was hired to build the first large-scale steam-powered corn mill for Albion mills in Southwick, which employed the latest Boulton & Watt two-cylinder 50hp (37kW) steam engine and was designed to simultaneously power ten pairs of stones. It seems that it was decided to double this number and work them alternately, so that ten pairs would work for 24 hours, then be left to cool for 24 hours. The mill was capable of grinding about


100,000 quarters of wheat per annum (one quarter is about 12.7kg, so about 1270 tonne per annum). The beam engine and boiler were located in the cellar, the coal on the ground floor, the first floor the bran and pollards, the second flour the millstones and flour sacking area, the third and fourth floors for the dressing mills1


, and the fifth and sixth floors


the granary. There were several engineering problems to overcome, as renowned engineer John Smeaton pointed out to the Government in 1781: ‘no motion communicated from the beam of a fire-engine can ever act perfectly equal and steady in producing a circular motion, like the regular efflux of water turning a water-wheel’ and ‘all fire-engines that I have seen are liable to stoppages … so suddenly … the machine is capable of passing from almost the full power and motion to a total cessation’. He explained that if the mill stopped, there would be half- ground corn between the millstones which must be cleared before the stones could again reach grinding speed. However, in the same year James Watt designed the sun and planet gear to convert the linear action of the engine into rotary motion, using cast-iron wheels and shafts instead of wood to transmit power to the mill-stones. The mill worked


Figure 2: Fire at Albion Mill


successfully from 1786; it was so efficient that many millers were put out of business. In 1791 the mill burnt down, and arson was strongly suspected. Although insured, the mill was not rebuilt; it is thought that the complexity of engineering and the cost of fuel were prohibitive to further investment. After the fire, mills at Blackwall, Poplar and Rotherhithe restarted having been mothballed for three years. Many steam corn mills were built after Albion Mills, but most were small affairs with two or three pairs of millstones until decades later after Watt’s prototype engineering designs were developed and became well-established. In 1875, three London mills are known to have been operating between twenty and thirty-two pairs of stones, when ‘The Miller’ magazine heralded the design


Figure 1: Albion Mill PAGE 28 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 FEED COMPOUNDER


1. Some authorities recommended dressing the millstones twice a week (re-cutting the grooves to keep the leading edges sharp). Logically it is likely that at least one complete spare set of millstones was in hand.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60