Baldernock Mill To see a short movie of the working mill click on the mill picture itself.

The Mill buildings date from the 16th century, and include a brick kiln (in the basement of the cottage) where the grain was dried before milling.

The water supply for the Mill came from a dam 250 yards upstream. The 25 yard long dam was used to store up to 300,000 gallons of water for use during the day. The Mill lade runs from the weir below the dam to the Mill, and a "heck" prevents twigs and branches blocking the tunnel under the road.

 

The present water wheel is 18ft in diameter, has 48 steel buckets and runs at about 20 rpm. According to the score marks on the Mill wall, the new wheel runs on a shaft 3 ft to the side of a previous smaller wheel and it is connected to the original shaft by two external gear wheels.

Inside the Mill building, when the mill was still used as a grain mill, the horizontal rotation would be converted to vertical rotation with a crown and pinion gear system. A large horizontal gear wheel above the crown wheel enabled the drive to be transmitted to two milling stones located on a gallery above the crown wheel.

 

The distance between the two mill stones (and the quality of the flour) could be altered by adjusting the height of the shafts carrying the mill stones (the iron brackets can still be seen either side of the crown wheel). Attempts to obtain too fine a flour could cause sparks which could easily ignite the flour – the charred beams are evidence of such occurrences.

A millstone can be seen outside the Mill cottage which was used when it was a grain mill.

By about 1875 the Mill had fallen into disuse, the dam became silted up and the wall was breached in two places. Dougalston estate then turned the Mill into a saw-mill to be used in the winter when there was sufficient water in the burn.Externally all the machinery was retained, and an unsightly corrugated iron shed was built round the water wheel. A saw shed was built and two saws were run - one for ripping is in working order today, and the other (a cross-cut saw) was scrapped in 1955. To get the drive from the old Mill building to the saw shed and to increase the speed of rotation to 1,000 rpm, the old crown wheel was re-used to drive a small ill-fitting pinion. This pinion was used to drive a large wooden wheel in the saw shed from which the saws were driven by belts. This arrangement is still in use today.

The Mill used to be a gathering place in the evenings for all the local people, and singing and dancing took place on fine summer evenings. One of the last millers was one nick-named "Barleycorn the Miller" who was, as his name implies, addicted to strong drink. The story of Barleycorn has been handed down by Mr. Rogers, son of the local blacksmith at the beginning of the century: ­

"With daily chores finished at the Mill, if he had any money, Barleycorn would amble off to the Baldernock Inn (now the Kirkhouse) to egale himself with refreshment. In order to make him take the straight and narrow from his bouts of drinking, two farm labourers from the Dowan farm concurred with one another to give him a fright as he passed by the churchyard on his way home from the Inn. To that end, they procured a large white bed sheet, one servant hid in the farm nearby, and his accomplice donned the white sheet and stood upon the wall.

Soon their intended victim hove in sight, and the "ghost" started to wave his arms, muttering in a spooky voice: "I'm cold, I'm cold", no doubt expecting Barleycorn to run, but he did the opposite. Groping around in the dark in a drunken state, he picked up a fair-sized cobblestone and threw it with gusto and hit the apparition on the wall, remarking at the time: "If you are that cold, go away back to your bed". Then, without a backward glance, continued merrily homeward. The unfortunate practical joker was toppled backwards into an open grave filled with water and, as he had been knocked unconscious, had to be rescued from drowning by his friend". Since 1953, the Mill has been owned by the Currie family, and it was used until about 1960 for cutting wood for the fire. The heel was then so rusted that it was difficult to get sufficient power from it due to the large number of missing buckets and holes. It was decided to utilise the full height of the old Mill building, and a new floor was put in half way up.

Restoration work on the Mill began in 1973 when Crawford Currie started to replace the buckets on the water wheel. The corrugated iron shed which used to hide the water wheel entirely from view was taken down, all the old buckets were removed from the framework of the wheel and new buckets were made and fitted. After the lade had been cleaned out, the old wheel turned again in April 1974.