The roller mill, which is believed to have been housed at Phoenix Roller Mills since 1907, is currently on its way to Sandstone Heritage Trust in Ficksburg in the Eastern Free State.
The roller mill, which is believed to have been housed at Phoenix Roller Mills since 1907, is currently on its way to Sandstone Heritage Trust in Ficksburg in the Eastern Free State.
The mill last ran 26 years ago. Wilfred Mole from Sandstone Heritage Trust bought the mill at an auction held at Phoenix Roller Mills for R80 000, which consists of four roller mills and six rotary screens, on two floors, with line shafting under the ground floor and another shaft which measures the full length of the building.
For handling the grain or flour, there are at least ten elevators. The motive power is a massive Crossley single cylinder open crank suction gas engine, complete with its producer and scrubber, as it was last used.
The manufacturers estimate this particular roller mill was built in the early 1880s. A 70 ton crane was brought from Port Elizabeth to load all the equipment onto awaiting trucks.
The first piece of equipment to be airlifted was the Crossley Producer gas engine, weighing just over seven tons.
A large team of workers from the Sandstone Heritage Trust has been in Grahamstown since Wednesday, consisting of Gert Jubileus and seven members from the farm and the Bloemfontein workshops.
Andy Selfe has been there for technical back-up, with experience on stone milling and a bit on elevators and chutes. He will be collecting Fraser Howell, a retired engineer, in Knysna along the way.
