English sawmills

[David_S.]

Can anyone help point me in the direction of some images/information on sawmills in England in the 1930s? The specific area I am interested in is Dorset, but any help on the subject would be much appreciated. And yes, I have tried searching the net, for the last six hours, in fact! Sawmills in America, in Australia...everywhere except the UK.

 

TIA,

David S, trying to visualize Dorset while suffering from a Finnish heatwave!

[Guest stuartp]

Based on my limited experience, vernacular farm building type arrangements for the smaller scale operations with variations on corrugated iron sheds for the larger concerns.

 

My first job was in a sawmill in Bradford (W Yorks). The building was a 17th century water-powered sawmill attached to a large farm but with the waterwheel disconnected and a large electric bandsaw installed. Stone walls, stone flagged roof. It's been tarted up as posh offices now, if you go here and download the brochure, the sawmill was units E, J and K on the marketing brochure plan.

 

Heading in the wrong direction for Dorset but the estate sawmill at Garlieston (SW Scotland) was a stone shed with a hipped roof and again originally waterpowered. It was replaced with a collection of corrugated iron sheds across the road at some time in the early 20th century but I haven't any more information on those. The sawmill at Gatehouse of Fleet was a converted cotton spinning mill using their waterwheel to power the saw.

 

Getting even further from Dorset, this is the sawmill at Logan:

 

http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search_item/index.php?service=RCAHMS&id=61130

 

It's not Dorset, but the point is that this building is absolutely typical of farm buildings of this area and period (local stone, hipped roof), hopefully Dorset is the same.

[David_S.]

Thanks, Stuart, my impression is also that was no specific sawmill 'architecture', so I will see what I can turn up on Dorset agricultural buildings for the relevant period. I am visiting the area later this month, which ought to help, otherwise I am likely to be over-influenced by the Karelian timber structures in my own yard.

[Chubber]

Hi, David,

 

If you can lay hands on a copy of 'Railway modelling in Miniature' by Edward Beal , Electrical Press Ltd [no ISBN on my copy] it will answer your question for you completely. The third edition [1947] devotes 3 pages to the subject with drawings of the boiler/saw house, distinctive yard crane, drying house and bits and pieces with OO dimensions.

 

If this is your era, then it is worth tracing a copy on the Internet, e.g.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RAILWAY-MODELLING-MINIATURE-Edward-Beal-/310231418291?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item483b3bc5b3

 

Doug

[shortliner]

This is about 4 miles from me - there is only a small photo of the yard, but you may be able to make out the buildings - it is, of course, at the other end of the country from Dorset! http://www.novartulloch.co.uk/

[petethemole]

Paultons Park theme park near Southampton was developed on a former country estate and still has a typical estate sawmill which is part of the attractions, so can be visited. Here's a pic:

[David_S.]

Thanks for the helpful replies. Doug, I have marked the book on my e bay watch list. Jack, I am starting to think it would be easier to relocate the layout to Scotland! Pete, I have favourited the pic on flickr and will pay the place a visit if we have time when we come over later this month.

 

David S.

[petethemole]

I just remembered this; I found it when researching my old home town. http://www.ampthillimages.com/Media/Pinewoods-Gall./pages/Logging%201917.4123.html It's a sawmill established at Ampthill Station (MR, south of Bedford) during WW1 by a Canadian Army Forestry Regiment. It's a bit more substantial, and rail served. The pic is part of a set. The cut timber was sent to the sawmill by a narrow gauge railway. I might build a bit of it one day....

[David_S.]

Thanks for the link, Pete, makes sense that a sawmill building would be made of wood, plenty around! I shall continue my search today in the breaks between standing in the heat cutting and splitting wood for next winter.

[Guest stuartp]

For what it's worth I attach my recollection of the layout at Esholt when I was there in 1986. The equipment was modern (ish) but I doubt the basic principles had changed much. Tree trunks and logs were lifted by a tractor with a grab hanging from its bucket and lowered onto a saw bench, which slid them through the bandsaw. This was a vicious thing capable of going through a 40mm thick crowbar to the terminal detriment of both bar and blade.

 

The rough sawn planks were stacked to the right, the bark and other odd bits not worth bothering with went left (all by hand), where I chopped then up on a big circular saw into firewood-sized lumps and wheelbarrowed them into a big shed from where they were collected by the bag load/trailerload/pickup load depending on how many the customer wanted.

 

The rough sawn planks eventually found their way outside again, where the workshop turned them into fence posts and rails.

 

When I was there we were still working our way through a backlog of elm which the Bradford Council arbor gang had felled because of Dutch Elm Disease, this was an extremely wet wood which blunted the bandsaw and my circular saw regularly.

 

The circular saw used to overheat and cut out if the wood was too wet, to get around this one of the foremen had very carefully whittled a little wooden block which, if correctly inserted in the circuit breaker cupboard, stopped it tripping out . The logic appeared to be that it was safer for the foreman to walk over and clip the saw operator round the ear if he heard the blade vibrating than it was to try and clear a jammed blade.

 

The waterwheel was long gone and the lade was dry and overgrown, but there was still some lineshafting in the roof. I can't believe that even at 17 it never occurred to me to take a camera to work and record all this because it was a fascinating place to work. Apart from the sawmill we were forever stumbling over bits of the former sewage works railway which had also occupied the site.

 

The other feature I remember (I wonder why !) was the lifesized poster of Linda Lusardi on the back of the messroom door, complete with strategically placed coat pegs.

 

[David_S.]

Thank you, Stuart, that is a very useful drawing. Your experiences with the elm sound a bit like my current struggles with the maples I felled in the back garden (20-30 of them) which require me to re-sharpen the chainsaw blade every time I refuel it. The heavier pieces also put a fair old strain on my 5 ton splitter.

 

I wonder who the 1930s equivalent of Linda Lusardi was, I'll have to provide somewhere for the workers to hang their jackets.

 

David

[Fat Controller]

One feature of sawmills that deal with hardwood, rather than softwood, are the trunks which have been sliced horizontally into relatively thick planks. These are then separated by pieces of thinner wood at right angles to the length to allow the wood to season naturally, and will be kept for several years before being further processed. There used to be a large sawmill and timber merchant on the Up side, north of Stafford station, which had a large yard stacked like this. It was sorted into areas with oak, ash etc, all labelled up and with the date they arrived painted on the end.

The same practice is used in those French sawmills that deal with hardwoods near our vineyard. Softwoods tend to be kiln-dried (and have been for at least the last fifty years), whilst acacia is often used 'green'- untreated acacia stakes used in the vineyard last about twenty-five years, which is about the same time as treated woods of other types.

[David_S.]

Hi, David,

 

If you can lay hands on a copy of 'Railway modelling in Miniature' by Edward Beal , Electrical Press Ltd [no ISBN on my copy] it will answer your question for you completely. The third edition [1947] devotes 3 pages to the subject with drawings of the boiler/saw house, distinctive yard crane, drying house and bits and pieces with OO dimensions.

 

If this is your era, then it is worth tracing a copy on the Internet, e.g.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RAILWAY-MODELLING-MINIATURE-Edward-Beal-/310231418291?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item483b3bc5b3

 

Doug

 

Thanks for the tip-off, Doug, the book is now mine for just over a fiver! Certainly can't complain at that.

 

David

[Bob Reid]

I wonder who the 1930s equivalent of Linda Lusardi was, I'll have to provide somewhere for the workers to hang their jackets.

 

David

 

Sadly - I do know that one - Jean Harlow

[Karhedron]

There are 12 pages of photos and diagrams of Greenwich sawmills in Marlow, Bucks in the Wild Swan book. I don't know if you will want to shell out for the book on the basis of that but it might be worth seeing if you can get a copy from your library.

 

The buildings are pretty light-weight. A mix of corrugated steel and wooden sheds. The only substantial building was a brick-built "saw doctor's shop".

 

The photos show the site to be very crowded with wood piled everywhere in all states from raw lumber to finished planks. The site was worked by a couple of Smith 5-ton rail cranes.

[David_S.]

Thanks, I know Marlow from childhood and seem to be collecting Wild Swan books like they're rare china at the moment, so I'll add that one to my list.

 

DS

[Chubber]

Thanks for the tip-off, Doug, the book is now mine for just over a fiver! Certainly can't complain at that.

 

David

 

 

That's great! If you manage to model half of what the great man achieved in that book alone you will be a very busy and happy chappy. I wasn't exaggerating, was I?

 

Best wishes,

 

Doug

[David_S.]

I won't see the book for a week or so yet, had it sent to my UK address and won't be there until then, but I certainly the rev. Beal's reputation.

 

David

[David_S.]

I won't see the book for a week or so yet, had it sent to my UK address and won't be there until then, but I certainly know the rev. Beal's reputation.

 

David