Cider Mill Mid 17thC, Penlee

I once heard (a long time ago) that Lamorna stream was once a hotbed of apple trees and their fairly hard wood was used for water wheels which in turn (no pun intended) helped to crush the apples. This is a vague recollection I admit. Most of our Penwith streams are not large but the Newlyn river, originating around the Men Scryfa area used to drive corn mills. Is the Roskennalls mill still operating near Newbridge? I remember visiting it once with the OCS in the 80s.

Thanks for that, as I research the rivers ( brooks , properly), I find the subject widening; when I see something like this mill, my mind asks more questions than I see answers. So far I am concentrating on the brooks as they pass Penzance; can t say as to whether or not Roskennalls is operational.

These mills were very simple, a post stood on a pin in the centre of the stone, supported at the top by a beam (also pinned); attached to the post was a crushing wheel, it was rotated about the channel by a pole driven by a mule (or similar beast of work); the apples were merely crushed to a pulp, not to force out the liquid. The wheel was generally of a very heavy close grain wood, so as not to absorb the juice. When the apples were reduced to a pulp, the pulp was scooped out into leather or wooden pails and transferred to a screw press, the juice pours out into barrels. The reason for the mill and press (and its cider) was to act as payment and thirst quenchers for farm labourers. So there would not have been a building surrounding this mill, other than perhaps a timber shed .