by Mildred Cookson, The Mills Archive, UK
An item in The Miller (March 3rd, 1913) introduced the Cooper’s auto-Puro plansifter system which had been recently been installed by milling engineer GW Cooper of Romsey, Hampshire at the St Leonards Mills near Hastings. The milling business at St Leonards was started in 1849 by the father of the then head of the firm, when a good windmill was the first step in a successful milling career. The windmill in question was a substantial wooden smock mill, originally at Croft Road Hastings and moved to nearby Silverhill in 1838.
It was taken over by William Draper in 1850 and destroyed by fire seventeen
years later along with the large stock of wheat and flour. The following year
the windmill was rebuilt by John Upfield and for the following 79 years it
dominated the skyline of Silverhill remaining in the hands of the Draper family
until 1946. The mill was sadly demolished in 1966.
John Draper succeeded his father but was too progressive to be satisfied for long with the capacities of a windmill, so in 1887 he built the mills situated close to West St Leonards railway station and installed a roller plant using the latest lines of the time. Always striving for perfection, he several times had his mills remodelled and extended and took on his two sons, Bernard and William Norman, into the partnership with him.
The basement of the mill contained the ordinary line shafts for driving the double row of rolls on the floor above, as well as the elevator bottoms. In 1913 a number of the elevators were out of use as the new system had made them redundant. On the first floor were two lines of roller mills; these had not been altered except the feeds to them had been rearranged.
The fluting on the brake rolls was a special design by Mr Cooper to suit the requirements of his system. The wheat was treated on a system of three breaks with a special machine which dealt with it prior to it entering the first break rolls. This enabled them to release 67 percent of the stock. The remaining 33 percent, going to the succeeding break, was described as "strikingly broad and un-cut-up bran stock". The second break rolls left very little to be done by the third and final break.
Read more HERE.
An item in The Miller (March 3rd, 1913) introduced the Cooper’s auto-Puro plansifter system which had been recently been installed by milling engineer GW Cooper of Romsey, Hampshire at the St Leonards Mills near Hastings. The milling business at St Leonards was started in 1849 by the father of the then head of the firm, when a good windmill was the first step in a successful milling career. The windmill in question was a substantial wooden smock mill, originally at Croft Road Hastings and moved to nearby Silverhill in 1838.
John Draper succeeded his father but was too progressive to be satisfied for long with the capacities of a windmill, so in 1887 he built the mills situated close to West St Leonards railway station and installed a roller plant using the latest lines of the time. Always striving for perfection, he several times had his mills remodelled and extended and took on his two sons, Bernard and William Norman, into the partnership with him.
The basement of the mill contained the ordinary line shafts for driving the double row of rolls on the floor above, as well as the elevator bottoms. In 1913 a number of the elevators were out of use as the new system had made them redundant. On the first floor were two lines of roller mills; these had not been altered except the feeds to them had been rearranged.
The fluting on the brake rolls was a special design by Mr Cooper to suit the requirements of his system. The wheat was treated on a system of three breaks with a special machine which dealt with it prior to it entering the first break rolls. This enabled them to release 67 percent of the stock. The remaining 33 percent, going to the succeeding break, was described as "strikingly broad and un-cut-up bran stock". The second break rolls left very little to be done by the third and final break.
Read more HERE.
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