General view from N of three horizontal mills at Huxter, Mainland, Shetland. Copy of 35 mm colour transparency.

Description General view from N of three horizontal mills at Huxter, Mainland, Shetland. Copy of 35 mm colour transparency.

Date 14/5/1981

Collection Papers of Professor John R Hume, economic and industrial historian, Glasgow, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 866033

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Horizontal mills, Huxter, Shetland The horizontal mill is the simplest type of water-driven corn mill. In it the millstones are set as in a rotary quern. A top stone with a central hole, revolves on top of a fixed bottom stone, and is driven directly by a horizontal waterwheel. Corn fed through the hole is ground between the stones. This view shows a series of three horizontal mills at Huxter, on the west coast of the Mainland of Shetland. The same water drove each of the mills in turn., and there are sluices to control the flow of the water into each mill. The mills are thatched in a typical traditional Shetland fashion. This is the last complete series of such mills in Shetland. They were cheap to build, and used very little timber and iron in their construction. These ones were restored in the 1980s. Each mill served a family or small group of families. They were very numerous in Shetland and Lewis in the late 19th century. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap