page_title: Coldstream Mill
section_title: Workings details
hierarchical_section_title: Coldstream Mill / Workings details
caption_attribution_description: English: Coldstream Mill's millstone drive gear, Beith, Scotland. One of Scotland's last traditional mills. Closed circa 1995.
context_page_description: Coldstream Mill, near Beith in North Ayrshire, Scotland was an early 19th century meal mill powered by the Dusk Water and Whitestone Burn that was enlarged from an existing much earlier watermill. The mill worked until 1991 and was the last traditional working water mill in Ayrshire and one of the last continuously worked watermills in Scotland. The mill buildings have been converted into a private dwelling and the mill pond has been retained.
context_section_description: Marked on old maps as a corn mill, after being enlarged, Coldstream Mill was mainly involved in preparing animal feed or meal, grinding linseed cake, beans, maize and barley. The mill had three sets of millstones, usually with two working whilst one was being dressed, that is serviced and sharpened, on a three week cycle. The Marshal family, blacksmiths at nearby Gateside, annealed the tools used to dress the stones. The millstones could be operated as a set of three, two or only a single set of stones. The mill never had an electricity supply and never needed any auxiliary power by steam or diesel engine due to the large mill pond and the plentiful water supply.
  Generally the animal feed was delivered by train to Lugton station from Glasgow Docks and then carried to Coldstream by cart. The finished meal was delivered by donkey cart to local farms as required. During WW2 the mill was in full time operation.
  A small copse of mature trees were a long term feature that was necessary to prevent the wooden buckets and lining from warping in the heat of the summer months when the mill was inactive due to the plentiful summer pastures and therefore meal feed demand was low.
caption: The millstone drive gear
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