Ceulan Woollen Mill, Tal-y-bont, Ceredigion, Mid-Wales, December 2023

[HughieD]

1. The History
Ceulan Woollen Mill is located in the village of Tal-y-bont in Ceredigion, located halfway between Aberystwyth and Machynlleth. The village stands on two rivers, the Afon Ceulan and Afon Leri. These fast-flowing rivers attracted a number of mills to the village. Three were built along the Leri while a single mill was built on the Afon Ceulan. It was built in 1847 by the Morris family and was working by 1860. It produced cloth and flannel mainly for shirts for farmers and coal miners throughout mid and south Wales. The building consisted of two storeys and an attic and was constructed of split local rubble in a lime mortar, under a slate roof. Due to the success of the mill, it was extended in 1880 and a 7.7m diameter breast-shot waterwheel added against the mill’s southwest gable.

The waterwheel powered the mill machinery and in around 1920 it also drove an electric generator. In 1923 a double Pelton wheel turbine was installed by Edwards of Llanuwchllyn, on the north-east gable in order to drive both the mill machinery and an electric generator. During the Second World War, production and profits suffered. Thinks improved post-1945 but the mill struggled to complete with the bigger mills and their large modern machinery. It struggled on for around a decade before the mill ceased working around 1955, despite turning part of the mill into a shop to sell the directly to the public. It was then eventually abandoned in 1962. Sometime after the owner attempted to pass the mill to the National Trust for preservation. A lack of funding to restore and repair the mill meant the NT were unable to take the mill on.

2. The Explore
So the main reason for driving the 15 of so miles south of where we were staying to Tal-y-bont was to see Leri mill with is colourful yarns. This proved too much of a challenge sadly. The mill lies over the River Leri, reached either across the fallen tree over the river or via a wade. With the biblical rainfall the day before the river was swollen and fast flowing so neither option appealed. I even tried approach from the west but the mill lies at the bottom of a steep bank. So plan B was to check out Ceulan Mill. Entry was pretty straight forward and the main challenge was how to best capture this packed-to-the-gills three storey mill in extremely poor light. Hopefully I just about managed that. After a good hour or so it was time to head back to the car and back up to Mach.

3. The Pictures
All phone pics, using a combination of natural light and my torches.

And we’re in:





It’s pretty overwhelming:







The amount of machinery on the ground floor is ridiculous:





Not too sure what these are:





Cool old Player’s box:



Some old documentation:





And very old electrics:





What a load of old bobbins:





These cog wheels are fantastic:



There’s even an old butter churn:





More bobbins!









In black and white:





One for the comrades!



And prune lovers:



A newer looking machine:



Old wheels for the drive shafts:



And a larger one that’s still attached:

 

[HughieD]

CONTINUED:

Too many pictures:



Up a floor we go:





Nature at the window:



What a sight:



Yet more bobbins:



And more machines:





Mackenzie’s biscuit tin:





Finally up to the attic floor:



Back down:



And back out:



For a few externals:



Gearing galore:







And a big vice:



And that waterwheel:



That’s all folks!!!

 

[Hayman]

What a wonderful collection of machinery. I have not seen a metal 'scoop' water wheel before. As for "The waterwheel powered the mill machinery and in around 1920 it also drove an electric generator", my grandfather attached a generator to the water whel of the flour mill at Hellingly in Sussex in the 1930s. It power lights in the house and the tea gardens.

 

[night crawler]

Wow you did go overboard on the photos but I can see why, I was take with the vice, why was it there outside

 

[TeeJF]

Now that is nice!

 

[Hayman]

Wow you did go overboard on the photos but I can see why, I was take with the vice, why was it there outside

The spike on the right hand end of the vice suggests it was jammed upright into something to keep it secure for use. Blacksmiths 'and farriers' anvils sometimes had holes of different shapes and sizes to hold various tools. Might the vice have been used with the spike secure in an anvil?

 

[night crawler]

The spike on the right hand end of the vice suggests it was jammed upright into something to keep it secure for use. Blacksmiths 'and farriers' anvils sometimes had holes of different shapes and sizes to hold various tools. Might the vice have been used with the spike secure in an anvil

Ah I see what you mean, I worked for a blacksmith when I was about 15 and remember the holes in the anvil you are talking about though he had a dam great vice bolted to his bench. When he retired he took the bench and vice with him where I ironically I moved next door. The bench and vice was in his garage and though the poor guy passed many years ago the bench is still there. Too dam heavy to move, as to the Anvil my mate and I struggled to move it to his sons house hard to believe when I was 15 I could just lift it. I still have his bench anvil though

 

[Cuban B.]

It still looks a grand place to see. I hope I'll make it down to visit it one day.

 

[Hayman]

Ah I see what you mean, I worked for a blacksmith when I was about 15 and remember the holes in the anvil you are talking about though he had a dam great vice bolted to his bench. When he retired he took the bench and vice with him where I ironically I moved next door. The bench and vice was in his garage and though the poor guy passed many years ago the bench is still there. Too dam heavy to move, as to the Anvil my mate and I struggled to move it to his sons house hard to believe when I was 15 I could just lift it. I still have his bench anvil though

Thanks for the confirmation about anvils. Al though my idea that this vice was used while rammed into an anvil does seem a bit strange to me. Perhaps it fitted into another hole somewhere on the site.

 

[night crawler]

Thanks for the confirmation about anvils. Al though my idea that this vice was used while rammed into an anvil does seem a bit strange to me. Perhaps it fitted into another hole somewhere on the site.

Found it. It's a post vice used by blacksmiths though not how you thought rammed in an anvil. I found the photo on the net

 

[TeeJF]

Found it. It's a post vice used by blacksmiths though not how you thought rammed in an anvil. I found the photo on the net

I’ve always wondered what they are used for ever since school. Any ideas?

 

[night crawler]

I’ve always wondered what they are used for ever since school. Any ideas?

Holding a lump of metal to Drill, file or beat the shite out of it with a gert big hammer all the type of things I used it for when I worked for the blacksmith

 

[Hayman]

Found it. It's a post vice used by blacksmiths though not how you thought rammed in an anvil. I found the photo on the net

Many thanks for the photo. This is the first time I have seen such a vice. As for the one outdoors on the site, only about six inches of what looks like a tapering spike is visible. If there is a lot more hidden by the undergrowth, then the whole vice might look like the one in your photo. In fact, with the two small wheels, that vice looks to be a movable one that could be moved around a workshop, or taken to where ot was needed. Looking again at the vice in the undergrowth, it could be of the same type in your photo, with much of it buried in the ground.

 

[TeeJF]

Holding a lump of metal to Drill, file or beat the shite out of it with a gert big hammer all the type of things I used it for when I worked for the blacksmith

But why was it necessary to create such an unusual vice for doing that? It’s that long ‘leg’ that makes it so distinctive.

PS... I asked a guy who does "Smithing" and he says an engineers vice can't stand up to the hammering a lump of hot metal receives so the Smith's Vice has the long leg to help brace it when you're thumping three shades of the proverbial out of your metal! So there we have it. I didn't know that!

 

[night crawler]

But why was it necessary to create such an unusual vice for doing that? It’s that long ‘leg’ that makes it so distinctive.

I looked into a bit more on Wickipedia and it's actually called a post vice the link takes you to the Wickipedia page and shows a post vice further down with some info. I was only ever used to using an Engineers vise and cannot remember seeing a post vice at the forge I worked in though there was so much old stuff in there under loads of dust there may well have been on laying in a corner.

 

[Hayman]

I looked into a bit more on Wickipedia and it's actually called a post vice the link takes you to the Wickipedia page and shows a post vice further down with some info. I was only ever used to using an Engineers vise and cannot remember seeing a post vice at the forge I worked in though there was so much old stuff in there under loads of dust there may well have been on laying in a corner.

Your thumbnail of the 'post vice' attached to a trolley shows how there is a bracket to attach it a bench or other fixed point, with the bottom of the post resting on the floor or other secure base. Today, we are used to bench vices and vices that can be clamped onto benches; even suction vices, with heavy rubber cups. I have a suction vice which I place on a smooth worktop and rotate a lever that increases the size of the cavity in the rubber cup, thus creating a vacuum. The vice stays secure enough for sawing and/or drilling what is held in the jaws. As ever, Derelict Places increases my fields of knowledge.