I am not sure exactly what you would call this rusty piece of kit that, until recently, was in our farm “mixing house” (i.e. for mixing animal feed).  A shaft with pulleys? A drive shaft? If anyone knows the correct technical term, please get in touch! Its purpose was to drive farm machinery such as root grinders and grain mills. (You cannot feed whole turnips or whole barley to cattle being fattened up in the farm buildings.) Some source of motive power (an internal one such as a stationary steam or diesel engine, or one outside the buildings such as a tractor with a flywheel on) would have been connected to the shaft by a belt, and then additional belts used to connect different machines. The pulley wheels are different sizes to create a gearing effect for slave machines of different sizes.

I wanted to find a picture of such an apparatus in use, or even of redundant machinery of a similar kind. Not easy, but then I found a book by S.W. Martins, “The English Model Farm” (Windgather Press, Oxford, 2002). This shows a very similar layout to our own (on p.145) at a Grange Farm in Lincolnshire with open-fronted cart shed, door to feed mixing house, with granary above, and external driving wheel – but regrettably there is no picture of the interior. This farm was built (1866) at about the same time as our own (1879, as far as we can tell).

On page 113 of the same book, there is a woodcut illustration of the “machine room of a barn”. The author notes that this is “obviously a very idealised drawing”, taken from a textbook of agriculture dated 1866, but it nevertheless shows the intention of such apparatus. In this drawing, you can see the motive power being an internal steam engine, a threshing machine at the rear left, various types of grain mill on the right, and root or chaff cutters on the left. A health and safety nightmare, but still!

The only photo I have found so far that is similar is on Hollycombe steam museum website www.hollycombe.co.uk/ This gives the idea!

The interest in such machinery remnants is in the use of it in practice. What was in the mind of the designer as to what it would achieve? How did they intend it would be used? Was it actually useful? How long was it used for before it was superseded?

Meanwhile, this undoubtedly expensive and high-quality piece of kit (when it was installed) is unfortunately languishing in the corner of our yard. It reminds of a bye-gone era, when energy sources were hard to come by. Perhaps that time will return, as oil is a diminishing resource …..