The Clermont Foundation PO Box 32, Millwood, VA 22646
[email protected] website: www.clermontfarm.org MEDIA RELEASE From: Bob Stieg, CEO, The Clermont Foundation 540-837-2790 Date: 9-30-11 Large, Unique Artifact Arrives at Clermont On Monday, October 3, the remains of an excavated, very rare style of horizontal water wheel will be brought from storage in Richmond to Clermont Farm, an 18th century historic site in Clarke County owned by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. The Department of Historic Resources (DHR), which owns Clermont, has asked the Clermont Foundation which manages the site to arrange storage and exhibition for the Woolf's Mill Tub Wheel, one of the largest and most unique artifacts in the Department’s collection of hundreds of thousands of items. A tub wheel is a horizontal water wheel, used to power a grist mill. These archaeological artifacts include partial conserved remains of the wooden tub and wooden-bladed wheel, about eight feet square, the water supply box (forebay) about ten foot by six foot, and the flume to carry the water between them. This horizontal power train was located in the basement of the mill, with an iron axle running from the center axis of the tub wheel straight up into the first floor of the mill, where it was connected through gears to the mill stones and machinery. Water came in from the creek through a headrace to the mill, where it plunged down into the basement and into the forebay box, from which a narrowing flume forced the water into the turbine box. The water rapidly turned the paddles on the turbine and was discharged out through a hole in the bottom center of the tub and out through a tail race under the lower wall of the mill, back into the creek. All of this occurred under substantial pressure. While horizontal water wheels are recorded in Virginia as early as 1733 (Loudoun County), this is the first and only water wheel of its type ever excavated in Virginia. It came from Woolf's Mill in Fauquier County, on Goose Creek, on Paul Mellon's estate. The mill was built about 1798, but it burned in 1829, and was rebuilt in 1832, at which time it is believed this tub wheel style of mill power was installed. The mill ceased operation about 1900, and in 1925 the upper stories of the mill were dismantled and the remains left to deteriorate. In 1985, after conducting an archaeological survey of his estate, Mr. Mellon commissioned what became a five year excavation of the site of Woolf's Mill. In 1988 the remains of the tub wheel
itself, the forebay water supply box, and the flume were discovered in the former basement of the mill. As they were such a unique archaeological discovery in Virginia, Mr. Mellon donated them to the state Department of Historic Resources, to whose labs they were removed, and he paid for their complete conservation, as is done with ancient wooden ships raised from the water. Because of their size, they were subsequently stored in a Richmond warehouse which is no longer available, hence the need to move them. Besides wanting to store these artifacts on its own property, DHR wished to have them in a place where they could be studied in relation to other applications of 18 th and 19th century timber framing techniques, and in the context of other historical mills of different types. At Clermont, many parts of the old house and service buildings are constructed with heavy timber frames (like a barn). This water wheel system for a mill is also constructed using heavy timber frame techniques, and at Clermont these early building techniques can be compared in their various uses. The mill power system and its framing will also be studied in the context of the Burwell-Morgan mill, still operating in Millwood, VA, and owned by the Clarke County Historical Association. The archaeological remains of the Woolf’s Mill are also a reminder of the fact that Clermont, as a champion grain-producing farm, was always enmeshed in a larger economic world of mills, markets, transportation, and ports Clermont is currently in an initial five year study period, and is not open to the public, except for its annual HarvFest day on the third Saturday in June. The study, and a plan for the use and interpretation of the site, are expected to be complete in about a year’s time, when public access will be increased. Website: www.clermontfarm.org
