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The engine is a twin-cylinder Ruston Hornsby diesel engine
purchased by the miller, Ben Davis, from the Royal Show at
Shrewsbury in 1949. It was the 'show model' of the year, delivered
to the mill from the Company's Boulton Works in Lincoln in
September 1949. The engine is located where the northern
waterwheel once existed so that intermediate shafts and a series
of belts are required to drive the machinery. The black belt on
the left is from the diesel engine, with the belt on the right
driving the horizontal overhead shaft. This then drives the Combined Milling Machine and the Sack Hoist, also a grinding wheel that could
be used for sharpening the mill-bills used for dressing
millstones. Alternatively, by changing the belting, the diesel
engine could be used to drive a saw bench or the hammer mill, seen
on the left of the black belt, that the last miller used for his
part-time work of grist milling. The belts from the diesel engine
and to the overhead shaft are twisted to give a greater contact
area on the pulley wheels to reduce slipage.
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