Old Stone Mill, Delta, Ontario

Inside the Old Stone Mill

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Summer Student Mill Interpreters - 2025\n\nWe always a group of smiling young mill interpreters, happy to provide a guided tour and answer any question about the mill a visitor might have.\n\nHere we see them inside the mill shop which offers various intesting things for sale including our cold stone ground whole wheat Red Fife flour.
First Stop Inside the Old Stone Mill\n\nAt the first stop we explain why a grist mill was needed by pioneer settlers. These people were clearing forest to create farmland, initially planting potatoes and wheat to feed their families.\n\nWheat has a very hard outer shell (the bran) which means that grinding stones are needed to make it into flour, a dietary stable of the era. At locations with water power (rapids) such as Delta, a sawmill was built first, followed by a grist mill (grist is an Old English word meaning "grinding").\n\nLater, wheat became a cash crop and selling it to a local mill was one of the few ways early settlers could obtain currency.
Old Stone Mill - 1st Floor\n\nBuilt in 1810-11, much of the mill is original to this period. Over the years, changes were made, for instance in the foreground are columns installed in the early 1860, but behind it (behind the railing, is an original 1810 column. \n\nYou'll see this blend of old and "new" throughout the mill. Old includes in the stonework and original axe hews (broad axe) support beams of the mill
Our Breastshot Water Wheel\n\nWith about 7 feet of dam raised "head" - a "breastshot" waterwheel was used in the 1810 mill. This means that the water arrived just above the centre of the original 12 foot (3.7 m) waterwheel.\n\nThe present waterwheel is a 10 foot replica installed in 2007.


Trying out our stump and pestle "mill"\n\nEarly pioneers would use a "stump mill" - a hollowed-out tree which would be used to grind (pound) wheat into meal. But it couldn't make flour, for that you needed millstones.
Our Moving the Grain display\n\nThis display show how elevators (small buckets on a continuous belt) and conveyors (a type of Archimedes screw) were used to move grain and flour in the mill.\n\nThis display was built by DMS director and volunteer Art Shaw.\n\n\nOur interactive displays can be enjoyed by young and old alike.
Children are attracted to Art Shaw's working model of a water wheel and millstones
It's too heavy!!


The turbines\n\nMill Interpreter Corrine explains a turbine to visitors. Two Swain turbines were installed in 1861 in the newly built Turbine Hall.\n\nWe have one turbine left in place today to show visitors how it worked and the technological evolution from waterwheel to turbine power
One of the turbines still sits in place in the turbine pit.
Dressing (sharpening) the Millstones Display\n\nOne of our many beautifully laid out, easy to read, interpretive displays.
The Automatic Mill Interpretive Panel\n\nWe have interpretive panels throughout the mill. A starting point is this panel that explains the milling process, how the mill processed wheat into flour.


Living History - Milling Demonstration\n\nOn special occasions and about every two weeks during our season, we run our 200-year-old millstones, grinding heritage Red Fife wheat into flour.\n\nHere we see our farmer and miller, Chris Wooding, explaining heritage wheat to a group of visitors in advance of starting up the millstones and conducting the grinding.
Summer Mill Interpreter Gillian filling up the hopper with organic Red Fife Wheat.\n\nThis wheat is grown by our miller, Chris Wooding. on his nearby farm.
Grinding heritage Red Fife wheat.\n\nThe hopper starts to gravity feed into the centre of the millstones as the milling process starts.
Chris explaning how flour is made to a young visitor


Visitors get to touch and taste the freshly ground flour.
Here we see Gillian showing photos she took of grain in the hopper using a visitor's phone.
Corrine and Charlotte bagging flour\n\nOur summer staff bag the flour for sale on a milling day.
Cleaning the Stones\n\nThe wooden vat that contains the flour during the milling process has been removed for cleaning. \n\nThe runner (top) stone is exposed above the fixed bedstone (bottom stone inset into the floor). You can see the hole to the left of Gillian's foot where the flour drops down into the flour elevator which takes it up to the 3rd floor.\n\nAll the flour needs to be cleaned up after milling. This involves manual scooping and sweeping as well as the use of a vacuum.


Cleaning the millstones after milling.\n\nHere we see Lilly and Chris working to get the final bit of flour out from the centre of the millstones.
First stop on the 2nd floor\n\nVisitors enter the second floor from the stairs coming up from the Turbine Hall. It's an expanse of beautiful stonework and woodwork leading to the Miller's Room.
At the Miller's Room on the 2nd floor.\n\nThe Miller's Room was built in the early 1950 for then owner Water Denaut, providing him with a private space in the mill.\n\nIn this photo, we also see part of special quilt display we had in the mill for Doors Open Rideau Lakes 2025 (Stonebridge Quilters out of Lyndhurst, Ontario).
The Miller's Room\n\nBuilt for owner Walter Denaut in the early 1850s, this beautiful area with it's plastered walls was a private spot where Denaut could conduct his business.


Viewing the Agricultural Display\n\nVisitors read the signboards describing the agricultural display on the 2nd floor of the mill.
Agricultural Display\n\nWheat farming is integral to the story of the Old Stone Mill (or any grist mill). We have several artefacts that show how wheat farming was done in the early-mid 1800s.
A Stevens' Cutter\n\nWe have several artefacts related to early Delta including this beautiful one-horse cutter made in the Stevens Carriage Factory in Delta in the mid-1800s.\n\nA descriptive panels details information about the cutter and the factory is was made in.
Examining the working bolter\n\nWe have a working bolter on the 2nd floor of the mill. This one in not original to the mill, it in fact pre-dates the mill, built likely in the late 1700s. We installed it here in 2010.\n\nWhile we rarely use it, it is a working bolter which was used to sift flour into various grades. In the early-mid 1800s, only fine flour ("superfine") could be legally exported. To get the fine flour a bolter was needed.


Our Working Bolter\n\nWe include an interpretive sign in the bolter to show visitors exactly how it works. We also have a flour grade display nearby.
Visitors enter the 3rd floor at the Millpond display
Indigenous Origins and Early Surveys\n\nThe history of land use in this area goes to back to shortly after the glaciers retreated from this region. We have a small interpretive display showing indigenous use.\n\nAdjacent to that is a geographic display showing how Delta is sited between two lakes. The Upper Lake (Upper Beverley Lake) was originally two smaller lakes, but was dam raised into one lake when the Old Stone Mill was built in 1810-11.\n\nAlso included are some of the early survey maps of this area.
The 50 foot long five-sided Ridgepole.\n\nThe mill is an architectural marvel, including the 50 foot long, 5-sided ridgepole, made from a single piece of white pine. It is a Dutch design tied into the rafters using tree nails (pointed dowels).


The 50-foot long ridgepole with visible tree nails.\n\nThis is the "attic" (4th floor of the mill). At one time it had a 2 inch floor and the original 1810 Oliver Evans' design grain cleaner was in this area.\n\nThe wooden piece on the right is the head of the grain elevator which brought the grain up from the 1st floor to this spot where it was transferred into the cleaner.
The wind brace.\n\nAn English design, the two diagonal pieces of the wood help to prevent any sway in the roof, one of the reasons it has been able to last over 200 years.
Accordion Lath\n\nThe mill at one point had an accordion lath ceiling, covering half of the 3rd floor above the area where grain was stored.\n\nAccoridian lath is an early form of lathing. It is made by taking a board, usually hemlock, splitting the ends with an axe, and then pulling it apart and nailing it to the ceiling. The cracks allowed for the securing of plaster.\n\nLater, the introduction of circular saws by the 1840s or so in Canada, allowed the sawing of lath strips which then replaced this accordian lathing technique. \n\nThe plaster is fragile and slowly falling apart. About 1/4 of it was retained during restoration and we've subsequently (2021) had to secure it under plexiglas.
Axe marks on the 200-year-old timber.\n\nThe big timbers in the Old Stone Mill were squared in the bush using a broad axe, a technique that continued in Ontario up until the 20th century.\n\nColumns show more refine features using an adze and plane, but the main timbers were done that way, the broad axe marks still clearly visible.


The Hopper-Boy\n\nOne of the inventions made by Oliver Evans in the 1780s was this machine called a hopper-boy. It was used to cool and separate the hot and sticky (moisture) flour that came up from the millstones.\n\nOriginally a boy with a rake did this job, Evans' replaced it with this machine. In 2020-21, Dustin Smith, a student taking heritage carpentry, built this replica for us. It is highly accurate other than being slightly smaller than the original (8 feet long vs 13 feet long for the original in this location).\n\nDMS Director and volunteer Art Shaw helped Dustin with some of the carpentry issues he encountered, as well as doing the ironwork for the hopper-boy (to exact period specifications).
A panorama view of the 3rd floor.\n\nOn the left are the original 1810 stairs leading to the 4th floor (no public access), plus the belts and pulleys display and the hopper-boy.\n\nIn the centre is our special exhibit area, which has a photo exhibit, including enhanced and colourized photos dating as far back as 1870. It is still a work in progress in this photo.\n\nOn the right is a "Smutter" a type of grain cleaner invented in the mid-1800s, which replaced the original Oliver Evans trommel style of grain cleaner (details shown on interpretive panels by the smutter).
Belts and Pulleys and Flour Elevators\n\nThe original 1810 mill was built before the invention of belt and pulley technology. At that time, it was all direct connect wooden gear on gear. We think the mill switched to belts and pulleys when it went from waterwheel to turbine power in about 1861.\n\nThe bright coloured wood in the centre right are our working flour elevators, installed in 2010. Flour that is ground on our millstones come up these elevators and then falls by gravity either to the bolter for sifting, or right back to the 1st floor for the bagging of 100% whole wheat flour.
Belts and Pulleys Display


Quilts on Display\n\nThe wood and stonework of the Old Stone Mill provided the perfect backdrop for a quilt display.
More quilts
Students learning the fine art of bread making\n\nIn this photo we see DMS Director Katherine Killins explaining the details of how to make bread to a group of interested students who were about to enter our bread baking contest.
Quilts in the Turbine Hall


Visitors signing our guest book.\n\nWe encourage all visitors to sign our guest book before they leave the mill. This book gathers all sorts of compliments about our restoration and presentation of the mill.
Example guest book entries.
More guest book entries.\n\nYou'll note the one from a Groundhog - this was done on the day a groundhog sauntered into the mill shop, apparently unconcerned about the 3 staff members that were in there at the time. It took some convincing to shoo it out the door.
More Guestbook
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