Hot Rivetting!

It was a grim, gray and generally 'orrible day that we decided to go to Talgarth.
At one time, you would pretty much have run out of things to do there in five minutes, unless you were passing through the village to go up to the nature reserve at Pwll y Wrach (the Witch's Pool). There was the Tourist information shop, part of the medieval tower, the Mace (now the Co-op), a newsagents, a chemists, the Strand bookshop and cafe, George's the butchers - and a lot of pubs.
Now, however, things are different.
We got off the bus at the New Inn, where we had the set Thai lunch for £4.95 with Brains SA beer ("Do you want lager beer or ale beer?" the Thai girl behind the bar asked). Being the middle of the week, we had the bar to ourselves, but there were a few locals drinking around the corner at the side bar.
After that, we did a quick dash through the pouring rain to Talgarth Mill. When I first came through Talgarth, the building was a semi-derelict corrugated iron shed with older stone buildings around it. Thanks to various grants and a huge amount of volunteer work by the local people, it has been wonderfully transformed.
We were a bit early for the next guided tour of the mill, so we had a coffee in the cafe which has replaced the corrugated iron shed, looking out of the picture window at the little river running by. Unlike the New Inn, the cafe was quite busy, which is a pity, because the Thai food is really very good.
The tour of the mill is £3.50, and we were the only two taking it that afternoon, which was nice for us and also for the volunteer taking us round - it was his first day doing the tour, so he could practice on us! Standing by the turning wheels and cogs, he told us something of the history of the mill, going back to the 12th century, and being used as a fulling mill for woollen cloth at times, as well as being used for grain. Because of health and safety, we couldn't go up the steep miller's stairs, so we had to go out and round to the next level where the millstones were. These are sealed into a wooden box, to discourage rodents, but there's a full size cutaway model to show what's going on there, and one of the millstones (made of concrete!) they found at the bottom of the wheel pit when they cleared it out. The owners destroyed all the workings in the 1950s to prove to the Water Board that they were not extracting water from the river, when the Water Board wanted to charge them.
He talked about the fire risk in mills, and how important it was not to let the millstones heat up. When we went round, they weren't grinding any wheat, just letting the wheel turn gently.
The top floor was originally used for storage, and it looks as if they have meetings there now. There were also lots of pictures of the work in progress to turn the mill into the clean, bright, working mill that we see today.
And then we went outside to see the leat that feeds water to the mill wheel. It was still pouring down, (the Welsh expression is "raining old women and sticks" apparently). We wanted to see everything, though, so we left the volunteer sheltering in the dry, and went out into the little garden they've made on the river bank. The wood and iron work have all been made by local artisans, and they've made it beautiful, with wrought iron birds and dragonflies, and carved fish among the flagstones, and gently curved wooden struts. My Young Man has an engineering background, and he was fascinated at the details of how the shelter had been put together - and then he saw the pipe that led the water from the leat to the wheel. It was part of the original fittings of the mill, and that's where he got terribly excited about hot rivets! When he pointed it out, I could see the difference. The original seam of the pipe had been rivetted together with the hot rivets, and a later patch had been cold rivetted in place (which is easier).
We spent about an hour at the mill, and bought some of their bread - which is delicious.
Then we had a bit of time to wait before the Tower Hotel opened for the afternoon. They are also the home of Rotter's Brewery, and we wanted to try some of their beer.
The stout was on, and very pleasant it was, too. We had a chat with the man behind the bar (who may have also been the landlord - I'm not sure). He pointed out the alterations he was making to the pub, to divide the restaurant part from the local's bar, and said that he was aspiring to become like Kilvert's in Hay! He also had an interesting selection of bottled beers, including Robinson's Old Tom, which I haven't seen for years.
We had to drink up pretty quickly to get down to the square to get the bus back, though it would have been very pleasant to stay at the Tower for a bit longer.
All in all, it's a day out I can thoroughly recommend!