Trees and boats - (09/10)

Over the past few weeks we have seen many things passing down the River Sett and Goyt (traffic cones, bikes, shopping trolleys, microwaves to name but a few), but earlier this week we were amazed to see floating down the Goyt half a boat !

It was still floating until it came up against the power of the Torr Weir at which point it disintegrated considerably.

The previous day the biggest tree I have ever seen float down the river made its way slowly over the weir and has now 'parked' temporarily just below the weir - the tree is about 40ft in length and must weigh several tonnes - the power of water !

Environment Agency - (07/10)

As part of our work with the Environment Agency we have undertaken a photographic study of the weir and also the intake area around the Torrs Hydro scheme.

These shots will be taken on a weekly basis (many thanks to Rob for volunteering his services) and should help to highlight any seasonal changes in the river.

The pictures can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/torrshydrophotos/ where we currently have two weeks worth.

Dave Brown from the EA has also produced a Geomorpholigical site investigation report on the area and copies will be kept on site, in the New Mills Heritage Centre, New Mills library and the Town Hall for reference.

I must point out how helpful the whole of the EA have been throughout this project and how invaluable their advice has been.

River Sett - (06/10)

Last week we covered the main artery into Torrs Hydro the River Goyt and today we will cover the smaller River Sett which although smaller can rose and fall much quicker than the Goyt.

A relatively short river of less than ten miles the River Sett is flows through the High Peak borough of Derbyshire, in north western England. It rises near Edale Cross on Kinder Scout and flows through the villages of Hayfield and Birch Vale to join the River Goyt at New Mills. The river traditionally was used by many of the mills and businesses along the river and once it had flowed off Kinder was quite polluted, this has now changed and the Sett is home to many fish and fresh water birds.

Because of its catchment area of the Kinder plateau the river can be extremely peaty and carries large amounts of silt on its journey down to the Goyt, the river can also rise very quickly and even in the past week has been seen to rise 9-12 inches in 30-45 minutes.

Where the Sett and Goyt meet just above the weir you can see a noticeable difference in the colours of the river.

The River Sett flowing through the centre of Hayfield

The name game - (4/10)

We've talked for many weeks now of finding a suitable name for our screw and we now have a list of contenders - if you look to the right hand side of the blog you will see where you are able to vote for them, so here goes and in no particular order :-

Nathem (New Archimidean Torrs Hydro Electric Mills' Screw) suggested By Ron Toothill
Old Mill Water Powerhouse by anon
Archie suggested by Lloyd Hanlon, Ranger Will and Sean
Portunus - The Roman River God - suggested by Vera L Mellor
Threadtastik - suggested by Aaron Sabate age 12
Archi suggested by Denise Dugdale

Twister suggested by Denise Dugdale

Archie Medes suggested by Bill Owen

I'm not sure on a suitable prize for the winner yet, perhaps they get to crack open the bottle of champagne (or something a bit more environmentally friendly) when we have a naming ceremony !

We will keep the voting open for a couple of weeks - so get voting !

September - electricity produced - (03/10)

Some stats for September -

Total number of production days 16 :
14 days non production made up of,

8 days due to unplanned maintenance, lower bearing flange (15/9 to 22/9)

2 days shutdown due to HSE request (30/9 to 2/10)

4 days prior to planned switch on (4/9)

Total electricity produced 11.1 MWh :

694.4 kWh average per production day (16)

370.4 kWh average per calendar day (30)

28.9 kW per hour per production day (16)

15.4 kW per hour per calendar day (30)

Lights, camera and action ! (02/10)

With the temporary fencing now safely installed (another thing to add to mine and Maggie's CV's) the screw is now making great use of the high water in the rivers.

We had a visit from Science teacher Mr Quinn from New Mills School and a team of his Y9 pupils today who our doing some great work relating to the Torrs Hydro system and as part of this work will be doing some investigative journalism (they were really well kitted out with cameras and video equipment), perhaps we may have some budding newsreaders amongst - we look forward to their return visit next week.

Later this week I will list the potential names for your screw and we can have a little vote.

Fencing - (01/10)

No entry - (not really...)

We've been listening to many voices over the last couple of weeks on the aspect of health and safety and in particular how the fencing will look when the site is completed.

Some of you where aghast at the thought of a high security fence around the site (as where we...), but our main concern has to be one of health and safety.

With that in mind we have agreed a two stage approach to safety and fence in and around the screw : Tomorrow morning, if it ever stops raining, some temporary (not pretty, but it does the job) fencing will be erected directly around the tail race of the screw which the HSE agree mitigates any immediate danger - this will be in place until we install some panelling to cover the tail race.



Secondary to that over the next few weeks we will install a boundary fence at the top of the existing slope to run from near to the existing black fence to just before the engine house - this will be dual purpose in marking the boundary between the 'access' and 'no access' areas whilst also enabling visitors to still see the screw in motion, the final piece of fencing will mitigate any risk to the public near to the screw intake.



We have always planned a fence and where working with the Town Council and planners to install this but have had to move this forward more quickly as a handful of passersby had voiced their concern to the HSE and High Peak Borough safety officers.



We believe, as do the HSE, we have reached a good compromise in keeping the site visible whilst also covering our health and safety obligations to the public.