Tuxford and Sons Works at Boston. 467 



west is Revesby Abbey, the residence (before it was 

 rebuilt) of Sir Joseph Banks, who " stocked the park 

 with kangaroos." The old baronet sent a lot of them 

 to Brocklesby, where Lord Yarborough allotted them 

 a paddock, and every comfort and convenience. In 

 fact they were one of the lions of the place. 



Seventy years ago, before Mr. William Wedd Tux- 

 ford, senior, erected his eight-sail mill in Skirbeck, no 

 fine wheats were grown on the fens, and it was long 

 after that time before millers ceased to send for their 

 finer flour into the Stamford and Spalding districts. 

 " Velvet Red " was then sown, and in due time it had 

 a successful rival in " Red Porky," or hog-backed 

 wheat. This humble windmill, which " all the bugle 

 breezes " only kept at work on the average for every 

 third day, until steam power stepped in, was the germ 

 of the works of Tuxford and Sons. It stands still 

 keeping watch and ward over the busy life which it 

 called into being, and not far from it is the grey tower 

 of Skirbeck church, which has borne many a hundred 

 months of that " hard grey weather " which blows 

 from the Eastern sea. The first mechanical link be- 

 tween " the wind wheel " of the past and the finishing 

 machine and portable engine of the present was on 

 this wise : During a very wet summer Mr. Tuxford 

 had been at great trouble to separate the sprouted 

 wheat by hand, and hence his flour made lod. per 

 stone beyond any in the Boston market. As his busi- 

 ness increased, he had to consider how the same 

 process could be effected in machinery, and after much 

 thought he solved the problem of the double motion 

 reeing sieve. He then applied to a craftsman in the 

 town to make the castings for his machinery, but that 

 philosopher dreaded a rival at his very doors, and 

 refused. Even the offer to give him the Birmingham 

 price, plus the carriage, failed to persuade him, and 

 the first reeing machine was built without his aid. A 

 picture of it, well worn with time, still holds the pride 



