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Oldfield Farm is important as the large group of buildings that included
Oldfield Mill, the dairy, blacksmiths shop, cooperage, wheelwrights
shop, saw mills and other estate workshops. Unfortunately, the Barn and
part of the mill collapsed under the snow during the severe winter of
19623.
The site is now covered by a modern concrete and asbestos building. A
pile of rubble and a 35ft-pulley shaft with pulleys are all that remain
of the old buildings.
Fortunately, the remaining part of the building contains the water turbine
(of the same unknown make as the Booster) that drove the mill,
together with its gearing, a cast-iron sack hoist by Appleby Brothers,
an early winnower, and to show that Buscots pioneering days continued,
a Second World War grain-drying plant, in service when Buscot boasted
one of the few combine harvesters in the country, echoing Campbells
use of an early reaper and binder in 1870.
On the north end of the building was the blacksmiths shop with two
forges, and next to this on the east was the cooperage and wheelwrights
shop. A gatepost outside this shop has a device used to shape the rims
for wagon wheels. On the west are the carpenters and paint shops.
The only other buildings at the farm are the derelict saw mills, with
hardware in situ, and the railway station.
The blacksmiths shop has two relics of the Campbell era: a lead
plate from a wooden milk churn inscribed Robert Campbell
Buscot Dairy Faringdon, and on the door post several brand
marks RC.
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