New Hampshire Farm Museum


The John York Cider Mill This hexagonal timber framed structure was constructed on the museum grounds in 2001 and dedicated to one of the founders of the museum, the late John York of Kensington.

The Cider Mill houses an apple exhibit and a knob mill which appears to date to the early 19th century. The knob mill was originally powered by a horse that was harnessed to the large sweep which drove the crusher. The mill crushed apples which were then placed in a large press to make cider. Cider was the most common table drink of early New England and most towns had at least one or two cider mills. Cider makers of times past made not the sweet cider that we know today but a hard cider with an alcohol content of 4% or slightly higher. The average nineteenth-century family needed about eight to ten barrels of cider to make it through the year. The museum hopes to demonstrate the operation of this knob mill in the coming years.