Prior's Flour

The home of stone-ground artisan flour ground by wind power

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Vincent Pargeter Millwright, RIP

The traditional milling world is today mourning the passing of one of our most experienced millwrights, Vincent Pargeter. Vincent, who died yesterday evening had worked on windmills for the whole of his working career covering Kent, Sussex and the whole of the East of England. His knowledge was second to none, built from years studying and recording the construction of mills and then repairing them, all with immense care and attention.

Vincent was a key member of the Committee of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Mills Section for many years. He played a vital role in ensuring the Philosophy of Repair of the Mills Section was translated into reality, ensuring mills were repaired retaining as much of their original fabric as possible. Tragically, much of his knowledge has gone with him and we mourn his passing today.

Our thoughts are with his family and close friends.

 

Vincent

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Tarring the Mill Tower

 

Whilst many of our bakers are taking a well earned break from their daily toil in a steaming bake-house, us millers are hard at it carrying out maintenance to the mill and machinery. Windmills are rather like the Forth Bridge, a never ending list of maintenance tasks covering items both inside and outside the mill; no sooner have you completed the list and you have to start all over again! We carry out external maintenance during the summer whilst the weather, at least theoretically, is better. There is a window from the middle of May to the end of September when it is best to complete sail and fantail painting as well as tarring the mill tower. This year, all those tasks have been tackled. The mill fantail and fan frame has had a new coat of paint, the metal gallery rail around the top of the mill has been stripped down and re-painted. Lastly, the mill tower has received a thick, shiny coat of coal-tar. Coal tar is the traditional material used to keep the tower weather-proof. This is a filthy job as the tar is very sticky, hazardous to apply and lethal to white paintwork. As a result, we take great precautions to protect the windows and doors of the mill, ensure all vehicles are removed down-wind of the mill and don protective breathing apparatus and suits to apply the tar. We use a cherry-picker to gain access to all areas of the mill tower.

The result is worth the hard work – a bright, shiny ‘bling’ mill tower which glints in the sunshine and keeps the rain out to boot! Take a look for yourselves!

IMG_1717 IMG_1719

Jonathan Cook
September 2015

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Now milling 2014 harvest Mulika wheat from National Trust Wimpole Home Farm

We’re delighted to announce that we have now started milling the 2014 harvest from National Trust Wimpole Home Farm.

As last year, the variety is Mulika, a modern variety of wheat which has been bred from the more well-known variety, Paragon. This organic what has oodles of flavour and a protein content of ~12.5%. For those bakers who worked with our white and wholemeal flours milled from the 2013 Mulika crop, you will notice that hydration levels are higher with the 2014 crop. This means, you will need to add a little more water to your dough – I’m baking with a hydration of 68% – that is 68 grams of water to every 100 grams of flour. The wholemeal flour which we continue to sell as both The Prior’s Wholemeal Flour or Cambridge Wholemeal dresses to a lovely creamy white – sold as The Prior’s White Flour or Cambridge White. We’re delighted to continue to work with the National Trust team, providing flour with seriously low food miles!

Our baking colleagues are already getting superb results with the flour – see the picture below of bread made by Carl Shavitz of the Artisan Bread School.

Bread made by Carl Shavitz of the Artisan Bread School

Main Photo: Abigail Erian, Trainee Farm Manager, National Trust Wimpole Home Farm courtesy of Cambridge Evening News

 

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