After a gap of over 97 years, earlier this month, Swaffham Prior’s two windmills turned their sails once again together!

We bring you two videos to celebrate this momentous occasion! The video below shows the two mills turning together for the first time earlier this month. Below that, we share a short film celebrating the restoration of the mill.

2023!

No, your eyes are not deceiving you – the mills turn in different directions, a quirk of history! Fosters Mill is on the right of the picture (home of the Priors Flour), the Smock Tower Mill is on the left of the picture. Built around 1870, it worked until 1927 when it was struck by lightening in a severe storm. That night brought it’s life to an end until July 2023 when, after two stages of restoration, it was able to turn once again!

1927

The Smock Mill directly in front of the camera, Fosters Mill, behind.

We are pleased to advise that our heritage grain blend “Millers Choice” is at last, back in stock! The grain is once again grown by Paul Bowler (Durie & Partners) at Camp Green Farm near Stowmarket, Suffolk (see Paul’s photo below in a field of Millers Choice grain!). The grain, from Paul’s 2022 harvest has been blended with a small amount of another heritage variety, Oland to give it improved baking properties, increasing the protein level of the flour – thus potential oven spring and better crumb structure.

Below, I share the history of this wheat population and what you can, once again, look forward to!

Millers Choice is known as a wheat “population” – it is a collection of different varieties of wheat which have similar characteristics, varieties that date back to the 18th and 19th Centuries. Created, or curated by Andy Forbes of the Brockwell Bake Association, Andy took a selection of wheat berries (seeds) from another population put together from seed banks by John Letts (organic farmer and grain specialist) and created a population with a strong dominance of Lammas type varieties. Lammas varieties dominated in the British Isles up until the mid 19th Century and were renowned for their bread baking qualities.

To this population he added 20% of Spanish long straw variety grains to improve the populations ability to withstand drought.

The result is a wheat population which produces a soft, creamy flour with huge flecks of golden bran with bags of flavour.

Here we see the Millers Choice grain growing – look carefully (right click on the image and you can open it in a new tab) and you will see that the ears of wheat in the photo are different – some have hairs, some are almost ripe, some are still green. You are looking at the different varieties of wheat in the population, all with their subtly different characteristics. These characteristics make the crop much more resilient to different climatic conditions – rather than the whole crop struggling, some varieties struggle whilst others thrive!

I am still experimenting with the flours to fully explore the baking characteristics, but I share below some images from the Brockwell Bake of Millers Choice White flour baked off into delicious boules!

Our Millers Choice wheat is grown at Camp Green Farm, Debenham, Suffolk. You can now purchase wholemeal and white Millers Choice flours from our mill shop (online or in person). We are grateful to Andy Forbes and to Durie Partners for their help in preparing this article.

All our other flours and grains are also, of course, available!

We are pleased to announce that we have just taken delivery of our latest parcel of milling wheat, from the 2022 harvest. As a result, for the home millers, wheat grain is now once again available to purchase along with our range of rye and spelt grains.

Our 2022 harvest wheat, Paragon variety, comes from the Hampshire – Wiltshire border area and we will be writing a blog post shortly to tell you more about the farm where it was grown.

The grain will be going into production to produce our white and wholemeal flours over the next couple of weeks as we mill the last of our 2021 harvest mulika wheat. We will, I am afraid, have to adjust our prices as the 2022 harvest wheat was over 65% more expensive per tonne than our 2021 wheat! Whilst you will not see that total percentage reflected in what you pay, you will, I hope, appreciate why an increase has been necessary. The good news is that wheat prices are now showing signs of falling, so we look forward to reducing prices (assuming the price of wheat continues to fall) at the end of 2023 when we have milled up this latest batch of grain.

We’ve shared some pictures before of the 2022 harvest wheat “in action”, but here is a reminder of what you expect from the 13.5% protein flour!

2023 is a year of celebration for our windmills here in Swaffham Prior and National Mills Weekend which takes place on the 13th & 14th May marks the start of those celebrations!

Both mills will be open on Sunday 14th May from 2pm to 5pm. Tour the new sails ready to be lifted into place at the Smock Mill, explore Fosters Mill with a guided tour and, wind permitting, see flour being produced. Refreshments available at Fosters Mill!

Swaffham Prior to become the only place in the UK where you can see two windmills working together in close proximity

Swaffham Prior has had two mills since the mid 19th Century, but not since 1927 have both mills been able to work together. In June 2023, we will once again be able to witness this magnificent site and become the only place in the UK where two mills are able to work (sails turning and pointing into wind) in such close proximity!

At the end of May, James Forsyth and his team will be installing the windmills sails at the Smock Tower Mill. Since 1927 when the Smock Tower was severely damaged in a storm, no sails have turned on the Smock Mill – by June 2023, they will be turning once again along with Fosters Mill. We have been enjoying the sight of both mills facing into the wind for some months since the cap was installed and commissioned on the Smock Tower, now James is ready for the next stage in the re-birth of the Smock Mill!

25 Years of the Priors Flour

Fosters Mill reaches an important milestone in 2023, celebrating 25 years of the Priors Flour, the brand which carries the Swaffham Prior name across the whole of the UK at least in terms of flour! As a reader of our updates, you will be aware that the business continues to enjoy great success working with shops, bakeries, restaurants, direct customers and a click & collect / mail order business which sees flour go across the UK and into Europe.

We hope we will welcome you to the mill in our anniversary year and look forward to seeing you soon! We also want to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and business and look forward to continuing to supply you with great flour! Happy Baking!!

Happy Easter from all at the Priors Flour! We email today to share a copy of the recent film created by Justin Ingham for Alan Titchmarsh’s programme “Love your Weekend”. We are very grateful to Love Your Weekend and Penny Lane Entertainment for allowing us to share the film on our website.

Please note that the mill is closed on Sunday 9th April 2023 to allow the team to enjoy their Easter Break!