We are delighted to convey the fantastic news that the new cap (top of the mill) for our neighbouring mill, the Smock Tower Mill in Swaffham Prior is due to arrive today, the 24th March. If you live locally, you will see the new cap arrive on a low loader and then be craned into a storage location awaiting its final lift onto the repaired smock tower (the wooden structure which forms the tower of the mill).

The cap has been built at the International Boat Building College at Lowestoft.

James Forsyth has been busy over the winter under his scaffolding tower repairing and replacing the cladding of the mill tower and strengthening it for the arrival of the new working cap.

Today, you will also see the installation of the new iron curb on which the cap will sit which will enable the cap to turn to face the wind.

It is planned to have the works to the mill completed later this year, the new sails fitted and the fantail working so that the whole mill turns to face the wind, like its neigbhbour – Fosters Mill!

We will keep posting updates as news arrives.

Sadly due to personal circumstances, the mill and shop will be closed on Sunday 13th March. We will be open as usual on the 17th March onwards.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Well what a week we’ve had at Priors Flour HQ! We had planned to spend three days dressing (sharpening) the millstones on our electricity powered Hurst Frame and installing a new auger system to enable us to move grain and meal (flour) up the mill. I am pleased to say, that has all gone well. Then what we did not expect – preparation for Storm Eunice which is howling around me as I write this post.

So far, so good (at least from what I can see) on the storm front, although this has certainly been a punishing few hours for our 165 year old mill. Fingers crossed, there is no damage after the 75mph gusts which are we are experiencing.

Lifting millstones requires great care, attention and focus on safety. Below, you can see how we lift the millstones using chain blocks, a lifting gantry and lifting strops.

You can see the “runner stone” (closest to the camera) which is the top millstone – this has been lifted off the “bed stone” (see behind) and then turned over to expose the grinding surface. The grooves (called “Furrows”) are then deepened (these days we use an angle grinder with a special tool) and the grinding surface flattened before the “stitching” is applied by hand using a mill bill and thrift. This roughens up the grinding surface which then works more efficiently. The diagram below shows this:

The “Furrows” have an interesting naming history. The longest furrow is called the “Master Furrow”, the next longest is called the “Journeyman Furrow”, the next longest – the “Apprentice Furrow”. Why? The Miller or Master Stone Dresser would set the Master, then hand over to the Journeyman, then the Apprentice and so on! Spreading the labour – it was hard work.

What’s the impact now the stones are dressed? We can mill faster and still produce a quality meal whilst creating less heat – which further maintains the baking qualities of the flour! Thanks to our millwright, Malcolm Cooper for his help this week.

In addition to our flour milling, packing and dispatching, the last week has been filled with the joys(!) of migrating our online shop from Selz to WooCommerce (eCommerce providers). We have had to make this change due to the partnership between Selz and Zettle (our Electronic Point of Sales provider) coming to an end.

Our new shop pages look like the following:

We hope you will agree that this is a positive change in that the pages are clearer and easier to navigate. We still have some images to add for the different products and a few jobs to tidy up the interface and ensure everything fits our ‘house style’, however, the site is now working and ‘live’! You will still find the same categories:

For each product, instead of three buttons to choose the size of product, you will find one drop-down menu offering you all our product sizes.

The check-out process is clearer AND you can now more easily tick the box to ‘click & collect’ – to pick up your flour from the mill if you so choose.

Shipping is now calculated more accurately by weight of your shopping cart than was possible before. As before, shipping is correct for all UK mainland customers. Customers whose addresses are “Highlands and Islands” will be contacted following your order to re-confirm the shipping costs as these have to be calculated on a case by case basis and are typically more expensive than the standard rates we have agreed with our courier, UK Mail.

We are grateful for any feedback you have, so please share it with us using the contact page

Now that Christmas with its feast of treats and tastes is but a distant memory and your ‘dry January’ or ‘Veganuary’ is wearing thin, how about introducing a bit of healthy luxury into your breakfast, lunch or tea with a slice of Dark Malt bread? For the avoidance of doubt, the bread bears no resemblance to the Malt Loaf many of you learned about on the BBC programme Inside the Factory which we featured on. By the way, thanks for all the kind comments – we thought the mill showed itself well and were very pleased with the results!

Inspired by our Dutch friends at The Friendship Mill in Weesp, The Netherlands, we blend a number of flours, seeds and malt products to create a dark, malty flour filled with goodness and depth of taste, but equally producing a light aerated crumb (as you can see below).

The dark colour of the crumb is a lovely surprise and it makes toast to die for… you will be reaching for the smoked salmon or lathering it with Nutella – it works well with both sweet and savory toppings; we hope not on the same piece of toast!

You can find Dark Malt Flour here – down towards the bottom of the page.