Customers often ask me where our wheat comes from and what happens to it along the way from growing in a field to arriving at the mill ready to be turned into organic flour. So, here’s the story:

We have had the privilege to work with Richard Morris and his team at Home Farm, Wimople for the last five years. The farm is part of the National Trust Wimpole estate. Richard runs a mixed organic farm including producing over 100 acres of wheat. For the last few years, he has grown the variety Mulika, a relatively recently cultivated variety which is related to Paragon. Mulika grows well under organic conditions and Richard has been able to grow wheat with a protein content of >12%, a key factor required for milling wheat. Wheat with less than 12% protein is unlikely to make good bread as the dough structure does not have enough gluten to hold the bubbles of carbon dioxide produced by the yeast fermentation process.

When the wheat is ripe, typically in early September, Richard and his team combine the wheat and store it in the Home Farm grain store. It’s important that the wheat rests for a period to allow the organic matter which is harvested with the grains to dry off and the bugs and insects that come in with the harvest to disappear out of the grain heap. The photo to the right shows the monitors we use to ensure that the harvest is free of weevils and beetles before it is moved off farm for the next stage of the process.

Once the grain is ready, it is moved to Hammonds End Farm, Harpenden where Howard and Stuart Roberts dry, clean, bag and store the wheat ready for transportation to the mill.

Arrival & Drying

When the wheat arrives, it is still wet and full of chaff, seeds, bits of straw.

Here you can see the wheat as it is loaded into the dryer, an oil fired drying machine which pushes warm air through the wheat reducing the moisture from around 17% at the point it arrives at Hammonds End to around 12-13%, the ideal moisture content at which to store wheat to keep it in fantastic condition!

 

The machine is huge – a great place to hide on a cold winters’ day with the warm air coming off the wheat stack!

Once the wheat has been processed, it is stored ready for cleaning, the process used to remove everything apart from the large quality grains that will be milled into your flour!

Cleaning & Bagging 

The final stage of the process before the wheat is stored ready for shipment involves cleaning the wheat to remove the chaff, straw, seeds, dust and muck that is harvested along with the grains of wheat. We also need to remove the small shriveled grains that are no good for milling and to polish the wheat grains to ensure they are in tip-top condition ready to mill. All this is done in a machine called a Gravity Table Separator. The wheat is passed through a series of table sieves which remove all the unwanted bits and pieces:

 Here you can see the wheat being shaken across one of the sieves, cleaning it as it goes. This process is critical as it ensures there is no chaff in the wheat sample which we mill.

The final stage is to bag up the wheat ready for palletised storage until we are ready to receive the wheat at Fosters Mill. Given the fact Fosters Mill is a small tower mill, we are only able to accept wheat in 25kg sacks. With 40 sacks to a metric tonne, we get through a lot of paper sacks! You’ll be pleased to know they are re-used and then recycled..

 We mill over 25 tonnes of wheat each year. We are really grateful for the help and support we get from Richard and his team at Home Farm and from Stuart, Howard and Chas at Hammonds End Farm. It’s a real team effort to get our wheat ready for milling, one which ensures everything is set for milling our delicious Prior’s Flour!

 

 

 

 

 

The Mulika wheat is used to produce:

Cambridge White

Cambridge Wholemeal

Wheaten Meal

Malted Maltiseed

Overview

Mead Homes Ltd, a local property developer have made public their intention to seek permission to build on the land adjacent to 38 Mill Hill (on the East side of the B1102), Swaffham Prior to create 10 houses. The land is currently open fields. The development, if built, will reduce the availability of wind supply to the mill reducing the number of days the mill can work and negatively impact the setting of this Grade 2* listed building and the Grade 2 listed Smock Tower Windmill on the other side of Mill Hill. The land in question is the only land free of development remaining on Mill Hill and currently provides the best milling conditions when the wind is from an easterly direction. The owners of Fosters Mill are objecting to the proposal, which has come about as part of the East Cambridgeshire District Council’s Local Plan consultation process and follows a similar proposal made by the land owner in the Autumn of 2015.

So what’s the problem with the proposed development?

The fundamental problem is that the proposed development, whether comprised of bungalows or houses will reduce the flow of wind to the mill which in turn reduces the days on which the mill can work. The proposed houses will create a barrier to wind flow causing the wind to rise up over the houses and over the windmill (in the process causing wind turbulence) which reduces the power of the wind available to the mill. Trees associated with such a development will further negatively impact wind availability.

The proposed development is situated in what is currently open fields to the east of Mill Hill, open fields that facilitate an unrestricted wind supply across Swaffham Heath towards the mill when the wind is from the East North East to the East South East.

The topology of the land which gently slopes up to the mill enables the wind to accelerate giving a first rate wind for flour milling. Of all the wind directions, the wind from this quadrant is by far the best for flour milling as it is free of turbulence which is created by buildings and trees.

Up until the 1930s, the windmills stood alone on an open hillside free of trees and buildings other than the miller’s houses. Sadly, since 1930 by which time the Smock Mill was not in use and Fosters Mill was in decline, when it was assumed the mill did not have a future, development was permitted on the hill. Firstly, the semi-detached houses on Mill Hill were built, then the Water Tower and then Fairview Grove. All these developments have reduced the flow of wind to the mill resulting in a loss of wind supply. Even the recent development on the Water Tower site has had a further negative impact, something we did not fully anticipate given the already significant impact the large mass of the Water Tower has on blocking the wind from the South West.

The proposed development is the first development proposed on green-field land on Mill Hill since the mill was returned to working order. We as present owners of the mill are custodians of the mill for future generations and we take that responsibility very seriously. We want to ensure it has a long term future. This development will reduce the availability of wind to the mill permanently, we will never get it back, something that will result in there being fewer days when we can mill flour using wind power. We cannot allow this to happen as this and any future similar development erodes the potential for the mill to earn its living and thus the building to be protected for the future.

Swaffham Prior’s unique status:

Not only will the development reduce the availability of wind, it will impact the setting of the two windmills, impeding views of the mills everyone enjoys as you walk, cycle or drive between Burwell and Swaffham Prior. Swaffham Prior is one of only a handful of villages in the whole of the UK which still has two windmills and the only village where one of those windmills is a commercially working mill. Planners have an obligation to ensure that new development does not negatively impact the setting of listed buildings. Here in Swaffham Prior there is a clear relationship between the two mills as they stand proud on the landscape; building around them in the way that is proposed will significantly reduce their visual impact and the enjoyment people gain from viewing them. In 2013, a Sandtex Survey voted the windmill Britain’s favourite building! Will you stand by and let this development happen?

How can you help?

If you believe, as we do, that this development will be detrimental to the operation of our village mill and negatively impact the setting of two listed buildings, please join us in objecting to the proposal for this land to be included as a development site in the Draft Local Plan. To object, you need to make your views known to the Parish Council and the East Cambridgeshire Planning Team. To email the Parish Council, please email Swaffham Prior Parish Council, to email East Cambridgeshire District Council Planning team, email Edward Dade, Strategic Planning Officer.

We are not against new housing in Swaffham Prior, but believe housing on this particular land is the wrong place to build given the impact it will have on a nationally important village asset.

We will post new information on the campaign here as soon as it is available. Register your interest to receive updates by sending a message to us.

 

 

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.