Bread - Watermill Blog
2nd, 4th, 9th & 11th June 2009

Fresh bread was the highlight of the last two weeks at Shelsley Water Mill. Working parties have continued to meet  but there are few major tasks to undertake now as the repairs are virtually complete.

On Tuesday the 9th MAC member and retired baker John Spencer arrived at the mill with a 20 kilo bag of wheat for us to grind for him.

Not many minutes later he was able to leave with a large container of wholemeal flour. He returned just after lunch with a tray of freshly baked bread rolls for us to try.

They were delicious.

Bob has continued his lime wash marathon and gave a last coat to the last section of ceiling on Tuesday. The final coat on the walls was completed on Thursday by Jonathan and Max. Apart from a little maintenance we have finished lime-washing for a couple of years at least.

Posts have been fixed alongside the steps to take a handrail. At various times this has been done by Martyn, Kim, Colin, Richard, Dick and John N. At the moment the posts look slightly odd as they follow the contour of the steps but they should look better when the handrail is in place. Headley has been busy making brackets for this purpose and we need to buy some suitable timber but the job should be complete soon.

With work on the mill itself beginning to dry up the team has been thinking about new projects, some large and some small.

With lime-washing now a thing of the past Bob has turned his attention to an old garden sprayer, complete with copper tank and brass fittings.

That is a one man project and the rest of the team have been eyeing up an old reaper-binder that has been left to rust in the back of one of the barns. This machine is a predecessor of the modern combine harvester and was used to cut the crop and tie it in bundles ready for collection. The grain would be separated in a later threshing process unlike the modern harvester that just collect the grain and leave the straw behind.

To our in-expert eyes the machine seems to be more or less complete and could keep quite a few of us busy for quite a while. Watch this space.

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