Visit the water mill

That is to say Calbourne Mill, on the upper reaches of Newtown River, Newtown being that well known rotten borough of yesteryear. Lots of good stuff here; as good as Ventor Botanic Gardens, with which it shared the showing of interesting things without getting too precious about it. Watermill, milling machinery and agricultural machinery augmented by ponds, peacocks & peahens, putting and croquet. Woodland walk offering fine view of the Solent. See http://www.calbournewatermill.co.uk/.

A mill which was working until after the second war, which last gave it something of an extension of life because of its rural location and relative immunity from bombing. Now working on a heritage basis.

Lots of interesting milling machinery, including lots of sieves and rollers. A cascade of sieves and steel (or possibly iron) rollers through which the grain passed on its way to becoming bran or semolina, depending. But I was assured that my wholemeal stoneground strong flour had not been anywhere near a steel roller although it was possible that it had been through the stones a couple of times. Bought some flour and a small loaf, which last both looked and smelt interesting - and turned out to be good. The flour waits its turn behind 1.5kg of Prior's Flour (from Cambridgeshire) and a further 1.5kg from Otterton Mill (from Devon), only getting through it at a rate of maybe 300g a batch and having a strict first in first out policy for flour: don't want any of the dead flies which seem to get into the lentils. Thus doing away with the advantage of freshness, freshness being a quality which we have been told, some years ago now, would make quite a difference to the product.

There were what seemed like a dangerously large number of belts around the place to drive what must have been dozens of machines. One wonders how often someone lost a hand or an arm in one. No clutches that I could see, apart from the wood and iron contraption which disconnected the primary power source, the mill wheel, from the rest of it.

Interestingly, there was a lot of flour from Dove stacked up in sacks. And some more from some other continental supplier. What part did this play in the business? Surely not just to stick in small water mill bags for resale. And we learned that even when the place was a proper working mill, it took grain supplies from Australia, Argentina and Canada, a practise which must have given an advantage to mills near railways or wharves.

Came away with the impression that a mill was a serious business, tying up a good bit of capital, so accounting for the prominence of old stories involving millers. Important figures in the countryside who sometimes used their wealth and power for improper ends, perhaps with their customers' wives. And then there were the feudal lords who could compel everyone around to use their mill with unpleasant penalties for defaulters.

Some interesting tools, including a carpenters’ or bricklayers’ level which was T-shaped and which included a plumb line up the shaft of the 'T'. A gadget shaped like the crank which used to be used to start a car but which was rather smaller and was used to tighten up the string binding of a hay bale (or perhaps sheaf). An early example of a chain saw.

On our last visit someone was rebuilding a cart – or perhaps a wain – but this year that part of  the operation looked a bit quiet until we discovered the shed where a small punt was being built to add to the small fleet used to navigate the mill leats. A small fleet which now included some white & blue fibreglass pedalos. There was also a very dilapidated threshing machine, complete with a slightly specialised traction engine to drive it - slightly specialised in the sense that there did not appear to be any facilities for riding on the thing.

The same family has been running the mill for a hundred years or more, but we did wonder whether some of them had to have proper jobs to keep body and soul together.

We noticed the cheap but tapered stainless steel knives in the (large and egg & chips orientated (this despite or the organic wholemeal around the place) café. Unlike the cheap and untapered knives in a rented cottage which we had at some point this year and which were pretty useless at cutting anything that actually needed cutting. Editor's note: a decent knife blade should be tapered from from hilt to tip and from back to front. The first puts a bit of spring into the blade and the last makes keeping the thing sharp on a stone possible. Provided, that is, that it has not been scalloped or serrated. But tapering costs money and is so omitted on the cheaper product.

As it happened, more or less by chance, we have marked the occasion by buying a BBC DVD of 'The Mill on the Floss' which we consumed last night. Stirring stuff and I have now made a start on the Kindle version of the real thing. Even more stirring, although I wonder how much of our youth, brought up on Twitter, will be able to manage the rather long sentences.