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| The mill as it is today |
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| The mill in the 1930's |
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| I always thought these wooden clappers were just some annoying toy:) but at the museum we learned that they were used to by children to scare away birds from the fields. Children as young as 4 were sent into the field with these things. |
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| Princess loves to try on the dress up cloths -- Victorian milk maid |
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| Trying our hand at making butter squares using the wooden paddles. It is harder than it looks |
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| Tools of the Dairy trade |
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| Painting of the Victorian family that lived at the mill |
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| the large water mill is still operational and makes flour every day. I was surprised to learn they import their grain as British wheat is not as good. today they were using Canadian wheat |
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| Learning about the machinery |
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| This was new information for me. The large stone wheels have a special design cut into the stones to help grind the wheat. The base stone -- the bottom non moving stone have the gray patterned lines cut into the stone. The Running stone which is the top moving stone of the mill has the black lines cut into it. Normally when you see the stones set you only see the smooth surface of the stones. |
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| Sample of the cut stone |
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| Kids trying out the old method of making flour with a rounded stone. It must have taken hours to make enough flour to make bread |
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| Slightly later period of stones used to grind the wheat. We have seen and done this many times while here |
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| The water mill which turns the mill upstairs and uses big stone to crush the wheat |
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| Outside the mill a beautiful canal which supplies the water to the mill |
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| Sacks of flour. this mill supplies flour to local bakeries and restaurants. I bought a small bag and plan to give it a try with my bread machine. |
We had another great day out and about in our area. We never know what we will find our local area but we always know it will be interesting, fun and educational:)
