Milling & Engineering

Our team of engineers are responsible for the upkeep of the site, our lovely steam engine Maud, milling flour and barley, and for the workshop located in the Nissan Hut.  They meet regularly on a Tuesday and Saturday to carry out maintenance and engineering work, and they are responsible for milling our different varieties of grain to produce our range of flours.

Blending Black Wheat 
Our millers load the black wheat into the blender 70% black 30% white.  Then empty the blender to see the results.
​Our engineers and millers are always working, restoring and creating.
 Stone Ground Barley for the Brewery
“Over the last 18 months, the Mill Engineers have restored a 100 plus year old Blackstone mill, and it has successfully been used to grind Oatmeal and our Black Wheat blend, both of which are on sale in our shop.  In collaboration with the Brewery, we started to experiment with milling malted barley last Sunday at the Harvest Home.  The results were encouraging and today the Maltster  (Sarah) from the Brewery’s barley supplier came to the mill to test the quality of the grind.  After a few minor adjustments to the gap between the mill stones, she was happy with the proportions of cracked grains, grits and flour, and we could then proceed to mill 45 kg of barley  which will be used in brewing.  So it will not be long before the brewery can again advertise stone ground barley in their beers.” Jim, Engineer & Miller
The Engineers during the retrieval and repair of a grain elevator base located under the ground floor of the mill.

Precision Machinery
Repairing of the water pump on Maud. Due to wear & tear of the past 100 years or so.

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The pump plunger which Geoff machined out and made a new bronze liner (bush) as the original hole in the plunger had an ovality of nearly 1.5mm. He also made a new clevis pin which you see fitted.
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​The fitting of the clevis pin to the pump arm which is the driving force from the eccentric above the pump. This component also had an ovality of about 0.5mm so this too had to be hand fitted to the clevis pin.