Trial flour grinding
Exciting news! We’ve been running some wheat-grinding trials at Brixton Windmill, using the electric-powered stones on the first floor.
Our millwright Paul Selwood first ran the stones during his regular maintenance visit on Friday 8 August. After a slight hitch to do with the way the motor was set he got the stones going, and a group of Friends were able to witness the first grinding of flour since the stones were restored in 2011. All went well, and a good half a bucket of flour was produced.
The noise and vibration was not excessive, and Paul said he thought the quality of the flour was very good. He advises us to “keep running the stones regularly”.
A second trial took place on Monday 11 August, when the structural engineer was due to visit. Unfortunately, he was not present when the stones were grinding, but we were able to experiment with measures to prevent the flour leaking out of the mill.
We are hoping to publish some videos of the mill running soon – watch this space!
The stones will need to be run again with the structural engineer present. In the meantime, we are arranging some training sessions in milling for volunteers with Jonathan Cook, Chair of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Mills Section. The training will probably take place in October.
We are looking for around 12 people to be trained in milling. If you are interested, email info@brixtonwindmill.org.uk. You will need to be able to commit time to mill flour regularly for a few hours every month.
