Author: admin

Santa Day

Santa arriving – sleigh courtesy of Belper Rotary

Early Sunday morning and the ferocious weather of Saturday has slightly abated. The two marquees are still standing.

The wind is still stormy and the windmill sails are rattling at us. The helpers are arriving and final preparations are made.

 

 

Santa is due at 11.00 but families are already arriving in spite of the windy and chilly weather. People are so loyal to the mill.

Santa is spotted at the Chesterfield Road gate. There’s excitement in the air as he approaches and we can already hear his bell and the resounding ‘Ho, Ho, Ho’.

Frances Meredith and Vera Bridge in the shop where Santa tickets and other purchases were handled.,

Down from his sleigh – organised by Belper Rotary – he is greeted by his chief helper at the mill, Lynn, who escorts him to his decorated grotto inside the ancient mill.

A final wave at the door and only those with the numbered tickets will now be able to see him. Another helper, Monica, appears at the door, and it is she who will organise entry into the grotto.

Wine or Water with Hannah & Sarah Castledine

Festive music can be heard from inside the mill, and outside we are likewise treated to festive music.

The mill, of course, is a hive of activity with Santa talking to and giving presents to the excited children.  However, there is more activity in the marquees, in the Undercroft next to the Shop, and in the Shop itself, run on this very busy day by Frances and Vera.

Name the Bear (Jenny Land) and Hamper Raffle (Jan Pilkington)

In the marquee Mary and Brian have been busy warming up the Mulled Wine and unwrapping the mince pies, all so welcome on such a cold morning.

But where would a Santa Event be without a big raffle, and a Hamper Raffle? The mill volunteers, David and Jenny with Jan, are offering these and a Name The Bear competition, al0ong with two Tombolas. For the little ones there is an ‘Everything 20p Box’, run by Andrew, who is also keeping an eye on decorative and festively lit bottles, which would brighten up any room.

Clutching a ‘Golden Bottle’ prize is Esmae, seen in the photo with her grandmother Julie and younger sister, Amber. They also won the pictured hamper

The Wine Or Water game, organised by Hannah and Sarah, had two great surprises. As well as the bottles with wine or water, there was a bottle of whisky and a Golden Bottle, which was a hamper they had prepared. The winner was Esmai Goodall, seen in the photo with her mum and younger sister. Braving the cold outside was Gill, mum to Hannah and Sarah, meeting and greeting with a basket of sweets for the children.

And then in the Undercroft Pete and Patricia were offering activities for the children: colouring and drawing and the Marble Game, similar to Bagatelle – always a favourite. To add to the fun and atmosphere there was our favourite Burger Van and it was definitely an ‘Eat a Burger Day’.

Mary & Brian Naylor with mince pies and mulled wine

There was plenty for everyone while waiting to see Santa. Above all, there was a great festive atmosphere, and our thanks go to the families that trusted in us and came in spite of the challenging weather.

Santa saw over 150 children and, some time after 3 o’ clock,  he said goodbye to his last young visitor.

Tilly-Meg Churchman of Belper, aged 6, with Santa

But Santa had made a special promise to Evie, which he now kept. Evie had been coming to see Santa every year, but because she was poorly with COVID, she couldn’t come this year, and so Santa paid a special quick visit to Evie in Heage as he left Heage Windmill. They waved to each other through the window.

Get well soon Evie from Santa and all your friends at the windmill.

Tim C and Anthony were Duty Millers and Tim L, definitely, was ‘Man Of The Match’ – Santa!

Cobweb Day – October 31st

The forecast had been dire and the day began with stormy rain, totally unfit to be out in. However, the rain did pass and the sun appeared in time for the 12 o’clock web spinning start. It was cold but mainly dry and in the background there was the magnificent sight of the mill with her sails turning. 

 

 

It was cold but mainly dry and in the background there was the magnificent sight of the mill with her sails turning. 

 

Our mother spider Lynn Allen started spinning the web, and this year she was helped by our friend from the American Cars, Attila Csorba. It is so important for the success of the spinning that nobody lets their section of the web slip through their fingers, but everybody concentrated and the cobweb was a great triumph.

Now the cobweb had to be moved to its final resting place and this required a major effort of synchronisation as the whole web was carried in the air to a neighbouring grass area, where it was fastened to the ground.

 

Meanwhile the shop was busy dealing with flour and other sales, serving drinks and organising tours, the guides were taking tours till after 4 o’clock, and the miller was dealing with a very gusty wind, and eventually had to stop the sails.

 

What a wonderful day and a fitting end to the short 2021 season. The mill and site are now closed until next Spring, with the exception of Santa Day on December 5th.

American Car Day – Another Great Success

The Stars and Stripes flag was raised at 8.30 on the morning of October 10th as final preparations were made for this momentous event at Heage Windmill.

Attila Csorba, a great friend of the mill and the instigator of this event, was a significant part of an excellently organised day which, once again, proved a great success.

The American Car Day is always a colourful, atmospheric and fun event. The owners are full of good humour and totally relaxed, and of course immensely proud of their ‘beauties’.  Also, every time an engine starts up, there is that wonderful V8 throaty sound!

 

To add to the success of the day, the Visitor Centre organised tours in and around the windmill throughout the day with over 60 people taken round the mill.

Feedback in the Visitors Book was very encouraging. Sales of ice cream, flour, tea and coffee, souvenirs kept the shop staff busy.

The two ‘Bs’, the Burger Van and Bric a Brac, were, as ever, very popular, but the main joy was to be able to walk among the wonderful vehicles, to talk with the owners and enjoy the sight of the windmill with its sails turning, knowing that Heage Windmill Flour was milled here. And we must not forget the glorious weather!

A final vote of thanks… once again, Bowmer and Kirkland kindly allowed us to us their Car Park. This was a tremendous help, so many thanks to this local firm – and our neighbours, who are always always supportive.

 

Tractor Day – Sunday, September 26th

For the first time since lockdown began, Heage Windmill will be hosting a Tractor Day on Sunday, September 26th from 11.00 am to 3.30 pm.

Tractor Day is always a welcome event at Heage Windmill as these vintage machines complement the 225-year-old two-star listed windmill: tractors were responsible for changing farming practices forever, helping to make horses redundant.

We are expecting about 20 to 30 tractors at the mill.  These will include a 60-year-old Fordson Major and some David Browns, together with Field Marshalls and Massey Fergusons, most of which  have been restored to pristine working condition.

We are also expecting a steam engine and barn engine to be on site plus an assortment of small portable steam engines. The mill will award a certificate to Tractor of the Day. John Allsop, who organises the Tractor group said: ‘All our group enjoy coming to Heage windmill because we love both tractors and this wonderful old windmill’.

New Trustees

Heage Windmill has appointed two new Trustees.

LUCY JAMES, who lives in Heage, was recently been appointed Treasurer of both the Trust and of the supporting body, Friends of Heage Windmill (FoHW).  She automatically becomes a Trustee of the windmill.

JACK EVANS,  who lives in South Normanton (but is originally from Heage) and was recently elected as Vice Chair of the Friends, has been nominated as one of the representatives of Friends on the Trust.  His nomination has been accepted by the Trust..

We believe  both will play a significant part in the future of the windmill and wish them well.

In addition, Roger Hatcher was recently  elected as Chair of FoHW. He was already a Trustee by virtue of his previous role as Vice-Chair of FoHW and will continue to be one.

Special Opening to Sell Flour

What a day it was on Saturday, March 21st.  So many bakers got in touch with us to ask if there was flour available.  It really made us aware that baking is such a popular leisure activity and, that for many, Heage Windmill Flour is the flour to use.

Jenny Land collects the sacks of freshly milled flour from Millers Tim Castledine (on left) and Alan Eccleston.
Jenny bags the flour in the Undercroft

With Saturday March 21st having a good wind forecast, and with it already  scheduled as a milling day – plus the fact that we already had about 60 bags of flour on the shelves – we decided to open the mill specially for flour sales.

Amazingly the shelves were very soon all but empty  as baking enthusiasts flocked to the mill.  It was then that the decision was made to bag and sell the flour which was currently being milled – normally the bagging of the flour would be on a separate occasion.

Over 100 bags were sold in total. The shop closed at 2.00pm but the milling went on until 4.00pm.

While the shop was busy selling flour David Land set up a small bric a brac on a mill wall.  This added to the great fun feeling of the morning.

Some visitors were disappointed when the flour ran out but in the lovely sunshine there was a great spirit of joie de vivre, much needed in these anxious times.

Lynn Allen in the Mill shop with the remaining bags of flour

A Milestone for our Milling

We are delighted to announce that our windmill has just taken delivery of its 50th ton of grain.

We have been milling grain in the traditional manner – between rotating stones, driven by the  wind – at Heage windmill since our first trial product emerged from the chute on the 4th of July 2003.

Then followed a series of trials and testing until we were ready to offer our products for sale at the windmill.

We ordered our first batch of grain to be used commercially in March 2004 and the demand for our product has grown steadily since then.

Our first sack of flour was milled by the late Mac Mumford and was bagged and sold on 28th of March 2004.

We only sell our flour at the mill or Bakewell Farmers’ Market, and all our milling is carried out by our specially trained volunteer millers.

We received the 50th ton of grain in 25 kilo sacks.  All  bags of our flour from this batch will carry a specially designed label marking that it comes from our 50th ton.

The 49 tons  of flour already produced  have resulted in a net  income over 15 years of about £50,000, at an average of about £3,500 a year.

All profits from the sale of flour have been used to help maintain the mill over the years.

We hope that Heage Windmill will continue to produce its much loved flour for many years to come.

 

Six Sails On

Photo by Andrew Evans of f22 Aerial Images

Heage Windmill is looking more like herself again as the two new sails were hoisted into position on the morning of the 6th November.

The weather was calm which was perfect for the task.

These two sails were assembled by the maintenance team under the skilful leadership of David Land, the Maintenance Manager.

 

The project has taken approximately 750 hours of volunteer labour.

Nicholls Engineering of Heage were on site helping the team both when the old sails were removed and when the two new ones were attached.

The firm have great experience in engineering projects and have worked on Heage Windmill before, so sincere thanks are extended to them.

Constructional Timber of Barnsley supplied and delivered the laminated pieces of wood (84 in total) for the sails.

These arrived at Heage Windmill back in the spring and the team have spent the summer assembling the new sails.

This included coating all the pieces with sealer followed by undercoating and glossing – 2 coats of each. The shutters were removed from the old sails, washed, repainted and transferred to the new ones.

Alan Eccleston, Chair of the Trust, said that the Trustees wished to thank the dedicated team of volunteers who have worked tirelessly to make this possible.