Author: admin

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.

Tractor Day Great Success

On the first day of September, a beautiful dry day brought a host of tractors and a stream of visitors to see them.

While several tractors were completely restored, some were in their original state.  On display was a wide variety of makers, plus a gleaming steam engine and an assortment of stationary engines, all in steam.  A great favourite for the children was a working scale model steam engine with a trailer behind.

 

 

The winner of the Tractor Day certificate for the Best Tractor of the Day was Dave Watson with his Fordson Super Major (see below).  Also pictured are John Allsopp on the left presenting the certificate with a trophy being presented by Joe Hancock (in the middle).

The little boys enjoying the day are Thomas (left)  and Reuben on a Grey Fergie – tractor drivers of the future, perhaps.

All photographs are by Anthony Sharp.

 

The driver of the Pink Fordson Dextra is Mandy Phillips, whose tractor is sited next to the winning one.

There was enough wind to turn the sails of the 222-year-old windmill and a large number of people enjoyed guided tours and learned how her machinery produced flour. Event organiser Lynn Allen said ‘It’s been a great day and thank you to the exhibitors for coming and supporting the Mill – we are always glad to welcome them to Heage.’

There was a hot food van on site plus the ever popular Bric-Brac stall. All profits from the day will go to the upkeep and maintenance of the windmill.

Italian Cars Visit

In spite of other attractions last Sunday, like a certain Cricket World Cup Final, visitors thronged to see a collection of varied Italian cars on display at Heage Windmill.

Red 1970 Fiat 500, owned by Mr & Mrs Byrne from Derby, namerd Best Italian Car. The award was presented by Attila Corsoba (left) from Coffee N Cars

Some 45 cars on display included Fiats, Alfa Romeos, Abarths, Ferraris, and Lancias.  One car that drew the eye was a rare red 1972  ‘Justino’ made by Ferrari, which had raced at Le Mans.   

A black Abarth 595 Trofeo 1.4 turbo , owned by Rich & Cid from Nuneaton, was named Best Abarth. Attila Corsoba (left) of Coffee N Cars presented the award

Awards were made for the Best in Show along with the Best Abarth model. 

A great day was enjoyed by all and we hope to see the Italian cars again next year. 

Project Sails On!

Our windmills two replacement sails are now scheduled to be up and turning by the end of September.

Fitting one of eight arms on Sail B

The story so far… Having found that two sails at Heage windmill needed to be replaced due to wood rot, the Trust made enquires seeking replacements. There are few millwrights able to carry out such work and our enquires showed that the cost would be around £60,000 and delivery would be about 2 years.  This was not acceptable to the Trust as we wished to return to our normal 6 sail display as soon as possible.

The frame of Sail E being assembled

The volunteers at the mill felt they were capable of making the replacements themselves and that we were able to obtain suitable  pre-cut wooden members from Constructional Timber of Barnsley  for less than a third of the above quote.  The two offending sails, weighing approximately 1 tonne each, were taken off and the part time work of assembling the new timber into sails was undertaken ‘in house’.  We found that no less than 84 pieces were needed for the pair of sails.  Also, each piece had to have any knots treated.  They pieces were then coated with sealer, carefully painted and assembled in a predetermined sequence.

Volunteers working on the back stay of sail E

The team agreed to carry out the work in our marquee on site and aimed to ensure work was carried out on a minimum of two full mornings a week.  To date, some 400 working hours have been expended and much experience gained.

Shows Sail E ready to have shutters fitted with sail B in back

In parallel, all the iron fittings from the old sails were removed and re-painted and the 40+ shutters washed and cleaned prior to them being transferred to the new sails.  The first replacement sail (sail E)  currently has all the sail bars and the frame in place and will soon be ready to accept the fitting of the 21 shutters taken from the old sail.  Due to space limitations, work on the second sail (sail B) could not start at the same time but presently the stage of sail E is such that the sail bays could be turned upright, creating enough space for the second sail to be started. Presently the angled sail bars are being fitted and work will continue in parallel.

Due to weather and holiday limitations we are expecting to be able to complete the assembly of the pair by the end of September and aim to fit them back soon after.

The cost of the work is being covered by money taken from the mill maintenance fund of Heage Windmill Society but, of course, donations will be most welcome as the cost is estimated at some £20,000 for materials alone. We are continuing to mill flour with four sails and our normal range of flour is still on sale at the mill.