Tim was a ‘Butterley Ironworks man’ as was his father and when he joined us at Heage Windmill, he brought with him a wealth of experience in foundry work and castings and like many historic mills Heage Windmill functions only because of old and new castings. Tim also had an excellent engineering background and in no time he was a valued member of the maintenance team.
Tim had always shown a great interest in local history and soon was delving into the connections between Heage Windmill and The Butterley Company, and he became one of our valued guides. His friendly, enthusiastic, outgoing personality was perfect for the job.
However, there was another string to his bow that he really wanted, namely milling. Tim trained to be a duty miller, ie the miller who runs the mill at weekends, but doesn’t mill flour, and then went straight on to the next level, flour miller, adding the skills of producing stone ground flour.
This became Tim’s greatest love, the joy of producing wonderful flour from simple grain. He became Flour Manager and successfully organised the purchasing of the grain and the milling of it, he himself being one of the key millers. One of Tim’s great legacies, perhaps the greatest, was his analysis of the procedures involved in the production of flour. He encouraged a system, which recorded many aspects of milling such as temperature and grain flow rate, and we follow these procedures now.
Another of Tim’s legacies was the provision of ropes, mainly those for fastening the hurdle fencing though more important ones such as the brake rope were of his doing. He had this skill of splicing ropes, a skill going back to his sailing days.
A high point in Tim’s time at the mill was when he was one of the two millers who appeared on The Hairy Bikers Show. Tim was a natural and did the mill proud.
Important as all this is, Tim brought to our mill much more. He brought friendship and camaraderie, a helpfulness with an associated enthusiasm. He respected his colleagues as we respect him. He was a problem solver, always positive. When Tim was on the day’s team, you were OK. Also his lovely family, Gill, Hannah and Sarah, were there on Santa Days running a stall and helping.
It is with great sadness that we at the mill bid our dear friend Tim a final ‘Sithee’.
Anthony Sharp
