What we did in our Winter Holidays

At the end of the autumn, the mill was awarded Quality Assured Visitor Attraction status by Visit England for the seventh year in a run.  It's lovely to know that in these modern days with gadgets everywhere that the personal touch of millers at an ancient rural watermill is still valued.  We had our last visitors to the watermill in October, some school groups who had come to take part in our wartime mill workshop.  Since then millers have given the place a good clean throughout and put the mill to bed for the winter.  Maintenance work and repairs have taken place on the some of the machinery and the penstock by the overshot wheel.  These are the types of jobs that you can only get done when the mill is closed.  The sluice gates on the by-wash have been open through the winter to send the water past the mill rather than risk damaging the machinery inside if we have heavy rain.  Even so, with the year-long rain that we had in 2012 the pond has remained fairly full this past few months and millers have had to make regular checks on the place. 

As readers of this blog will know there are strong links between apple trees and watermills and so on 12th January, we wassailed our apple trees at the mill in keeping with tradition. 

Friends and people who have been keen supporters of the mill gathered as darkness began to fall.  One of the millers had been busy all day baking cheese scones and mulling cider for everyone to enjoy along with some hot spiced apple juice. 

We listened to the folk tale of the Apple Tree Man, then picked up our drums and bells to process around the trees and make much noise to drive away the evil spirits.

We hung toast in the branches for the birds.  Whatever the apple harvest this year, there was a fine crop of toast.

We sang to the oldest apple tree and poured cider on its roots. 

Then it was done and all headed off to the nearby Carden Arms for a meal and lots of music.

We'll be looking forward to the watermill opening up to everyone again in a few months, beginning with weekend afternoons from April, then each afternoon except Monday from May.  And of course there will be many special events through the spring and summer to bring to life the many stories of our wonderful mill.  Of which, more soon...

The End of Another Season

At the end of an enjoyable, but tiring, weekend we've now closed to general visitors for the rest of the year, but we've got schools visiting us for the next couple of weeks before the end of season clean and putting the mill to bed. 

As has become tradition now we end our summer with a Victorian Harvest weekend, which suits the time of year and the mill's heritage perfectly.  Of course we've been grinding wheat into flour, but also pressing apples for juice and churning cream into butter.  And where else do you get free cake?!  Our visitors have also enjoyed tastes of apple cake, caraway cake, fruit cake and Victoria sponge all made following old recipes.

There were 19th century tunes from Chris, Joan and Tom.

And Chris once again demonstrated his penny farthing riding skills.

So it was a lovely way to round off a wonderful summer for the mill.  But whilst it gets a bit too cold to have everyone visiting over the winter, the work behind the scenes continues, so expect more from us on this blog over the next few months.

Apple Tree Wassail

Yesterday was Old New Year and millers gathered to wassail the apple trees at Stretton.  The trees give us a wonderful harvest of fruit in autumn and their wood can be used to fashion replacement teeth for the gears in the mill.  We've recently lost a few of our older trees and replaced them with young trees, all of which are old Cheshire varieties bringing intriguing stories with them.  We felt it was right to look after the old trees and the help the younger ones to flourish.  And so what better to do than keep the ancient tradition of wassailing the trees to help them bear well in the coming year.

As dusk fell, friends began to gather and share news, all feeling that we were taking part in something "old", a tradition to be kept alive.

We enjoyed mulled cider, keeping us warm against the crisp frost that had been around all day.

Tom told the story of the Apple Tree Man, a folk tale all about the wassail and how trees will look after us if we look after them.

Then we collected toast to hang in the branches for the birds and rattles and bells to drive off the witches before setting off to process through our trees.

We made our way back to the oldest apple tree at the mill, being led through the deepening dark by Tom playing the Apple Tree Wassail on his double pipes.

We sang to the old apple tree and poured cider on the roots.

And then it was off down the road to the friendly Carden Arms for food, catching up with friends and music.

We're looking forward to what the year brings for our apple trees and we'll be wassailing the trees again next year as our mill is all about keeping traditions alive.

Labour in Vain?

I came across this 16th century German woodcut, called 'Labour in Vain' it goes on to list various follies, not just to do with milling but does include threshing in a millpond and trying to hear a hurdy gurdy being played beside a waterwheel.

But listening for a gurdy is not that foolish, as we've seen at our annual Tudor Festivals at Stretton Watermill when we've been joined by Richard and Elizabeth York and heard not only the hurdy gurdy being played right alongside the rumbling of the breastshot wheel, but the sweet sound of their harps has also managed to make itself heard too. 

Still, it's a nice picture...  And the Tudor Festival will take place at the mill again next year, exact date will be announced soon.