Reflections on the Year

Whilst we like to think that life at Stretton Watermill continues an unchanging pattern, following the rhythm of the seasons through the centuries, on reflection each year is a little different and we head off in new directions, have new ideas and meet new friends.

We have had a particularly busy year in 2011 in terms of schools visiting the mill, often travelling considerable distances to discover the unique atmosphere of our mill.  We started in March with the first of many schools coming for our special Air Raids and Evacuees workshop on partnership with the Cheshire Military Museum, and continued right through until the end of October with some of our Harvest workshops for younger pupils.

In April, the BBC chose Stretton Watermill as the best example of a working historic mill in Britain and came to film part of their Great British Bake Off programme at Stretton.  Though the theme was the many dangers and hazards of milling, we will be more careful with our visitors! 

Our special living history events were wonderfully well attended with record numbers for both our Tudor Festival in July and Victorian Harvest weekend in September. 

We said goodbye to our curator Matt Wheeler, who has headed off to be in charge of the Irish Agricultural Museum in County Wexford and also to John Herson, a miller at Stretton of over two decades experience.  We also said hello to Chris Hocking, who has joined us as a miller after several years of volunteering his melodeon playing and penny farthing riding skills.

So, what plans for the future.  Well in 2012, you can look forward to a new historic event, the Wartime Mill in April, a Tudor Festival in July and the Victorian Harvest and Food Weekend will once again close the season at the end of September.  We'll be planting more apple trees and adding to our interpretation in the shippen exploring the history of the mill and the people who worked there through the centuries.

Do keep visiting us at the mill itself and on this blog, we love to keep learning from you all.  And remember, you are very welcome to join us to wassail the apple trees on Old New Year, Saturday 14th January 2012, at 4pm.  All best wishes against the New Year from us jolly millers.

Beer and Skittles

Millers and colleagues from Weaver Hall Museum recently met for the annual Mill vs Museum skittles match.  It's always a time of sharing stories and remembering the happenings of the past year.  We also said a sad but fond farewell to one of our millers, John, who has been grinding wheat at Stretton for 22 years though we're very pleased he will be keeping in touch with the goings on at the mill.

After a meal and sharing stories the skittles began, with any strategies and plans soon changing it to just pelting the balls down the alley as hard as could be done and hoping for the best.

For the past 4 years the millers were victorious, but the tide had turned and the museum took home the trophy.

Then the night was ended and all headed home.  But we shall be back together at Stretton Watermill at 4pm on Saturday 14th January - Old New Year - when we'll be wassailing our apple trees and looking forward to a new season of milling adventures.

Steep Stairs and a Tumbling Toy

One of the curiosities of many watermills, including Stretton, is that they have an upstairs and a downstairs but both are on the ground floor.  The rear of the mill building is, in effect, part of the dam that holds back the mill pond.  Outside the ground slowly slopes from the front to the back of the watermill and so each floor can be entered on the level.

But, if you want to get upstairs from the inside then there are some rather steep ladder like stairs.  Millers sometimes rush up and down them faster than they perhaps should. 

Ascending the stairs, you get glimpses of the building's history which the mill otherwise keeps secret - like the square oak mullions of an unglazed window,

or the holes where the hazel uprights of a wattle panel were once held tight.

Sometimes when schoolchildren who are visiting the mill have a few spare minutes at the end of the day there is a chance for them to play with some traditional toys.  The jolly sailor tumbling down his rigging has been a long standing favourite, but seemed a bit out of place at the mill.  But then - sudden realisation - it's not rigging, it's the steep stairs of the mill.  And he's not a sailor but a jolly miller, well, with a bit of repainting anyway.  And if he now happens to look like one of our favourite millers at Stretton, that's just coincidence!

And So To Bed

At the end of every season the mill needs to have an autumn clean to prepare it for bed during the winter months when it is closed to visitors.  The millers have been there this week cleaning out flour and dust to limit the damp,

painting metalwork to protect it from rust,

dismantling the tuns around the stones to discourage rodents nesting,

and draining the millpond to reduce the risk of winter floods, (showing some of the results of being located next to a golf course).

Apples at the Mill

There is a close bond between mills and apples, or rather apple wood.  At Stretton, the ancient machinery of the overshot wheels gears is hewn from sturdy oak.  A whole oak trunk forms the stout shaft, still strong after centuries, despite the shakes and cracks along its length.  The great spur wheel and crown wheel are likewise shaped from the powerful oak.  That's just what you need in the wood for such a task, strength and resilience.  But it's different with the teeth of the gear wheels.  Use oak there and the wood will get worn as the wheels mesh together and oak is so strong that if an obstruction falls into the gears the whole wheel will break.  What is needed is a wood that won't wear as the wheel turns and yet will shear off cleanly when meeting an obstacle and avoid further damage.  Apple wood is perfect, and so apple trees will often be found alongside watermills, for the miller to make replacements for the teeth of the gear wheels.

When Stretton Watermill was restored as a museum in the 1970s, apple trees were planted on the plot of the land where the Gregory family of millers had grown potatoes.  They have born fruit ever since, though these trees have gradually died off over the decades and only one of these remains.  They've been replaced with new trees, using old Cheshire varieties such as Wareham Russet and Millicent Barnes.  Apple trees in the garden of the former miller's cottage, just across Mill Lane, still bear a bountiful harvest and we enjoy the juice from these each autumn.

This coming January, we will be wassailing the apple trees of the mill.  Pouring cider around the roots, hanging toast in the branches for the birds and making loud noises against the witches.  So, at Old New Year, on Saturday 14th January 2012, join us at the mill at 4 o'clock as dusk falls for music, storytelling, mulled cider and wassailing as we enact an ancient tradition to protect the apple trees for the coming year.

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.

Ghosts at the Mill

As Halloween is almost upon us, I'm reminded that a couple of people have asked me recently whether Stretton Watermill is haunted.  Sometimes it seems a shame to disappoint people, but we really haven't heard any tales to suggest it is.

There are certainly plenty of folk tales of strange goings on in mills at night.  In the older tales it's the fairies grinding their corn at night and woe betide any mortal who disturbs them, as we approach more modern times the little folk become the ghosts that appear in the tales.  Perhaps it's all just a way to keep the curious away from the dangers of a watermill with the moving machinery and deep water.

Dave Maddocks, a much missed former miller at Stretton, told me how he was startled by a squirrel suddenly popping out by the pit wheel so that he tipped a sack of flour over himself.  When you think of that it's easy to imagine how someone passing a mill at twilight may have caught a glimpse of a white figure wandering around and imagined a spectre there. 

Not sure what to make of this shadowy figure in the mill...

So, as much as it might bring avid ghost hunters to the mill we can't really say that Stretton Watermill is haunted.  But if you want a really spooky ghost tour that will have you thinking and looking over your shoulder long afterwards, then you could do no better than to go on one of the ghost tours of Chester led by Tom Jones, one of Stretton's millers.