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.

Fancy a Date..?

Being such an ancient mill, you'd expect to find the odd datestone around the place, but when you start looking they're everywhere at Stretton.  Here's a few to look out for...

Some of the former millers are commemorated on plaques, some original, but most painted in more recent times by the renowned folk artist Tony Lewery. 

The old shippen adjacent to the mill building, which today houses the shop and small exhibition, will be two centuries old next year.  We only know this because of the date stone above the door.

The date by the overshot wheel does confuse some people, but the 1977 refers to the restoration and opening as a museum, rather than the installation of a wheel in that location which was done 207 years earlier.

Harder to spot and showing a decline in care in marking a date is the wooden plaque on the access bridge at the rear of the mill installed two decades ago.

This is more like it, from the eighteenth century when people took time over their graffiti.  The I is in fact a J and the M we expect to mean Miller, so it would be John Hughes, Miller.  This carving is on the mill's chimney outside and on another face of the chimney is the longhand version.

Downstairs in the mill, a board commemorates the restoration of the mill in the 1970s by Dr Cyril Boucher.

And the first grinding of wheat following the restoration is recorded as a simple pencil note on an oak beam.

This simple inscription on the sandstone of the chimney inside the mill records the initials PB several times, once alongside the date 1712.  We assume PB was as miller at Stretton but not found any further details about him yet.

And finally a couple of dates for your diary.  On Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September, there will be free tours of Stretton Watermill to celebrate Heritage Open Days, and on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th September 2012 the mill will once again be hosting a Victorian Harvest Weekend with corn grinding, apple pressing, butter making, tastes of harvest cakes along with games and period music.  Hope to see you there.

Lights, Camera, Action!

We've just been doing a bit of filming at Stretton Watermill, where our mill was playing the part of the old Dee Mill at Chester.  It's to be included in a major exhibition at the Grosvenor Museum next year exploring medieval Chester.  As the famous Dee Mills have long since gone, Stretton was the perfect substitute location as a nearby mill dating back to the mid-fourteenth century.

The mill section of the film features the miller's wife discussing trade in Chester and the Mystery Plays' links with millers and bakers whilst operating the watermill in her husband's absence.

Other scenes will include a Welsh pilgrim at St John's church, a Cheshire archer at the Water Tower and the Abbot of St Werburgh's in the abbey, (today Chester Cathedral).  The scenes are all linked by a narrator who was also included in the scenes at the mill.

Look out for this appearing in 2013, but in the meantime you can learn more about the Mapping Medieval Chester project on this website.

The Wartime Mill

We've just had a lovely weekend at the mill exploring some of the more recent history of the building. 

Since around 1870, the mill had been grinding animal feed rather than flour for people.  But when the Second World War broke out in 1939, Britain's grain supplies from Canada were blockaded in the Atlantic and the steam mills at Liverpool were being blitzed.  Hundreds of little rural mills, including Stretton, which had been clinging on to existence were to rise to the challenge during those dark days and play their part in feeding the nation.  Stretton Watermill was operating night and day, seven days a week to produce the flour needed.

Volunteers in the Women's Land Army worked in fields in the area, converting pasture land into arable for a more productive food resource.  One lady who had been a Land Girl stationed at nearby Tilston told us how on her first day she was sent by the farmer to take a cart load of grain to Stretton Mill.  She had never been close to a horse before and was a little nervous.  She needn't have worried, as the horse knew the way and took the grain, waited for the flour and returned to the farm without her having to touch the reins. 

So we welcomed visitors, collecting some stories and memories along the way.

We laid on a display of ration book recipes, including mock sausages, eggless cake and the famous Woolton Pie.

In between blasts from the portable air raid siren we listened to wartime songs on the gramophone. 

Children tried "German Jumps" - skipping with elastic and seeing how far their could get the stirrup pumps squirting. 

A folding paratroopers bicycle was spotted leaning against the watermill.

Chris told a tale of the rediscovery of a soldier's story etched on a water bottle which intrigued visitors and left some with tears in their eyes.

We often think of our mill as being full of ancient stories, which indeed it is, but this was a lovely reminder of some of the memories which are just within touching distance today. 

Plots and Plans

We've just enjoyed the mill pre-season meeting, when everyone gets together to plan the forthcoming events and work out what needs to be done for the re-opening to the public.  As usual, the creativity was fuelled by tea and biscuits.

Everything is about ready to go now.  Just a few finishing touches.  The mill re-opens to the public on Sunday 1st April 2012, and we already have several schools planning to visit soon after.  The first event of the season will be Wartime Mill on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April, from 1-5pm each day, look out for more details about this appearing here soon.  And our flagship living history event, the Tudor Festival will take place on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th July 2012. 

The millers took the opportunity to work inside the overshot wheel for basic cleaning and maintainance before the mill pond is refilled for the new season's milling.  We can't wait now...

More Bagpipes at the Mill

Yesterday was International Bagpipe Day, and as visitors or regular readers will know there is quite a link between millers and bagpipes and so we kick-started the events happening across Cheshire with an early morning blast at the mill playing a few tunes and processing around the site and a short way along Mill Lane, leaving a few passing drivers a little bewildered. 

Then it was off to deliver workshops in the Grosvenor Museum and Nantwich Museum and later rejoining some other millers, friends and more pipers at the Bagpipolorum! concert at St Peter's in Chester.  The whole day was great and we're very pleased that the local events started at Stretton.  Watch out for pipes returning to Stretton Watermill later in the spring.

Horse Harnesses and...Bagpipes

On arriving at the watermill today there were several picnickers enjoying the view over the millpond, even in its very drained pre-season appearance and lots of walkers wandering past making the most of the sunny Sunday.  Our neighbours from the former mill cottage were out for a walk with their pony.

It's still about a month before the mill opens to the general public again, (1pm on Sunday 1st April as you've asked), but this early visit was to collect some items of horse tack that are normally stored in our stable block as they are going to be displayed in a forthcoming exhibition at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester entitled "Taking The Reins: Horses in Cheshire" which will run from 19 May to 23 September 2012.

But it was only a brief visit as it was then on to meet with musicians at the Carden Arms in nearby Tilston to make plans for International Bagpipe Day on Saturday 10th March.  This has been organised by the Bagpipe Society to raise the profile of this traditional instrument, which was once so popular in Cheshire.  There are several events taking place around the local area, but we're proud to say that it all kicks off at Stretton Watermill at the very beginning of the day at 8.30am with some medieval music at the mill to recall Chaucer's Miller from the Canterbury Tales of who he wrote "a baggepipe wel coude he blow and sowne, and therewithal he broghte us out of towne" 

There are many more links between mills and bagpipes, but they are other stories for another day.