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Want to see who’s involved with running the windmill? And read all about them?

You can now view specially taken portraits of the Trustees and Friends and find out what they do – and why they do it!

Over the last few months, Trustee and professional photographer Ashley Franklin has been taking portraits at the mill of all the people who effectively keep the sails turning.

These include: the Trustees, the ‘guardians’ of the windmill who ensure that it is properly financed and operated; and the Friends, the volunteers who manage and maintain the mill – these include the millers, guides, event organisers and visitor centre staff.

More profiles will be added right up to the season opening on April 5.

Click here to Meet the Trustees

Click here to Meet the Friends

Heage Windmill is proud to produce and sell stone ground flour, in various grades, using essentially traditional methods.

In order to maintain the quality of the product, it is necessary to clean and sharpen the grooves which are cut into the millstone. In days of old, itinerant stone dressers toured wind and water mills and performed this essential task for the miller.

Today there are no such skilled men to hand and so it has been necessary for the team of maintenance volunteers at Heage Windmill to learn how  to do this themselves.

Some of the longstanding mill workers are now getting ‘ a bit long in the tooth’ and this year the opportunity was taken to pass their experience on to newcomers.

In order to carry out this operation it is necessary to lift and turn the runner ( or top stone) exposing the faces used in grinding the flour to enable them to be serviced.

The runner stone at Heage weighs 722 kilos (nearly 1600 lbs)  and this has to  be carefully raised and then swung out, to be turned over and laid on its back, with due attention being paid to relevant Health & Safety issues.

Brian Naylor, the Mill Maintenance manager, gathered a team of workers to the site last week and, guided by experienced miller John Boucher, performed the task, which went off without a hitch.

The runner  stone was lifted by a temporary crane which was erected over the stones and the actual lift carried out in the traditional manner, using  scissor-like grips with pegs which fit  into pre-existing holes in the stone. The lift was powered by a modern pull lift, although in the old days wedges and  pulleys would have been used!

Once turned over, both stones could be closely examined to establish if there were any high spots, (there weren’t!) and all surfaces cleaned. The grooves and cutting faces were then sharpened using hand operated, traditional mill bills which chip away and sharpen  any worn areas.

For several hours the mill rang to the sound of hammering whilst the various team members tried their hand at the dressing process, until the two stones met the high standard demanded by John.

Once completed, the runner stone had to be raised and turned again and then carefully lowered back onto to its bearings and the rest of the milling ‘furniture’ – or equipment – was re-installed.  All in all, a long day’s work, but one which proved very satisfying to those involved and which will hopefully ensure Heage Windmill will continue to produce high quality flour.

The Trust expressed its sincere thanks to all who worked so  hard  in performing this very necessary task.

The weather was not the best, but a great time was had by good crowds at both the sheep shearing and visit of the vintage tractors on the weekend of May 12/13 which also coincided with National Mills weekend.

Debbie Bostock , who  lives in Heage adjacent to the windmill, brought her herd of Coloured Ryeland sheep to the mill to be sheared by professional shearer Phillip Fisher, from South  Yorkshire. One huge ram, (who liked to sit on his haunches and view the crowd) looked very much more normal sized when shorn and his huge fleece was displayed for all to see. Phillip then sheared all rest of the flock  whilst their lambs watched apprehensively! Some of the wool was then spun by hand into thread on a number of  treadle spinning wheels by members of Phillip’s family, a process which the watching crowd found fascinating.

On the Sunday a large number of visitors gathered to examine a large collection of vintage tractors, an event organised by John Allsop of Heage. The old machines had been carefully restored by their owners, and shone, despite the sometimes inclement weather. One Mum said ‘My two year old was thrilled to sit on the tractor seats– thank you owners!’  – and so say all who were there………..

Here are more photos from the day…

BBC TV’s East Midlands weathergirl Sara Blizzard arrived in style – on a vintage tractor – and performed the opening ceremony with some warming thoughts about our ‘fascinating’ and ‘wonderful’ windmill, officially seeing in the windmill’s 12th season.

A sizeable crowd turned up on a cold but bright day – Sara apologised for not bringing warmer weather! – and, after the cutting of the ribbon, our special guest set the sails turning and enjoyed a guided tour of the mill.  Sara was presented with flowers, a framed picture of the mill in winter – appropriately following a blizzard – and a windmill goodie bag containing a bag of our milled flour, welcomed with delight by Sara as she revealed she is a keen bread maker.  As if planned, she waved goodbye in a small blizzard of snow flakes – hopefully the last this season!

A drone aircraft has ‘spied’ on Heage Windmill – and it’s resulted in great aerial photos.

Craig Ibbotson of Square Planet Photography has built an aerial imaging system, a specially-designed, radio-controlled model aeroplane.  To see the images and read about Craig’s photography project, click here

Copyright of this article lies with SPAB (the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings). The Mills Section of SPAB protects hundreds of traditional windmills and watermills each year from proposals to demolish or damage them.  To visit their website to learn more, click here

Craig has freely made the image available for us to use on this site and maybe he could do something similar for you? The work was done as part of a degree course and Craig is now starting his own photographic business.

For more information see www.squareplanetphotography.co.uk

An exited group of 5 year old children from Holloway School realy enjoyed a tour round the mill on Oct 9th. The 15 children, with their support staff, on a free school visit, were shown how a windmill works by guide Brian Naylor, whilst miller Anthony Sharpe ensured everything was working well, They all thought it marvellous to see the 200 year old machinery in action, and have already pasted some comments on Facebook!
On leaving they made a generous donation of £40 to the mill funds (together with some very desirable eatables for the volunteer staff) – A visit much appreciated by all! – And we look forward to seeing the drawings they have promised to send us!

Heage Windmill’s first ever photo competition has been won by David Wharmby with  a monochrome depiction of the mill sails turning, set against a dramatic sky.  ‘A sublime photo,’ declared the judge, windmill trustee and professional photographer Ashley Franklin who also acclaimed the overall standard of entries.

‘I have always considered our windmill to be one of the most photogenic sites in Derbyshire and the photographers who entered this competition have confirmed that,’ declared Ashley.  ‘I was more than impressed; I was bowled over by the quality of the images which also stretched across a wide range of imagery.’

Commenting on the winning photo, Ashley said: ‘Surprisingly, this was the only entry to show movement in the sails, and the superb way this movement has been recorded immediately placed this image in the shortlist.  What elevated it to first place was the tight, dramatic composition and the wonderful drama in the sky.  Also pleasing is that the rendering in black and white gives the impression this image could have been taken during the windmill’s heyday.’

The Under-16 category winner was Daniel Saunders.  ‘What appealed about this image was the careful way Daniel waited for the sun to kiss one of the sails and create instant drama,’ says Ashley.  ‘He also took the picture on a beautiful blue sky day with the mill standing strong in the frame.’