Mathew Painter has been appointed the new miller at
Eling Tide Mill, undertaking training with David
Plunkett. Training started on Monday 10th
March between Matt and me with all the obvious
health and safety considerations, work clothing and
familiarisation of this tidal mill and contents. I
had also brought my expanding Training Manual which
was to be slowly extracted and acted upon over the
first four days of rigorous training. Safe access
within the tidal undercroft and water wheel was also
completed on this first day.
The second day was shared between Patrick Appleby
(MD of Botley Mills) and me, with Matt’s first time,
hands-on milling, producing quality wholemeal and
analysing the results by sieve analysis. Knowing
why the “grade of flour” produced is of such great
importance is an essential part of training.
Knowing what makes a good loaf of bread is another.
A list of good practical publications for millers
was issued - with print outs from my Training
Manual.
Day three commenced with Patrick having a “one to
one” session with Matt on ‘identifying pests and deceases’,
followed by ‘what to look out for when buying grain’
to ‘moisture content and conditioning of wheat for
milling’.
There then followed another session of milling under
lower head conditions and incoming tide. Knowing
how to maintain optimum rate of milling with varying
tide conditions is an art in a tide mill.
Day four was without Patrick so, only the two of
us. We re-capped on what had been taught on
previous days and went over some technicalities
(more than once) to be sure that they were
instilled, to gauge importance and recall.
A tide mill is a powerful machine and in the wrong
hands, can do immense damage.
Good maintenance is essential so all aspects of care
for this tide mill must be instilled during
training.
Training continues with Matt (usually on a weekly
basis) and his professionalism is coming though with
good commitment and a willingness to tackle almost
any task asked of him. External training away from
Eling Tide Mill, has been included. So, one day in
June, we spent most of one day at Alderholt Mill,
near Fordingbridge, with Richard Harte, learning how
to operate his watermill and produce good wholemeal
flour.
Repairs and maintenance at Eling Tide Mill are
regularly required and Matt is now used to getting
more than his hands dirty and crawling into confined
spaces. I hope Matt succeeds and is a great benefit
to Eling Tide Mill and the local community. Due to
the poor quality of repairs contracted by NFDC in
2012-13, the water wheel has been difficult to
control and safe operation during milling often had
to stop. As a result, flour production has been
very low and has currently ceased. Earlier this
August, on three consecutive, very early mornings,
HMG volunteers helped Matt, me and John Hurst to
expose parts of the water wheel and breastwork, to
define the true details and dimensions of the sluice
gate seating. With the addition of a sectional
drawing, a report has been passed to both Eling
Experience and NFDC.
Part of the Team: (L to R) John
Hurst, Mick Edgeworth, Dave Hibbert, Matt Painter
Other Volunteers were: Nigel
Smith, Ivor New, and (of course) David Plunkett
