Derbyshire 15 - A visit to a flour mill finished off with tea, scones and date and walnut cake

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Before they become a tangible reality, all phenomena are seeds. The wise man takes care of the seeds. Han Fei Zi was a chinese philosopher born circa 280 - 233 BC - a long time ago then. But his words ring true. All thoughts and deeds are seeds that need to take root and be nurtured . Even those plans for trips abroad in Suzy. To make those seeds take root take a lot of work and this week that has manifested itself in cleaning of the motorhome. Carpets sweeped, beaten and hoovered within an inch of their lives. Fridge cleaned out and cupboards tidied. Just need to fill it with food and that won't be done for some time yet . Tea leaves and coffee grains hoovered up from the cupboard shelves. Stocks replenished. Sweets ready for the trip, medicine cabinet refilled with everything we might need. Suzy goes off tomorrow to see if the garage will refit the bonnet which isn't fitting properly. One side fits close to the bodywork but the other sits further away and needs re-aligning. Will it be done under guarentee? Hard to tell. We have only just spotted it but have photographs which show it clearly out of line months ago. I guess the garage will argue it was serviced twice and was'nt spotted at those. Tyres checked and they seem OK for the next trip in September. 21 more sleeps as Sion would say as he gets more and more excited about being on the road again.

The cold that I have been nurturing has been pretty awful even by my standards. A nose as red as Rudolphs, a hacking cough replaced by a chesty one and a general feeling of being unwell I have not felt like doing much. And Glenn has been suffering too. A touch of very low BP which has left him very dizzy. A heady cocktail of sniffs and dizzy bouts which we are both trying our best to ignore. We need a fix of Vitamin D from that continental European sun.

Summer is moving on apace. August has arrived. One more Bank Holiday of the year. Signs are going up locally inviting me to book my Christmas meal. This time last year our house was on the market and we were planning our escape to Europe. Sounds familiar. The nights are slowly but surely drawing in and the weather is mixed . A touch of heavy rain yesterday caught me out and I ended up soaked to the skin. Today it is muggy 25 degrees but a very different feel to 25 degrees abroad. Last minute jobs being sorted. Car needs taxing, car needs two new tyres, car needs MOT'ing . Can't wait to get on the road, forget about all of these mundane tasks and see a bit more of life on the road.



So what was the plan today? We wanted something on the doorstep with not too much driving . And something not too complicated. . After a last minute check on Suzy before her garage visit tomorrow we decided to visit Cauldwells Mills at Rowsley just outside of Bakewell. And as this wouldn't take too long after the usual staples of drink and cake we planned to move on to Haddon Hall. We had visited Haddon the home of historical film and TV productions a number of years ago. We had lost all our photographs and had thought for a while to go back and through the door came a 2 for 1 offer so how could we refuse. It seemed an offer too good to turn down.

Our journey of a little over 15 minutes took us first across the purple clad heather moors which are colouring up nicely. Mile after mile of the purple carpet made up of heather. Dropping down into Rowsley we visited the Peak Shopping Park a small complex with rather a lot of camping shops. We needed some decent tent pegs to hold Suzy's awning down and they were duly purchased before we drove round the corner and parked up on the car park of Cauldwells Mill. The car park was relatively empty and the walk along the river and mill race pretty with the banks covered in Rose Bay Willow Herb. Ducks swam in the water bobbing their heads under the surface looking for food. A tranquil spot just off the main Chesterfield Road. A fly fisherman was busy on the river casting his rod. I don't know if he caught anything but it felt a typically English scene.

The mill is now in a complex complete with blacksmiths shop, stonemason and a craft centre. The craft centre sold everything from cushions to home made pickles and jams. The blacksmith would make anything in metal to order and the stonemason hammered out garden sinks. At £1200 I passed by with a wistful smile . Our tickets for the mill cost £2 each. The joy of being a pensioner become apparent sometimes.

The mills is a grade II* listed building and was used to roll mill flour being powered from the nearby River Wye. The mill standing today was built in 1874 by John Caudwell and run as a family business for over a century. However when the mill stopped milling it was purchased by a charitable trust who continue to run it and open it to the public. It does not grind corn to flour anymore which is rather sad and all the flour sold is bought in but it is possible to see the mill machinery in action. Most of the machinery within the complex dates to earlier than the First World War and is still driven by pullies, leather belts and Archimedes screws. Wheat enters the mill at the top but it is hard to imagine just how much dust would have been produced during the process. For the technically minded there are 22 pairs of roller mills and two purifiers to see. Half of the machines seemed to produce fine flour and the other half a coarser flour. For those not familiar with baking finer flour makes better cakes. Coarser flour better bread. That reminds me of an advertisement for flour that used to come on the TV in the 80's. There are rollers specific rollers for animal feed (provender).

As time progressed the water power was not sufficient to keep up with the demands of the machines and water turbines replaced water wheels. As the mill is set up on several floors there are long thin and narrow corridors to negotiate and steep wooden stairs but you can get up and personal with the machines.

In this year of the centenary of the start to the First World War there was interesting reminder of how life changed. One of the machines on the mill floor was produced by a German company and in 1914 the Company had sent a detachment of engineers to install and supervise the use of the machine. War broke out whilst they were in Rowsley and they were promptly interned as enemies from a country we were at war with.

A good place to spend an hour or so reminiscing on life in general and how things have changed particularly when you can sit in the comfort of the small but perfectly formed cafe drinking tea and eating scones, thickly buttered and with jam topping and date and walnut cake.

Our plan next was to head a mile up the road to Haddon. However when we arrived around the first corner we were greeted with standing traffic and cars doing three point turns in the road. Bakewell was a bottle neck and it seemed like the world and his dog was going there. We wondered if it were the Bakewell Show and guessed the best plan of action was to turn round and come home . Haddon could wait for another day.

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Photos

A old cash register
Converted to decimal currency

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

The joy of travel
Love sitting the a cup of tea, a scone and absorbing the world around us. Enjoyed the blog.

[JenGog]

cups of tea
I agree , the first stop usually in any city or town is at a cafe to sit over an espresso and a cake and watch the world go by. Will be on the road in less than three weeks again so looking forward to seeing a bit more of that fantastic planet we live on.