Winchester City Mill Guide for Teachers and Group Leaders

CONTENTS

We want you and your group to have an exciting and informative time at Winchester City Mill. This pack is intended as a detailed guide with ideas for teaching points to prepare you for your visit to the Mill or any related classroom-based work.

2 Introduction 3 City Mill Timeline 5 The River Itchen 6 The History of Making Flour 9 How the Water Mill Works 10 The Grinding Process 11 Stone Floor 13 Lower Floor 19 Wildlife

INTRODUCTION

Working watermill in the heart of Winchester

This historic mill is owned and cared for by the National Trust and is a rare surviving example of an urban working corn mill, powered by the fast-flowing River Itchen, which can be seen passing under the mill.

Rebuilt in 1743 on a medieval mill site, it remained in use until the early 20th Century. The National Trust recently undertook an ambitious restoration project, and the mill resumed grinding flour in March 2004.

CITY MILL TIMELINE

A millennium of milling history Our mill is one of the oldest working watermills in the country; with a fascinating

past and a great many historic connections.

871-899 King Alfred rules the Kingdom of Wessex from Winchester; a thriving and bustling town with a population of several thousand people.

989 Queen Elfrida (mother of the Saxon King, ‘Ethelred the Unready’) gives a mill at Eastgate (known as ‘Eastgate Mill’) to the Benedictine nuns of Wherwell Abbey.

1086 The Domesday Book, ordered by William the Conqueror (The Normans), records a mill outside Eastgate owned by Wherwell Abbey paying a rate of 48 shillings per year to the Abbess. It is the most valuable mill in Hampshire.

1295 At the end of a prosperous period in milling, a new tenant, William the Miller, pays 4 pounds in silver as rent per year. In return, the abbess promises to supply 'any great timbers' the mill needs. 1348 The 14th Century sees a succession of poor harvests, so there is less corn to grind into flour. The Black Death (Plague) arrives in England and hits Winchester, reducing the population and the mill’s importance further.

Competition from nearby mills, built by the Norman Bishops of Winchester, is the most probable reason Eastgate Mill becomes derelict by the 15th Century.

1536-1540 Henry VIII orders the Dissolution of the Monasteries. All abbey possessions and land (including Eastgate Mill) go to the Crown. The confiscated land is redistributed.

CITY MILL TIMELINE

1554 Marriage of Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain in Winchester Cathedral. Queen Mary presents the still derelict Eastgate Mill to Winchester, partly to repay the cost of her wedding. The name ‘City Mill’ appears for the first time.

1662 Leases, which continue until 1820, show that tenants have to pay “10 shillings per annum to the City and two chickens for the Mayor.” Leases require tenants to rebuild but nothing is done so the mill remains derelict. 1744 James Cooke, a tanner of The Soke (SE of the river), rebuilds the mill at last, reusing the medieval roof timbers. A new period of prosperity begins for the City Mill.

1820 The mill is sold to John Benham, and his family owns it for over 100 years. There is an unsuccessful attempt to sell the Mill in 1892.

By the end of the 19th Century The Victorian Revolution. Flour milling has moved to the major seaports where large factory mills with iron rollers have been built to handle imported wheat. The flour is distributed to customers using the extensive railway network. Traditional water mills are rapidly declining.

1914-1918 During World War I, the mill is used as a laundry.

1928 The mill is threatened with demolition. A group of local benefactors raise money to buy the mill and give it to The National Trust for safekeeping.

1931 The newly established Youth Hostels Association (YHA) rents the mill from the National Trust. Hostellers wash in the millrace. They end their lease at the mill in 2005.

2004 A 12-year restoration project is completed and flour is made again for the first time in perhaps 90 years. The power of the River Itchen is harnessed once more.

THE RIVER ITCHEN

The River Itchen is about 45km (28 miles) long. It begins its journey in the chalk hills near Cheriton and is joined by the River Alre and the Candover Stream, close to the town of Alresford. After passing through Winchester and driving our mill, the Itchen makes its way to Southampton where it flows into the sea. Its flow varies little throughout the year making it ideal for driving a mill.

The Itchen is a good example of a fast- flowing, chalk groundwater fed river. When rain falls onto the 400 sq. km catchment area – including chalk downland– it soaks through the chalk rock into a massive underground reservoir or aquifer. The chalk acts as a filter and the water emerging from springs is very clear, very alkaline and at a remarkably constant temperature (about 50oF/10oC).

Harnessing Water Power Transportation Water power has been harnessed for corn-milling, papermaking, In the 12th Century, the tanning, fulling (wool-processing) and generating electricity. At one river was navigable for time there were 12 mills within the City of Winchester. small crafts from Should we use more water power today; Southampton to a great source of sustainable energy? Alresford. Stone from Quarr was brought from the Isle of Wight by barge and used in the Water Meadows building of Winchester Farmers diverted water to flow across fields close to the river in Cathedral. The last barge winter. The moving water produced an earlier grass crop on which travelled from sheep and cattle could feed. Evidence of these channels can be Southampton to seen in the Winnall Moors Nature Reserve and near St. Cross. Winchester in 1869.

THE HISTORY OF MAKING FLOUR

If you want to make bread, biscuits or cakes, you first have to make flour. You do this by grinding grain or cereal.

Early History- Quern Stones Quern stones, stone tools for hand-grinding, were first used during the Stone Age to grind cereal grains (such as barley, oats, rye and wheat), nuts and other vegetable food products for eating, as well as pigments and metal ores prior to smelting. One of the earliest forms of quern was the saddle quern. People put the grain on a big flat stone (‘quern’) and rubbed it backwards and forwards with a small stone (‘handstone’)

We know from studying the skeletons of people from the Stone Age that they spent a long time kneeling down and rocking back and forth to grind their grain by rubbing it just like this. They had to spend 5 hours every day just grinding grain to make enough flour to feed their families.

~Teaching points~ Where does the name ‘saddle’ come from? (The saddle quern is named as such because the motion of rocking or rolling the handstone forms a shape looking like a saddle) It was not easy to produce flour from a saddle quern; the handstone was used to crush the grain, rather than grind, and produced a rather coarse flour. Would grinding in this way take a long time? You can try this yourself. How long did it take you to make a small amount of flour? How long would it take you to make half a kilo of flour? You would need this much to make a loaf of bread. Was your flour fine and white like a bag from the supermarket, or was it rough, brown and full of little bits of stone?

THE HISTORY OF MAKING FLOUR

Rotary Querns The rotary quern was invented during the fifth to third centuries BC. As the name implies, the rotary quern uses circular motions to grind materials, meaning both the quern and the handstone were circular. The handstone of a rotary quern is much heavier than that of saddle quern and provided the necessary weight for the grinding of grain into finer flour.

Did you know…?

…In India, rotary querns were used to grind grains and spices. Smaller ones, for household use, were operated by two people. Larger ones, for the community or commercial use, used livestock to rotate the top stone.

The grain enters the quern through the centre hole (‘eye’) of the top stone (‘runnerstone’) and moves to the edge as it is ground, coming out from between the two stones as a coarsely ground flour.

~Teaching points~ Have a go turning the rotary quern at the Mill. Is it easier to use? Could you make flour faster? Rotary querns are hand-powered. What problems might that cause? (They are limited in size and milling capacity by the strength of their operator; such methods are time intensive and laborious; they only produce enough ground flour for a household) In many poorer countries, people mill cereals by hand today. Querns were still used in remote parts of Britain in the 20th Century. Can you find out where these places are?

In Medieval times people could be fined for milling flour by hand and their querns could be confiscated by the Lord of the Manor. Many people were forced to use the Lord’s watermill or windmill and pay a toll.

THE HISTORY OF MAKING FLOUR

Mills and Mill Stones As the demand for food grew and populations increased, there needed to be a more efficient method of producing flour. But bigger stones meant they were too heavy to turn by hand. Initially, some places used donkeys, horses or slaves. With time, where there was a good river, watermills were built. These water-powered mills were common by Roman times and used much larger circular-shaped stones; mill stones. These produced a finer flour than that produced by hand held tools.

Materials Many mill stones in Britain are made with hard-wearing quartz from France and, although expensive, they lasted for 50 years or more. They are not cut from one piece, but built up from sections of quartz, cemented together with plaster, and bound with iron bands.

Our mill stones were made by a specialist manufacturer in Holland in 2007 and contain quartz and basalt to give the same performance as French stones.

Patterns Mill stones are not flat underneath. Grains of cereal are very tough and if the mill stones were flat the grains would just roll between the two stones and would not grind into flour. So each mill stone has a series of special grooves (‘furrows’) cut into its surface. When paired with another mill stone, the grooves make a kind of scissoring motion creating the cutting or grinding function of the stones. The grooves are also at an angle so that when the mill stone turns, the flour is pushed towards the outside and is squeezed out.

As the stones are used, the furrows gradually become worn and must be refreshed or ‘dressed’. This work was often done by the miller himself, but in any areas you would find travelling stone dressers, who would travel from mill to mill doing a few days’ work here and there.

HOW THE WATER MILL WORKS

Waterwheels come in several varieties but which type you can build is largely dependent on the local geography.

Some water mills are built where the water comes from high up so the water flows over the wheel. These are called over shot water wheels because the water shoots over the wheel.

Other water mills are built over a river so that the water flows under the wheel. These are called under shot water wheels because the water shoots under the wheel.

Over shot

~Teaching points~ Which sort is Winchester Water Mill? (Under shot) Which water wheel do you think is more effective? Why? (With an over shot wheel, the weight of the water does all the work, meaning quite a lot of milling can be done with very little water. In comparison, the under shot wheel is inefficient because it relies on huge quantities of water moving at considerable speed to drive the mill) Why is the River Itchen a good place to build a water mill? Why must an under shot wheel fit accurately? (To prevent water from escaping round the sides) Where might you build an over shot water wheel? (At the bottom of a waterfall, side of a hill)

THE GRINDING PROCESS

The grain we use is cleaned before use to separate the wheat from the chaff (the dry, scaly protective casings of the cereal grain), so that we

have clean seed grain to mill. Raised platform

Hopper Wooden chute

Horse Damsel Shoe

Crook String

Eye Runner stone Nip Bed stone

Floor Floor

Second chute

Did you know…?

…We mill English wheat and produce 20-30kg of strong wholemeal flour per hour. Our mill stones can only produce wholemeal flour since the whole grain seed passes between the stones. Historically, millers sieved the flour to produce whiter grades for the wealthy.

STONE FLOOR

In the centre of the Stone Floor are the mill stones and so-called ‘stone furniture’, which provides a constant flow of grain when milling.

The sacks of grain are first lifted to the raised platform using a sack hoist. The sack hoist is operated by a series of pulleys and gears, which was once powered by the waterwheel; now we use a manual hoist

The grinding process begins when the miller empties the sacks of grain down the wooden chute into the storage hopper above the mill stones.

The ‘shoe’ under the hopper shakes grain into the centre, or ‘eye’, of the upper rotating stone, known as the ‘runnerstone’.

The ‘damsel’, which protrudes from the eye of the stone and rotates at the same speed as the mill stone, strikes against the shoe causing it to shake. Thus, the flow of the grain increases as the speed of the mill increases.

Bell The bell, fixed to the ‘horse’ (the wooden frame supporting the hopper and shoe), provides a warning if the hopper becomes empty. Should this happen, the stones would run without grain and flour between them. This could lead to rapid wear and perhaps damage to the stones. Even worse, it could cause a fire as sparks would be produced when the stones touched.

Normally, the weight of grain in the hopper holds back the bell. If the hopper is empty, the bell tips forward. The rotating damsel then shakes and rings the bell.

STONE FLOOR

~Teaching points~ Why does the grain need to be shaken? (Controls the amount) What is the force called that makes the cereal fall down the chutes? (Gravity) What 3 variables determine the quality and quantity of the flour? (1.The speed of the runner stone - amount of water allowed through the sluice gate; 2. Amount of grain fed into the eye – angle of the shoe adjusted by the crook string; 3. The gap between the mill stones – adjusted by the tentering gear) Why might the ‘damsel’ be named so? (It is said that the damsel is named as such because of its incessant chattering! This constant chatter was a useful sound to the miller since it gave him an indication of the speed of the stone) Millstones The grain passes between the runner stone and the lower, stationary, ‘bed stone’ and is ground into flour, which is thrown from the edge of the stones. The runner stone should rotate at 60 revolutions per minute or above to mill high quality flour. The two mill stones weigh just over 1 tonne combined; that’s equivalent to a small car or two horses.

Finally, the milled flour passes down a second chute to the lower floor, where it is collected in sacks. Originally, miller would have hoisted the sacks through a trap door leading to the stone floor; now we carry the sacks up the stairs.

~Teaching points~ Why do the mill stones have grooves cut in their grinding faces? (To make them more abrasive and to move the grain from the centre of the stone to the edge) Apart from water power, what other kinds of power could be used to drive the stones? Would it be possible to turn one of these stones by hand? Why would the spread of railways force small local mills like City Mill out of business? (Competition from big mills using cheaper imported cereal grain pushes prices down so bakers can buy from the cities more cheaply than at local mills)

LOWER FLOOR

Millraces Millraces are the channels conducting water to, or from, a water wheel. The channel leading to the water wheel is called the ‘head race’ and the channel leading away from the wheel is called the ‘tail race’.

The Mill sits on an island in the River Itchen. The flow of this section of the river is divided at the top of the garden, where stop boards control the right-hand channel. This millrace is not currently in use, although you can see the remains of a sluice gate mechanism suggesting there must have been a second water wheel here at some stage of the Mill’s history. Most of the flow of river is in the left-hand channel flowing towards the Mill’s only water wheel.

In between the right and left channels is a narrow race, known as the ‘slip channel’, with its own sluice gate. This is lowered to provide additional flow through the water wheel when the water levels are low.

~Teaching points~ At what time of year might the slip channel need to be used? The miller used to lower a net into the head race, why? (To catch fish) Millers could also make extra money by building wooden traps in the headrace, why? (To catch eels) Why is the grating placed in the head race leading to the water wheel? What other machines/mechanisms are powered by water?

LOWER FLOOR

Sluice Gate A sluice gate in front of the waterwheel is used to control the mill. The miller has to raise a lever which in turn raises the gate. This mechanism is very similar to that which is used to raise a paddle on a canal lock. You can see the controls for the sluice gate by the wall near the millstones on the Stone Floor.

Raising the gate allows water to pass under the waterwheel and the force of the moving water makes the wheel turn. Closing the gates stops the mill working. The height of the sluice gate determines how much water hits the wheel and consequently the speed of the mill.

~Teaching points~ When you are at the Mill, you will see the sluice gate machinery on the wall next to the door leading to the mill garden. If the miller wanted to make it easier to raise the sluice gate, would he make the lever longer or shorter? What other machinery uses this type of mechanism? Why do we need all these gears and cogs to raise the gate? (It is too heavy to lift without the help of gears) Back at school; create your own mechanism to raise a gate.

LOWER FLOOR

This diagram shows how the mill machinery on the Lower floor works together to grind the grain into flour.

Vertical Shaft

Great Spur Water Wheel Wheel

Millstones

Axle

Wallower

Stone Nut Pit Wheel

Did you know…?

… People have been using hydro power (a type of energy that is produced from moving water) to power machinery for thousands of years. More than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greeks and Romans used water wheels to drive mills to grind grain. Around 200 years ago, there were 30,000 water mills in Britain. These were used to power all kinds of machinery.

LOWER FLOOR

Water Wheel… Winchester Mill houses one water wheel, in the left-hand channel. It is the source of power for the Mill’s flour grinding and is driven by the force of water striking the wooden ‘floats’ or paddles, which are simple flat boards.

The present wheel, custom- built in 2005 to replicate the wheel installed in 1744, is made of cast iron and oak and is 2.8 metres in diameter. It makes about 7 or 8 revolutions per minute when milling flour. An under shot wheel such as this is not very efficient. The floats are not a close fit in the channel so water can flow over them and through the centre of the wheel. This means that of the 7 ½ kilowatts of water power available from the River Itchen, little more than 1 kilowatt is extracted to drive the mill stones.

~ Teaching points~ How is the water from the head race pushed around the wheel and into the tail race? What materials are used to build a water wheel? What properties do they need to have? Watch the waterwheel turning and notice how the gears turn as a result. Look through our printable resources to find out how to make your own working water wheel. Back at school; write an explanation text or set of instructions on how the water wheel drives the milling machinery to grind grain into flour. Calculate the radius (d÷2), circumference (πd) and area (πr2) of the wheel.

LOWER FLOOR

…and its Gears The water wheel is connected to the stones by gears and is mounted on a heavy, horizontal, wooden axle which turns the…

Pit Wheel Mounted on the opposite end of the axle, this is a large gear wheel with a cast iron frame and 66 oak teeth. The pit wheel engages with, and drives, the smaller, cast iron…

Wallower The wallower is a small gear with 34 teeth situated at the base of the vertical shaft. It rotates the vertical shaft which in turn drives the...

Great Spur Wheel Sitting at the top of the vertical shaft, this large gear has 96 hornbeam teeth. It drives the…

Stone Nut This rotates at about eight times the speed of the water wheel. The stone nut is the small, cast iron gear with 23 teeth which sits below, and directly drives, the…

Runner Stone The runner stone is the top stone in a pair of mill stones on the Stone floor. This, along with its partner the lower stone (‘Bed Stone’), grinds the flour.

~Teaching points~ What is the purpose of all the gears? (They increase the speed of milling so that the millstone turns faster than the water wheel. The Great Spur Wheel also allowed mills to drive two or more sets of millstones from the same water wheel) If a large gear turns a smaller gear, which goes around faster? How much faster?

LOWER FLOOR

Look carefully at the machinery on the Lower floor and you will see:

The Chute Down which flour drops from the mill stones on the floor above.

Tentering Gear This is the pivoted wooden beam which supports the stone nut. The miller raises or lowers the rotating runner stone using the handle at the end of the beam. In doing so, he increases or decreases the gap between the stones, an operation called 'tentering'. This gap (‘nip’) helps determine the fineness or ‘grade’ of the flour; the smaller the nip, the finer the flour.

Crook String The second control, used by the miller to adjust how much grain is fed into the mill stones, rises to the floor above and raises or lowers the ‘Shoe’. This increases or decreases the amount of grain being fed to the stones.

~Teaching points~ Why might a miller want to make both coarse and fine flour? What does increasing the flow of the grain do to the flour? (Makes it coarser, while decreasing the flow makes finer flour) How do the sacks of flour get on to the top floor? Try a sample of our flour. Is it fine or coarse? What does it taste like? Is it different to the flour you use at home?

WILDLIFE

Although the City Mill is in the centre of Winchester, it's a location remarkably alive with wildlife.

What can you spot here? The crystal-clear waters of the Itchen teem with trout and even occasional salmon. Water voles are regularly spotted, kingfishers fish off the walls outside and a family of grey wagtails feeds on abundant mayfly and other insects in the garden.

Otters on the River Itchen We're lucky to be one of the few urban UK locations where otters are regularly recorded passing through.

In 1994, three otters were reintroduced to the River Itchen. Since then, these rare and elusive creatures have thrived. In the late 1990s, a joint project between us and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust was set up to install observation equipment.

The otters’ regular adventures are captured by a series of motion activated cameras that record them as they emerge from under the Mill to mark territory with ‘spraint’ (droppings) during hunts for food. During your visit, you can enjoy clips from regularly updated archive footage and view the live feed from our cameras along the river.