Wicken landmark become GB's 'windiest windmill'

3 days ago

Neve Gordon-Farleighand

Dave Webster,Wicken

News image — Technology allowed the millwrights to see that the mill had reached almost 99,000 sail revolutions last year

Ashley Dace/Geograph Wicken windmill in Wicken near Sohan in Cambridgeshire. The windmill has a brown exterior, reaching high into the sky. The picture has been taken from the ground and the white sails of the mill are stationery. The picture has been taken on a day with a blue sky and some overcast cloud. — Technology allowed the millwrights to see that the mill had reached almost 99,000 sail revolutions last year

A working flour mill has sailed ahead in an international competition to be ranked the windiest windmill in Great Britain.

Wicken windmill near Soham, in Cambridgeshire, has started using technology to count the number of sail revolutions it completes every year.

It landed in seventh place - the highest ranking British mill - behind the Dutch entries in the 21-mill bout.

Kelvin Law, miller and amateur millwright, said: "We were very surprised at the amount of revolutions we made - it was nearly 99,000. Despite our very best efforts we couldn't quite get it over the 100,000 for the year."

The mill was built in 1813 and despite its closure in 1933, it was restored from 1987 by millwrights from the Wicken Windmill Partnership.

Dave Webster/BBC Kelvin Law, a man who is standing inside Wicken Mill. He is looking directly at the camera and is wearing a blue and green hat, green waterproof coat and is wearing a pair of glasses over his eyes. — Kelvin Law said he hoped the windmill would generate more than 100,000 sail revolutions this year

Law said: "It's turned so much because we need to mill as often as we can to generate what's effectively our only source of income, to keep this wonderful building and machinery running.

"It's a major privilege. This is an almost unique place - a very special place. We have a very tight team here with complementary skills and it's an absolute pleasure to be involved with it."

'The traditional way'

The mill sells on its flour, with customers including commercial outlets in Northamptonshire, a village shop in Leicestershire - and home bakers.

He said: "We make flour as often as we can and the rare part of it is as a restored windmill, we only mill by using the wind.

"There are some mills out there that do mill but they use an electric motor because it's much easier that way as you don't have to wait for the wind, but we prefer to do it in the traditional way."

Competing against other mills in Great Britain, The Netherlands and Germany, the millers are already planning to climb the leaderboard this year.

"We want to try and improve our position in the table... we are certainly going to try very hard to get over that 100,000 revolutions limit," he said.

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