"... because if you didn't, your mill would blow up."
Somehow I found myself this morning on a guided tour of Buttrum's Mill, a tall brick windmill that features as a landmark in my directions to Angel Lane.
Ivor is my knowledgeable guide and his description of just about every device in the mill ends with the same rationale. Whether you ran out of grain or brought the stones too close; if the wind reversed direction or you brought the brake on too fast, the end result would be the same. The miller's life, I learnt, is not exactly stress free.
No wonder there, half-way up the mill, pencil-scratched-in-wood was the word "Angel" just above the signature of the last working miller, George Buttrum.
(If you have an hour or so to spare in this part of Suffolk, visit it!)
All contents copyright © 1999-2010 Paul and Emma Bennett