So today saw the start of our second week, & it all kicked off with a 7.00am start from the apartments (those not living in Creswell were picked up from School at 6.45am!).  We piled onto the mini bus & headed down to Cambridge!

It was a long journey, but we managed fairly well.  After negotiating the traffic, we found ourselves at our first windmill!  We had come to visit Foster's Windmill, a small traditional stone mill.  Jonathan Cook, the current owner of the mill, gave us a tour & a talk about the history of the mill.

All of the equipment in the mill is original; one of the mill stones is dated 1845!  It was really very interesting to be able to see the inside of a mill & learn more about the process.  I buy flour on a fairly regular basis, but before today I knew very little about the way it is produced.  Of course, today was really about the traditional way flour is made, so I still don't know all that much about the way large mills work to produce flour in huge quantities!

Above is one of the two mill stones they have at the windmill; you can see the white circular stone quite clearly. 

We went right up to the top of the windmill, & were confronted with the huge cogs & wheels!  It was quite cramped up there, but really interesting to see all the machinery.  Sadly, there wasn't enough wind about to see it all in action.

Jonathan gave the group a bag of spelt flour, & a bag of rye flour for us to experiment with at the School.  He's also planning on giving us a batch of his wholegrain flour so we can play around with that & come us with some epic new recipes!  It should be rather entertaining!  =D

The second windmill we visited was just the other side of Cambridge, & owned by a lovely gentleman called Chris.  He's owned his mill since the 1960's, &, now in his '70's, he could get around his windmill much easier than a lot of us students!

Much of the machinery & equipment in Chris' windmill had been salvaged from other windmills, after they were torn down, so this windmill had a decidedly patchwork feel to it, & was a lot more crowded than Jonathan's.

Carefully, we managed to make our way to the top of the windmill (well, a few of us did, it got rather steep, & leaps of faith were required in places!).  This time, there was enough wind for the sails to begin to turn.  It's quite an odd feeling, being inside an active windmill.  The floorboards shake & all you can hear is the clunk of the machinery, but that all took on a vaguely comforting feeling after a while =)

Enough wind to turn the sails meant that we could see the flour being 'dressed'; this process involved the milled flour being turned round in a drum, whilst wire brushes rotated inside the drum.  This is what gives us the white flour we're all so used to.

Chris took the casing off the dresser, so we could see the drum turning & the flour moving through it.  Whilst it was fascinating to see the inner workings of the dresser, it did result in us all getting rather covered in flour!

After the tour had finished, we piled back onto our mini bus & headed back to Welbeck.  A few of us staying in Creswell decided to visit the Welbeck Farm Shop before walking back home.  The heavens did open just as we were dropped off, but luckily it had cleared up before we were finished shopping, so we had quite a lovely walk =)

It really is a lovely part of the world, & it was nice to take it all in on a steady wander, rather than the green blur you get on a bicycle!

Tomorrow is our first day in the Bakery, & we get to try on our newly delivered uniforms, so it should be really exciting!  Honestly I'm not quite sure what to expect, but I'm very much looking forward to getting stuck in!