8th May, 2005, was the Sunday of National Mills Weekend when many mills, of all sorts, across the Country were open; Pann Mill amongst them.  The day started somewhat overcast but at least dry.  The forecast was for improvement later, or not - depending on the version and source.  However, the water level looked more promising than it had for some time and, once the sluices had been dropped in to stop the mill pond bypass, the normally dry leat filled in about an hour.  Other High Wycombe Society stalls were being erected and things were looking good.

The mill had been run for some hours with little problem on a previous weekend so we hoped for a smooth day’s operation.  The bearings were oiled, a barrow load of rubbish was skimmed off the water in the leat, the hopper was filled with wheat and the sluice was opened to let water into the wheel.  This cannot be right, everything seems to be working well…  So order coffee from the very nice lady from the refreshment stall and keep going to build up a stock of flour.  We are not sure what was in the duty miller’s coffee but he must have had an attack of over confidence and opened the sluice a lot more.  With a good head of water the wheel rapidly accelerated to over 6 revolutions per minute which meant that the runner stone was turning at about 120 rpm, well above the speed that we normally run at.  And didn’t we know it as the whole building shook violently and the “boy” ladling wheat into the hopper was concerned that the stone floor was soon going to become the ground floor.  However, closing the sluice a little soon brought order and smoothness once again without apparent ill affect.

The open day had been incorporated into the High Wycombe Arts Festival and, although there were no other local attractions on the day, the advertising was clearly paying off.  Although not officially open until 11:00 am, visitors were calling in much earlier.  Fortunately there was enough for them to see and we were able to take the time to talk to them.  Many children were fascinated to be given some hard wheat grains upstairs and then see and feel the soft flour downstairs.  It’s a 2000 year old process, but it is still captivating.  There was also a lot of interest in the other equipment that we had on display.  This included our restored and working winnower, unfortunately powered by an electric motor at present, a hand powered winnower, multi-sack filler, sack lifting barrows and flour dresser, which is presently in bits and being restored.

Around mid-morning the machinery decided that things had gone too well for too long so it threw the drive belt off the pulley.  The belt was replaced while the steward explained that ”No, it was not supposed to happen, even though the belt has come off yet again!”  The belt was replaced once more and the machinery shown the big hammer.  This had the required effect and the equipment behaved almost faultlessly for the rest of the day.

During the afternoon there was a short but heavy rain shower.  We knew this because there was suddenly a lot of very wet people who wanted to see inside the mill.  Well, that’s ok, everybody is welcome and a little dampness helps to keep the dust down.  Indeed, people came from far and wide to see us.  We had visitors from Romania, Korea, Japan, Australia and Boston, USA, as well as many parts of the UK. 

Shortly before 5:00pm the last of the wheat flowed from the hopper into the stones so we closed the wheel sluice and opened the bypass again.  Once more we had to promise the gardener that we really would get round to raising the wall to protect her plants from the water.  (Any bricklayers who would care to volunteer a few hours, please?)  We found that we had produced 220kg of flour in about 6hours.

So thanks again to everyone who made it such a good open day, including those who acted as stewards and kept the little children out of the machinery, those who ran the refreshment and side stalls, Wycombe District Council for advertising and, of course, everyone who visited.  The next open days are Sundays 10th July and 4th September when we’ll do it all again and we hope that you’ll join us.

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