Fascinating experience , especially since my father was supplied with Heygates flour over 50 years ago and Paul Heygate, who incidentally can take you on a national tour of Britain, bakery by bakery, old and new, could remember.
Follow the link for a bit of history and to see some of the transport used at that time.
http://www.heygates.co.uk/history.html
Compared with now
My father was rather keen to join us, however at the tender age of 91, and although he is still remarkably fit and able, decided that a factory tour was a little beyond his capability. So like you will only have pictures.
The mill is huge, having been extended many times in its lifetime , each extension and new mill becoming less dependent upon the flour miller because now every thing is mechanised and run by computers. Needless to say the 1940's equipment is no longer used!
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| Redundant 40's roller mill made from wood with a series of belt driven wheels |
The grain arrives by lorry and is randomly sampled and the sample tested. Within a few minutes the quality of the grain is determined and and allocated to the appropriate "bin" to begin the process of becoming flour. Several "bins" will be blended together depending on the type of flour required.
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| 70's automated equipment still in operation. |
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| Completely computerised |
Each batch of grain is mixed together and then passes through a series of rollers to break the grain.
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| Broken grain |
The broken grain is passed through mechanical sieves and progressively closer rollers,
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| Folding the top and sewing the bag |
Mechanisation of flour milling on roller mills has been necessary in order to produce the quantities necessary to feed ourselves.
and provide a product which is repeatedly consistent for bulk baking.
In the fifties and sixties bread flour relied upon the Canadian Spring wheat and so 80% of lour used was imported. Now , as a result of the ability to test the quality of the grain that arrives on site Heygates are able to use slightly over 80% of British Wheat. Some UK flour mills will only produce one type of flour and therefore can only accept a certain quality of grain.
For those who like a few stats;
Heygates own mills at Bugbrook, Tring and Downham and trade as Fine Lady Bakery.
They produce 6,500 MT of flour per week.
1 tonne of flour equates to about 1780 loaves
their flour production will provide 4 million loaves per week.
http://www.heygates.co.uk/flourhome.html
I'm off to Mapledurham Watermill next the only working watermill on the River Thames.
Did you know:
ReplyDeleteOne whole grain of wheat makes over 20,000 particles of flour.
It takes around 350 ears of wheat to make enough flour for one 800 gram loaf of bread.
The average flour consumption per person in the UK is around 200g per day? About half of this is in the form of bread, rolls etc, whilst the remainder is in a range of other products such as pizza, pies, cakes, biscuits, pasties, noodles, snacks batters and sauces.
A wheat crop will produce on average 7.5 tonnes of grain per hectare - that's enough to make 11,500 loaves of bread.
Without flour we wouldn’t have our daily bread, our great British staple packed full of goodness. Bread provides carbohydrates, B vitamins, protein and calcium. White flour is fortified with calcium, iron, thiamine and niacin. One of the nation’s feel good foods, bread is a great tasting food which is naturally low in sugar, lower in salt, low fat, calcium enriched and is a source of both protein and fibre so love your loaf! Most of the wheat we use is grown in Britain and virtually all the flour and bread we make is produced here. It really is a “home-grown” food chain.