Denver Windmill

Sluice Road

Denver

Downham Market

Norfolk.

PE38 0EG

01366 384009

enquiries@denvermill.plus.com

Good food, good drink, good service, good company.

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30th September - beautiful clear sky, light wind freewheeling the sails and we welcome a group of MX5 owners.

For the first time in three years we have a full set of sails and shutters.  Things are still not right, but we look forward to the forthcoming autumn and winter winds that will double flour production in the next year.

It all started one Tuesday in October 2011.....

1st October - At the end of another successful baking class students collect the loaves they made, direct from the ovens!

It is immensely gratifying being able to show people just how and where the flour they are using was produced.  After years of frustration we are now producing flour from a locally grown single variety of English wheat, in whose taste and performance we can take justifiable pride.

4th October - whilst touring a group of five year old school children round the gently freewheeling windmill Sally hears a noise and instinctively evacuates the mill, runs up to the gallery and puts the brake on.  Only then did she walk round tower and see what had happened.

One of the two steel stocks had snapped near the cannister, crashing one sail into another.

The sails smashed into each other, the bay bars meshing into each other like the teeth of a comb.  This, and the fact that the bottom face of the stock ‘rolled’ over a stud rather than bent and tore is what saved the whole sail and stock from falling to the ground.

6th October - The Norfolk Millwright Alliance and Wave Trade make an emergency visit to Denver to make the mill safe.  Winds are too strong to start removal so the sails are ‘pruned’ - all loose debris (predominantly shutters, bay bars and back stays) are removed and the broken sail secured to the cannister and also the sail it has crashed into, which acts almost like a splint to support it.

It is now a waiting game until the wind dies down enough to allow removal of the entire stocks and sails.

10th October - with the agreement of the H&S Officers Mark and Sally decide to hand crank the cap round to face the Tea Garden so the Mill Yard may be used again.

Just as the cap reached position a gust of wind hit the back of the odd sail, bending the con rod so the shutters closed, fully tail winded.  

It was (to put it mildly!) alarming on that fanstage when the full force of the wind turned the cap round and up at the same time.  Habit again proved its worth - we instinctively followed all our safety procedures and no harm came to anyone.  However, with the fan disengaged and the third sail shutters loose we could not be sure of how the cap might behave so it was agreed by all that the site should close until the sails were made safe.

The 12th October saw the wind subside and the NMA returned with a bigger Wave Trade crane.

The broken stock and three sails were removed to the Tea Garden before we ran out of light.

There now has to be an investigation into how the accident occurred.  The damaged parts have to be examined by an Engineer from the HSE and further non-destructive testing is to be carried out on the broken stock.

Our landlords have been given three months to remove the remaining stock and sail for testing and the Prohibition Notice requires “a full report on the condition of all moving parts before the windmill can be brought back into use for milling” - something we have been trying to get for more than three years.

The disaster seems to have been caused by a maintenance issue.  We have repeatedly asked our landlords for records, schedules and risk assessments but been refused them.

But for the exemplary conduct of our staff, this disaster could have been an out and out tragedy.

Sally’s sub-conscious reactions almost certainly saved a 12 tonne cap and sails falling on either a school party of 5 year olds or a yard full of happy lunchers and the utterly professional behaviour of all our staff in the hours and days that followed earn our warmest thanks and considerable pride.

Our landlords are not adequately insured, have declared this an ‘unfortunate fuss over nothing’ and in five weeks have offered us no practical support or help of any kind or even surveyed the damage sustained to their site.

Once the three sails and broken stock were down and the remaining sail and stock designated safe we were able to open the site again.