York Central Heritage Forum - Holgate Windmill
Views of York Central from the top of the Holgate Windmill
Holgate Windmill sits with views over the York Central site, sited on the hill created by the glacial moraine that defines the area.
On 25th March 2023 Richie Green and Helen Hoult from the Holgate Windmill Preservation Trust took us through the history and restoration of the Holgate Windmill. We then went on a visit to the mill.
The history of the mill is set out brilliantly on the Holgate Windmill website – a story that starts in the 1760s with milling continuing until production stopped in 1933. In the 2000s the most recent era of Holgate Windmill began with the coming together of the volunteer team to restore the mill to working order. Restoring the mill was a gigantic task which included re-engineering the mill, design and making bespoke grain bins and chutes and installing a very neat – and award winning – toilet!
One of the most inspiring stories Richie and Helen shared was how Holgate Windmill responded to the shortage of flour during the pandemic. In a news piece written for the Historic England website, the team reflected on that early phase of the pandemic where there was a national shortage of domestically bagged flour in the supermarkets:
Holgate Windmill in York (run by a community charitable trust) was to have celebrated its 250th anniversary this year and was hoping to attract a record number of visitors to its many commemorative events.
All of a sudden, everything is on hold (until we are 251 years-old!) and small teams of three volunteer millers are going in three or four times a week to mill about five times as much flour as usual. The Saturday shop sells out, and local stockists are putting in frequent wholesale orders for our wholemeal wheat and spelt flour.
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Another outcome is that many more people are experiencing the flavour and quality of stone-ground wholemeal flour, as well as learning to bake bread, cakes and pastries. We hope, when this is all over, we will discover that we have recruited many converts to the joys of healthy, additive-free, wholemeal flour. That increased custom will, in turn, help to preserve these wonderful examples of our industrial heritage.
Richie and Helen also spoke about how the flour sales play a part – along with membership, visitor tickets and donations – in making the windmill economically viable and, especially. to cover maintenance.