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Heckington Windmill TrustCharity No: 1139207

Company No: 07210264

WindmillHeckington

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Contents Page

Chairman’s Report 4

Group Reports on Activities 7

Milling & Engineering

Shop, Bakehouse & Tea Rooms

Collections & Research

Financial Activities 11

Heckington Windmill Trust 13

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a generous grant from Museum DevelopmentEast Midlands they have helped materiallyincrease our retail sales and the funds theygenerate for the Trust.We have also held a wide range of events andactivities on the site to showcase particularaspects of our heritage, as well as generatingadditional revenue. We repeated the highlysuccessful series of winter talks covering topicsas diverse as the International BomberCommand Centre and We’ve got no money butAuntie’s got piles- a talk on comedy theatre.Following the completion of the restoration ofMaud, our rare Tuxford steam engine, theEngineering Group organised monthly steaming

It is my very great pleasure to present to you our37th annual report on the principal activities ofthe Heckington Windmill Trust. It has beenanother busy and successful year for the armyof volunteers that make up the Trust, as we havecontinued to develop and refine our award-winning site.The core of our activity is enabling the widestcross section of the public to engage with andenjoy our unique windmill. During the year, wewelcomed over 3,200 visitors to the mill and anamazing 38,230 to the site. Site visitors arecomparable to previous years, although millvisits were reduced as we await its return toworking order by Lincolnshire County CouncilIn our second full year of operating the visitorcentre, we took the opportunity to upgrade ouroperating structure, creating a unified teamlooking after the whole visitor centre andexperience including visitor access to the mill.This has been enjoyed by visitors and volunteersalike.

We were also able to upgrade our shop designand offer thanks to a grant from the Associationof Independent Museums. We now have awonderful retail display, hand made by a localcraftsman in solid English oak. Combined withadvice in developing our retail offer funded by

Fascinating local heritage ….

Windmill team was very

welcoming …. Highly

recommended

The new shop fittings made by local craftsman tocomplement the visitor centre exhibition units

Maud in steam at one of the regular “SteamingSundays” events

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days, which provided welcome movement andinterest whilst the mill is not operational.In the Autumn we re-invented our Threshingweekend as Harvest Home, celebrating the wideragricultural story that is so important to ourCounty and such a key part of the mill’s heritage.As well as the usual threshing and othermachines we welcomed two of our rare countybreeds – the Lincoln Longwool sheep andLincoln Buff poultry. This event proved mostsuccessful, attracting over 300 visitors despitethe challenging weather, and an increasedproportion of young families and children.I make no apology for re-iterating this has allbeen achieved by a remarkable team ofvolunteers that continues to renew itself. Webade farewell to Penny Johnson after her hard-working stint as shop manager and are delightedto welcome Paul Reid who has taken on this roleas part of the wider Visitor Centre brief. Our onepaid staff member, Marie Mooney moved toSpain in March to care for her mother. Her

energy and commitment over her three years asTearoom Manager went above and beyond thecall of duty. We are gearing up for a replacementas and when the current situation settles down.The year also saw the final meeting of the“Visitor Services” Committee. This evolved fromthe original general committee set up when theTrust was founded in 1982 and remained inbeing to focus on our regular opening activitiesas the Project board delivered the regenerationscheme over the last 10 years. As our operationsand organisation have developed the time wasright for this to be disbanded.As well as thanking those who are leaving, wevery much wanted to acknowledge thecommitment of all the team who continue to doso much for the mill. To that end, we introducedthe volunteer award card. Issued to all teammembers who give 50 or more hours in a year,it entitles them to 10% discount on shop andtearoom purchases - a small but heartfeltgesture of appreciation.

The Trust itself has continued to receiverecognition. During the year we were RegionalFinalists in the 2019 Civic Trust Awards and werealso very successful in the RICS awards. We were

The Harvest Home weekend proved very popularwith visitors, young and old

The Trust received an award from the RICS in twocategories in the national awards for work on the

Regeneration Project

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East Midlands Conservation Project of the Yearand went on to be Best Overall Project for theEast Midlands – a tremendous feat against stiffcompetition.Nearer to home, we were proud to receive theaward for the best exhibit at the 2019Heckington Show from North Kesteven’sHeckington Rural WardSlightly unusual but most welcome recognitioncame in the form of our selection as 2nd inBritain’s 7 best quirky tea rooms by CountryfileMagazine

Whilst the widespread recognition of theimportance and success of the mill is muchappreciated, we are also conscious of our needto contribute to the wider milling community.All traditional mills such as ourselves werethreatened by proposed regulations concerningadditives to flour – simply uneconomic for windand water mills. We were pleased to welcomeour local MP Dr Caroline Johnson in February togive her a briefing on the issue and its potentialimpact. Her questions in parliament have set intrain exemptions which should ensure we and

all other traditional British mills are still able tofunction.The long-term future of all working mills relieson there being accepted and practicablestandards of operation. In March we weredelighted to be able to host the first NationalMills Safety Conference. Organised by our goodfriend Jonathon Cook of Soham Prior mill itfeatured speakers from Holland and Germanyand drew mill owners and operators from acrossthe UK.Later in March we saw the beginning of theCovid pandemic in the UK. Hard work by thewhole Heckington team has enabled us torespond in a safe and sustainable way and willbe a key feature of next year’s report.This has been another successful year for theTrust as we have continued to care for thisunique piece of the heritage of our village, ourcounty and our nation. I would like to recordmy thanks to all those who have contributed inso many ways.

Charles PinchbeckChairman

The windmill was lit up in blue in recognition of thehard work by NHS and Key Workers

Voted One of the 7 Best Quirky Tea Rooms in thecountry!

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white flour from an East Anglian mill which theyare now supplying to us. This means regular tripsacross to Sibsey to collect the flour, but it is goodto meet up with Ian and Robert and compare theprogress of our respective repair packages.When the repairs are undertaken, the outstandingtower and cap painting, plus the structural repairsto the lower bin floor joists, should be included inthe work package.Pat and Mary have kept up with the bagging ofthe flour and porridge, and the shop shelves havebeen kept stocked. Pat has had to retire as ourflour manager having developed a reaction toworking with flour. We wish her well in herretirement.

ENGINEERING GROUP REPORTWith the mill remaining out of action, theEngineering Group’s priority has been to ensurethe continued serviceability of the Hurst Frame.Improvements have been continued to be made,and we are confident it will now give good service

MILL MANAGER’S REPORTThe Engineering and Milling group work toinstall the Hurst Frame has paid dividends inallowed the Trust to continue milling whilst weawait the tail-winding repairs. Meetings withLCC have some assurance that the work will becarried out but issues with the TraditionalMillwrights (LCC preferred contractor) workingout of the county on another windmill, and LCCgetting the work orders issued have delayed thestart date.

We have milled around a tonne of wholemealthis year on the Hurst Frame for sale in the shopand continued to improve its performance withreplacement of the shoe and grain traparrangement. Work is well in hand with GeoffStead to build a replacement for the Tun. Withthe mill machinery remaining out of action wehave had to continue importing flour fromSibsey Trader Windmill which we dressed in ourbolter. With their mill also becomingunserviceable, they had been using spare millingcapacity at Alford Mill but with the tenantleaving, they have had to source stone ground

The Hurst Frame, powered by the Ruston engine, isregularly producing high quality wholemeal flour

Maud driving the grain cleaner which has beenrestored

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for the foreseeable future. This has necessitatedreducing work on the repairs to the farm mill,but progress is being made, including the stripdown of the Ruston APR oil engine which willdrive it. We are grateful to Jim Oxby for allowingGeoff to regularly use his machine shop for themanufacture and repair of components. Withoutthis facility the cost of repairs would much moreexpensive.We have regularly steamed Maud and ourSteaming Sundays have proved popular. Maudmade a guest appearance at Maud Foster’s200th anniversary where 4 of the 5 remainingTuxford portable steam engines were on display.It was a very wet day, but a memorable day outfor the Engineers! To give greater interest, withpermission from the Museum of LincolnshireLife, we have added a drive pulley to Maud’scrankshaft and adapted the grain cleaner to bebelt driven. Maud manages the additional loadwell and the pair look good as the centre pieceof our Steaming days.Our strong group of millers/engineers remainsat around eight regular members which is just

about sufficient to keep up with the increasinglist of on-site maintenance and engineering tasks.

OUTREACHThe Trust was represented at the NationalPloughing Championships for the first time. Likemost events last year, it was badly affected bythe weather, but the ploughing went ahead andour stall was well attended. We had to leaveearly on the Sunday when rainwater startedflowing through the tent! We also attended theAutumn Fair and Christmas Food Fair at EastonWalled Gardens which proved financiallyworthwhile and generating a lot of interest fromthe visitors. Our stall in the Heritage Tent at theHeckington Show was as ever popular.Jim Bailey,Mill Manager

VISITOR SERVICESFollowing the departure of Penny Johnson, ourshop manager, during the summer we reflectedon the shop manager role and our objective ofproviding a great visitor experience and decid-ed that we wanted to bring a more cohesive

Maud made a guest appearance with other Tuxfordengines, at Maud Foster Windmill’s 200th

anniversary

The Windmill stand at Heckington Show won theaward for the best Exhibit in the Heritage Marquee

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approach to the shop, granary and mill tower.Paul Reid took over the co-ordination of theseseparate parts in the new role of Visitor CentreTeam Leader. We are already beginning to seea coming together of volunteers across the site.We now have a number of volunteers who workin a number of different roles – shop, guide andhelping in the tea room.In the autumn of 2019 we worked with a retail

consultant who advised a team of people onproduct development and on how to make themost of the facilities that we had. Following thiswork we have gradually seen a widening in therange of stock sold in the shop. New stationary,children’s pocket money toys and a wider selec-tion of greetings cards have all been added tothe existing range of stock.Of course the mill’s core business is the role itplays in local food production and we havefocussed on this in thinking about new rangesin the shop. We are now delighted to stock arange of chilli marmalades, sauces and vinegarsproduced locally by Bickerton’s who are basedin Billingborough.We have also introduced a few lines to help onthe cooking front – our new “mini mills” range

of tea towels, oven gloves and mugs make agreat themed set and an ideal gift.In January the Trust’s Board were keen to pro-vide a way to recognise the time and servicethat our volunteers give to the windmill and thewonderful way in which they welcome visitorsand provide a fabulous visitor experience. Theintroduction of our new Volunteer DiscountCard for all of our volunteers who gave 50 hoursof their time across last year was given. The cardgives them 10% discount on all Tea Room andshop purchases…… just a little something to say“thank you”.

Since Liz Desmond introduced a mouse hunt inthe mill, children have been excited to look

A new range of locally made sauces and oils, hasproved a popular new range in the shop

The “mini mills” range of gifts has been developed aspart of the overall retail review

The volunteer discount card, recognising the hardwork and time by volunteers

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around on every floor as they try and find themall. They are always delighted to receive theirmouser certificate and badge, but for a whilenow the mice that Liz had placed around themill were beginning to look more than a littletired. After much hunting around ourselves forreplacements the answer was found on our verydoorstop and we now have a new set of mice(complete with scarves) all hand made by a localhand-spinner who makes the smaller wool micethat we sell in the shop.Other exciting news on the shop front came inthe awarding of a grant which allowed us tocommission bespoke shelving units in the pig-geries to show off our new puoduct range.Since the Trust’s last annual report it has beenquite a year…. one in which we have built,developed and made ourselves ready foropportunities and challenges that lie ahead.Paul ReidVisitor Centre Team Leader

COLLECTIONS REPORTAfter successfully achieving MuseumAccreditation with Arts Council England last year,the team continued to keep up the good workby throwing themselves into learning new skillsas well as maintaining their excellent record ofresearching and documenting the mill collection.The team has created fun Quizzes, displayeditems from the windmill’s Handling collectionand have put on a variety of small exhibitionsfor our visitors to enjoy.We have also worked hard to keep theEdwardian Parlour and the 1930s rooms lookinggreat for our visitors to the tearoom.

Caring for the windmill collection is ongoing andwe continue to monitor the environment whereit is stored and displayed, carry out conservationhouse-keeping, package the collection inarchival protective material and boxes, and haveeven undertaken some ceramic restorationtraining with practical work too.The volunteers are dedicated to keeping thecollection in the best condition possible for itslong term survivalThank you Collections team for your dedicationand hard work.

Michelle Andrews,Collections Manager

Some of the Collections Team Getting “In the Mood”for Armed Forces Day!

Members of the Collections Team have worked hardrestoring and cataloging items

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2020 2019

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TRUSTEESCharles Pinchbeck

Jo Lewin Jim Bailey Michael Surfleet Michael Hardy

Michelle Andrews

FINANCE AND ITCharles Pinchbeck Mike HardyJo Lewin Elaine HardyMichael Surfleet

VISITOR SERVICESJim Bailey Liz DesmondSue Cook David Nickols

COLLECTIONSMichelle Andrews Glenys WilliamsLynda Sergeant Sylvia DoughtyAnnette Southcott Stephen HuckleSally Warren

ENGINEERINGMartin Willis Dennis JohnsonGeoff Stead Jim BaileyPaul Gash Ross HoultbyMike Bryer Roger Mitchell

OFFICERS AND COMMITTEEMartin Hanson President

Charles Pinchbeck ChairmanSylvia Doughty Secretary & Newsletter EditorMichael Surfleet TreasurerJim Bailey Mill Manager

Anne Strong Membership SecretarySue Cook Groups ManagerMichelle Andrews Collections Manager

Liz Desmond Volunteer Co-ordinator Sharon Tymens Bakehouse Co-ordinator

Heckington Windmill TrustRegistered Office18 NorthgateSleafordLincolnshireNG34 7BJ

Registered with the Charity CommissionCharity Number: 1139207

A Company Limited by GuaranteeCompany Number: 07210264

Our thanks go to Pat Baileywho retired from her flour

manager role this year

Standing down this year isPenny Johnson as Shop

Manager.

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Heckington Windmill TrustHale Road, Heckington, NG34 9JW

www.heckingtonwindmill.org.uk

Charity No: 1139207A Company Limited by Guarantee. Company No: 07210264

The Trust was a Regional Finalist for

the Civic Trust AABC Conservation

Awards

A recent announcement in 2019 was the Royal

Institute of Chartered Surveyors East Midlands

Project of the Year Award & also the Building

Conservation Award 2019