Wessex Mill

The smallest flour mill left in Britain to still commercially roller-mill wheat, it is run by the Munsey family, which has been milling for four generations.

Founded by William Henry Munsey at Osney in 1898 (in partnership with Archer Cowley, who soon left to go into furniture removals) the business closed for two years when Osney Mill burnt down in 1945.

The ruined mill still stands beside Osney lock, and is now being transformed into flats.

Bill Munsey, 75, remembers his grandparents’ shock when he returned home from boarding school.

“They were insured, but they didn't rebuild it because of the shortage of materials after the war. We bought the Wantage mill two years later from Mr Clark.”

They have been at Clark’s Mill ever since.

Bill took over following the death of his cousin and then his uncle.

He said. “I started by sweeping the floor. "My uncle had a stroke and I suddenly found I had to run the mill.”

Originally it produced biscuit flour for companies such as Huntley and Palmer’s, Cadbury’s and Mars. However, as Bill's son Paul explained, this became less profitable towards the end of the 20th century.

“We were not making any money from it, and our customers wanted it in larger quantities than we could produce.”

So the Munseys gradually changed direction. They had continued producing some bread flour at Wantage, to supply customers around Oxford.

For a variety of reasons, including mechanisation, until relatively recently British bread had to be made with imported wheat.

But with the introduction of new wheat varieties, Wessex Mill was able to ‘go local’ and gradually built up a network of Oxfordshire growers. Now each bag is labelled with the name of the farmer, many from the Downs near Wantage.

Not all Britain’s small town and village bakeries closed when mass production of sliced bread arrived in the 1960s, but Wessex Mill flour now goes mainly to small craft artisans.

As Paul Munsey says, bakeries are either multi-national giants, or tiny family businesses.

“There is nothing in between," he said.

But the popularity of ‘real food’ has meant new customers have joined traditional ones such as Nash's in Oxford and Chipping Norton, the Cornfield Bakery in Wheatley and Hawkins in Carterton.

One new arrival is the Natural Bread Company at Manor Farm, Wantage, which has shops in Woodstock and Eynsham, sells at farmers' markets and offers bread-making courses.

Tony Munsey said: “We deliver from Wales to London and Birmingham.

“There are about 500 bakeries in the area, and we deal with 150. There are some new ‘real bread’ bakeries but, overall, it is a declining market.”

The rising price of wheat (up from £110 to £225 a tonne in six months) has kept turnover stable at about £4m a year, but millers, like farmers, are faced with deciding how much of the price increase to pass on to customers.

“There are two sides to the business — we supply bakers and we supply flour direct to the public. It is the sales to the public that are growing, by 25 per cent each year. It is only ten per cent of the business now, but we hope that will eventually become the main part of our business,” said Paul added.

He is a pragmatist, using modern machinery — steel roller mills and a new Italian bagging machine — in an old building dating back to the Domesday Book.

Where purists might insist on organic, stoneground flour, he believes in using local wheat and techniques that produce the best bread.

“We find the best wheat we can from around Oxfordshire, and to that we have to add gluten, or Canadian wheat.”

Like bakers, what millers look for, above all, is consistency. “We buy wheat from a farmer and keep that separate until we mill it so the baker will get the same wheat from the same farmer. We find that produces flour that is very consistent in quality."”

At home, Paul’s loaf is made from Wessex Mill’s six seed flour (three stars in the Great Taste Awards), using a sour dough starter which the mill shop sells in aid of a Uganda charity.

And he is delighted at the boom in farm shops, markets, specialist food shops and independent food stores, with his flour now available in 500 different outlets from Oxford to Little Milton, Dubai and Hong Kong to Hungary and St Helena.

"Farm shops are becoming the new high street. People want quality flour and ours is a quality product," he said proudly.

Name: Wessex Mill Established: 1898 Owners: Bill and Paul Munsey Number of staff: 35 Annual turnover: £4m

Contact: 01235 768991 Website: www.wessexmill.co.uk