The Mill-Wheel Turns
After some enquiry I find that a fair number of local mills—once a godsend to the locality and of value to themselves—have again come into service after a period of suspension. In my own neighbourhood the mill, once quite idle, is now so busy that the vans outside it are on occasion in some danger of blocking the roadway. It has been busy for about a cool thousand years, with one idle interval some few years ago. The revival is due in part to the vogue of the "balancer meal" for poultry. One mill, in the Dorking neighbourhood, as I am informed, used to be let at a rent of one full-blown rose on Midsummer Day. It is now actually grinding local corn. May we really hope—with village produce associations and the rest—that we are again approaching the days of local self-sufficiency ?
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