by Neither Marie-Christine nor Mervin Austin planned to buy a windmill.
They weren’t planning to move to Lincolnshire either.
But in 2000, when a neighbor showed them a newspaper article in the pub with a picture of the Mount Pleasant Windmill, which had recently been listed for sale, they knew they had to visit.
At the time, the Austins were living near Saffron Waldon, having relocated from Crouch End in north London, where they ran a bakery.
They were looking for premises to start a new artisan bakery, where Mervin, a baker by trade, could produce organic sourdoughs and continental bread – and where they would no longer have to travel to London.
They called the number on the listing and drove up to Kirton-in-Lindsey to visit the mill.
“I will always remember: it was the beginning of May, and there was a clear blue sky and brilliant sunshine. I know sounds corny, but we saw the windmill and we were hooked. We just wanted it. It was beautiful,” says Austin, 65.
“We didn’t want to buy a windmill at all – it just came our way.”
“We didn’t want to buy a windmill at all – it just came our way.”
Later that year, they bought the Grade II-listed windmill, and moved with their two sons into the four-bedroom house next door — a former corn store — to start their new bakery.
“We made the business plan fit the windmill rather than the other way around,” says Austin.
The Mount Pleasant windmill, painted black with a white cap and sail, was built on a ridge over the Trent Valley in 1875, to produce flour. When the Austins bought it, it was diesel powered and the previous owner had used it for animal feed.
“Mervin had no clue how to run the windmill,” says Austin.
“I remember us looking at it and thinking: what do we do now?”
The Austins received a four-hour transfer from the previous owner, but otherwise, they were on their own.
“It’s not rocket science,” she says. “I don’t think the machinery is complicated. At the end of the day, you either let the launches go by or you don’t.
“I don’t think the machinery is complicated. At the end of the day, you either let the sails go by or you don’t.”
“But I think it’s like anything else: when you buy a windmill, you don’t realize the history, the knowledge – how much there is … I don’t think I realized how much I learned. I think it grew with us.”
Eager to convert the mill back to its original wind power, the Austins set about restoring Mount Pleasant. They had a new flour mill — a wooden device that separates different types of flour — that a carpenter made and moved the floor so that there was more of a drop between where the flour was ground and separated.
They restored the wheels and stone nuts at the top of the mill and reinstalled the original machinery.
There was already one electric motor in the mill, but, after eight years, the Austins introduced a second one, made to “imitate the exact speed of the wind”.
This allowed them to produce white flour, which requires more grinding, in the summer months, when there is less wind.
For their new venture, True Loaf Bakery and Tearooms, they installed an 18-tonne wood oven from Spain, turning one of the barns into tea rooms.
“It’s always been a fairly traditional and honest production,” says Austin.
“We bought organic wheat and crushed it with the stones. There was never any other milling method, and we were baking with traditional methodology – lots of dough, long before sourdough became popular.”
While Mervin baked, Austin took advantage of her work as a teacher to give tours of the mill and market the business. When there is a strong wind, the mill can produce up to 1.5 tonnes of cassine flour per day, which the Abyssinians sell locally and in their own shop.
Over the next 24 years, they were part of the Slow Food movement, and the business won an award in 2000, which was featured on the Hairy Bikers and in Rick Stein’s book, Food Heroes.
“The windmill is an integral part of the town,” says Austin. “It’s their windmill – it’s their landmark. You can see it from afar.”
What is it like to live on a local landmark? “You can’t hide. Everyone knows you,” says Austin. “You are the lady from the windmill.”
Although the Austins never intended to run Mount Pleasant as a large business, health issues forced the 77-year-old Mervin to expand.
Now, they have reluctantly decided to sell, and the windmill, bakery, tea rooms and house have been listed for sale with The Unique Property Company for £975,000.
“The house is way too big for the two of us,” says Austin. “Age is telling us it’s time – we’re getting too old, even if I don’t want to admit it.”
Although the Austin’s two sons, 28 and 31, grew up at the mill (and, Austin says, baked good bread and pizza) they have no intention of carrying the windmill. Austin residents want the windmill to remain in use, and for a buyer to develop a business in Mount Pleasant.
Adjoining the main house are the tea rooms and bakery, covering a total area of 3,953 square feet, as well as the windmill. There are four bedrooms, three reception rooms — all with views of the windmill — and a private rear garden.
The sale also includes two stone buildings, currently used for storage, which Austin believes could be converted into holiday letting or staff accommodation.
“I always felt you could have weekend baking classes with accommodation. That’s the next step,” she says. “These days, the market for quality stone ground organic flour is fantastic. You could push it to a level we never even thought of. When you think you can produce a ton of flour a day, you can go big.”
“And it’s in a beautiful area,” she says. “You have great views, and it’s a beautiful structure.”
As for learning how to use the windmill, Austin says that unlike the brief instruction they received, “Mervin is here to help – he’s not going to give as little as he had.”
“It has this old-fashioned charm,” says Austin.
“I can’t see how anyone could buy the windmill just to turn it into a fancy house. It’s a big piece of machinery – it has to work. It is one of the few working windmills that can still produce great flour. It has to be carried forward.
“For those who go for it, there will be a special attraction — we had it. I had this strange, wonderful feeling of the power of the machinery. He’s got something special. If you feel that pull to the windmill, you will be hooked. You won’t be able to walk away.”
