Marie-Christine and Mervin Austin were not planning to buy a windmill.
Nor were they planning to move to Lincolnshire.
But in 2000, when a neighbour showed them a newspaper article in the pub with a picture of Mount Pleasant Windmill, recently listed for sale, they knew they had to visit.
At the time, the Austins lived near Saffron Waldon, having relocated from Crouch End in north London, where they ran a bakery.
They were looking for a premises to start a new artisan bakery, where Mervin, a baker by trade, could produce organic sourdoughs and continental breads — and where they’d no longer have to commute into London.
They rang the number on the listing and drove up to Kirton-in-Lindsey to visit the mill.
“I’ll always remember: it was the beginning of May, and there was a clear blue sky with fantastic sunshine. I know it sounds corny, but we saw the windmill and we were hooked. We just wanted it. It was beautiful,” says Austin, 65.
“We were not looking to buy a windmill at all — it came our way.”
“We were not looking to buy a windmill at all — it came our way.”
Later that year, they’d bought the Grade II-listed windmill, moving with their two sons into the neighbouring four-bedroom house — a former grain store — to start their new bakery.
“We made the business plan fit around the windmill, rather than the other way round,” says Austin.
Mount Pleasant windmill, painted black with a white cap and sails, was built on a ridge over the Trent Valley in 1875, to produce flour. When the Austins bought it, it was diesel-powered and had been used by its previous owner to make animal feed.
“Mervin didn’t have a 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 handover 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 let the sails go round or you don’t.
“I don’t think the machinery is complicated. At the end of the day, you let the sails go round or you don’t.”
“But I suppose it’s like anything else: when you buy a windmill, you don’t realise the history, the knowledge – how much there is to it… I don’t think I realised how much I would learn. I think it grew with us.”
Keen to convert the mill back to its original wind power, the Austins set about restoring Mount Pleasant. They had a new flour dresser — a wooden device which separates different types of flour — made by a carpenter and moved the floor so there was a greater drop between where the flour was milled and separated.
They renovated the wheels and stone nuts at the top of the mill and repositioned the original machinery.
There was already one electric motor in the mill, but, after eight years, the Austins introduced a second, made to “mimic 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 enterprise, True Loaf Bakery and Tearooms, they installed an 18-tonne wood-fired oven from Spain, turning one of the barns into the tearooms.
“It was always a fairly traditional, honest production,” says Austin.
“We bought organic wheat and milled it with the stones. There was never any other way of milling, and we were baking with traditional methodology – a lot of sourdough, way before sourdough became popular.”
While Mervin would bake, Austin drew on her work as a teacher to give tours of the mill and market the business. In strong winds, the mill can produce up to 1.5 tonnes of wholemeal flour a day, which the Austins sold locally and in their own shop.
Over the next 24 years, they became a part of the Slow Food movement, with the business winning an award in 2000, featured on the Hairy Bikers and in Rick Stein’s book, Food Heroes.
“The windmill is part and parcel of the town,” says Austin. “It’s their windmill – it’s their landmark. You can see it from a long way away.”
What is it like to live at a local landmark? “You can’t hide. Everybody knows you,” says Austin. “You are the lady from the windmill.”
Although the Austins never intended to run Mount Pleasant as a big business, health issues have forced Mervin, 77, to scale back.
Now, they have reluctantly decided to sell, and the windmill, bakery, tearooms and house are listed for sale with The Unique Property Company for £975,000.
“The house is far too big for the two of us,” says Austin. “Age is telling us that it’s time – we’re getting too old, even if I don’t want to admit it.”
Although the Austins’ two sons, 28 and 31, grew up at the mill (and, says Austin, bake good bread and pizza) they have “no intention of carrying on the windmill”. The Austins are keen for the windmill to remain in use, and for a buyer to develop a business at Mount Pleasant.
The tearooms and bakery adjoin the main house, covering a total area of 3,953 sq ft, plus 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 outbuildings, currently used for storage, which Austin believes could be converted into holiday lets or staff accommodation.
“I always felt that you could have weekend baking classes with accommodation. That was the next step,” she says. “These days, the market for organic, stone-ground flour of top quality is mega. You could push it to a degree that we never even contemplated. When you think that you can produce a tonne of flour a day, you can really go big.”
“And it’s in a lovely area,” she adds. “You have fantastic views, and it is a beautiful structure.”
As for learning how to use the windmill, Austin says that, unlike the brief tutorial they received, “Mervin is here to help - he’s not going give as little as he had.”
“It’s got this old-fashioned magic,” Austin says.
“I can’t see how anybody could buy the windmill just to turn it into a fancy home. It’s a big piece of machinery — it’s got to be working. It’s one of the few working windmills that can still produce wonderful flour. It’s got to be carried on.
“For the person who goes for it, there will be a special attraction — we had it. I had this weird, amazing feeling of the power of the machinery. It has got something special. If you feel that attraction to the windmill, you’ll be hooked. You won’t be able to walk away.”
