The meal mill at Mill of Towie, Auchindachy is old, but nearly all meal mills are because they were a vital part of the economy of every rural district in an era when nearly all food was locally produced.
OATMEAL
The central importance of the meal mill to the traditional Scots community is not easily grasped until it is understood that the mill used to be the supplier of almost every mouthful of food.
Many of the well known traditional Scots dishes were only found at the Laird's table and until the second half of the nineteenth century the Scottish population was predominantly agricultural, living on a sole diet of meal, ground from grains and pulses.
Oats are always thought of as the chief element in a Scotsman's diet, but, in fact, up to the beginning of the eighteenth century a mixture of Bere (barley), peas and beans was the most common food. Porridge, now thought of as exclusively made of oats, was in the past a dish made of whatever meal was most readily available. Oats were grown as a cash crop to pay rent "in kind" to the Landlord and in good years the surplus was sold to raise capital for the tenant.
As farming methods improved with the enclosing, draining and fertilising of fields, together with the scientific development of new reliable varieties of oats then the population's taste for oatmeal was developed. By the nineteenth century a farm labourer could expect to be paid a yearly ration of oatmeal and a daily pint of milk, and on this diet alone he lived. Each farm worker in the "bothy" or lodgings had his own "kists" (chests), one for his few clothes and other possessions and one for his oatmeal. So much emphasis came to be laid on oatmeal that in 1869 a Report on the Dietaries of Scottish Agricultural Labourers reckoned that it formed the main article of daily subsistence among 90% of the working class in Scotland.
Oatmeal was cooked in different ways; as porridge, oatcakes and bannocks, but most commonly as brose. Brose was made in a wooden bowl my mixing oatmeal, a little salt and boiling water to a paste, then adding milk to taste. Because the oatmeal was uncooked it wasn't swollen, so for his breakfast a man could eat nearly a pound of oatmeal, or the equivalent of 10 bowls of porridge! It is no wonder that traditionally men stood to eat their breakfast, following the old adage that " a standing sack stands fullest". Brose made a nutritious meal for men going out to work a long day.
To-day oats are recognised as a protein rich food that provides all a bodies nutritional requirements and contains all eight of the essential amino acids necessary to support human metabolism. Oats are without doubt richer and better balanced than any other cereal. Indeed recent research suggests that a regular intake of oatmeal will also give some protection against cardiovascular disease lowering serum cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
The mill at Mill of Towie was originally water powered and when first a steam engine, then an internal combustion engine and finally an electric motor were added to provide power during periods of insufficient water, they all
One revolution of the mill wheel turns the mill stones about 13 times.
Additional technical information.
Although the concept of operating machinery from one source of natural energy is quite simplistic, the implementation and distribution of that energy to drive and harmonise various processes throughout a three storey building is a complex engineering design problem.
In a bid to further reduce grain management we have introduced an auger which feeds grain to the top floor and then into a "twin shoot" holding bin, such that continuous bagging can take place. This effectively does away with the sack hoist and the need to lift full grain sacks to the top floor.
