MAY 31, GREAT BEDWYN: WHAT is being billed as a unique event is taking place at Wiltshire's only working windmill in May when an attempt will be made to turn sheaves of wheat into bread in one day.

The Sheaf to Loaf event will be taking place at Wilton Windmill near Great Bedwyn on Saturday May 31.

It is being organised by the Wilton Windmill Society which runs the mill that will be 200 years old in 2021.

The event will require the use of a threshing machine that will be powered by a Brown and May portable steam engine built in Devizes in 1912.

It will probably be the first time the old engine has been linked up to a threshing machine because it was built to be shipped to Australia.

The engine powered a sawmill in New South Wales for most of its life and after a period of redundancy was rescued and repatriated to England in 1997 by David Cooper of Thatcham who has carried out a complete restoration.

The threshing machine, once a popular harvest time sight in the countryside, is itself a rarity.

A by-product of the threshing process to extract the grain of cereal crops was long straw that was used for the traditional Wiltshire thatching.

Once the grain has been threshed from the sheaves of locally grown organic wheat it will be turned into flour in the windmill, and that in turn will be turned into bread all in the one day.

The Wilton Windmill Society believes this will be the first time an attempt has been made to turn ears of wheat into bread in one day.

Wilton Windmill overlooks the Kennet and Avon Canal.

Seven watermills on the stream that meanders along by the canal were lost when the canal was built.

The windmill was constructed by a local builder and was worked for about 100 years until the advent of electric and steam powered mills made it redundant.

In 1971 the almost derelict mill was saved for posterity when Wiltshire County Council stepped in and bought it.

The mill that had cost £500 to build in 1821 cost £25,000 to restore 150 years later.

The Sheaf to Loaf event will be part of the windmill society's annual country fair that is its biggest single fundraising event of the year.

Other attractions at the fair will include a Burrell steam road locomotive, a 1908 Marenghi fairground organ, a display of farm tractors dating back to the Forties, a demonstration of corn dolly making and ferret racing.

The fair will start at 1pm and admission will be free. More information about the mill, the only working windmill in Wessex, can be found on its own website: www.wiltonwindmill.com