In the fast-moving world of technological advances there are still techniques that have no need for change or improvement, having worked well for centuries. A good example is milling, where water or wind provides the power to drive the millstones that grind grain into flour.

Mapledurham Mill, on the Oxfordshire bank of the Thames, is an example of a commercially-operating mill. Downstream on the river, it is the last working mill in the county, but in times past was one of many which played an important part in local agriculture and industry.

Here, the miller, Mildred Cookson, produces flour used to bake bread and cakes which are on sale in local shops. These products will also be available in the mill’s own shop during National Mills Weekend, May 8-9.

This annual celebration has been taking place for more than 20 years, and is organised by the mills section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

Mrs Cookson is a trustee of SPAB and a member of the mills section committee. She is also a founder-member of the Traditional Cornmillers’ Guild which, with the Real Bread Campaign, is combining with SPAB to focus on ‘real bread’ this year.

Mapledurham Mill is part of the estate of Mapledurham House. The mill works part of each week all year round. Its present commercial operation began in 1977, following a break of 33 years.

Earlier, it had been in more or less continuous use from the 1400s, and a mill at Mapledurham is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The present building dates from the mid-1600s, and had two extensions during the following century.

At one time it had two waterwheels, but one was removed in 1920, when it was replaced by a water-turbine used to generate electricity for the estate.

The waterwheel’s oak rim has to be replaced every 18 years and the elm paddles every seven or eight years. The elm wood, which has a waterproof quality when kept underwater, would originally have been provided from the estate, but is now brought in.

“The paddles need more frequent replacement as they take the full force of the water, whereas the rim of the wheel takes hardly any impact,” Mrs Cookson explained.

She has been the miller at Mapledurham for almost 30 years, having taken on the role in 1982, becoming one of only a few woman millers in the country.

“I got very interested in windmills as I was surrounded by them where I come from, in an area close to the Lancashire coast. One of the millers there taught me how to make wooden cogs and how to set a millstone, and the art of stonedressing.”

This is only done by specialist millstone dressers, of whom there are now just a handful in the country.

Mrs Cookson said: “In 1981, I was working at a windmill in High Wycombe, and was invited to come and look at the watermill at Mapledurham. Although it was windmills that I loved, I agreed to come and see this one — and got hooked.

“I was then asked if I would take it on to run it on a commercial basis.”

She added: “Milling is not something you can teach people in five minutes. It is based on sound and feel. You are listening the whole time for any change in the sound, and you are feeling the consistency of the flour as it is ground.

“You can’t just set the mill working and go and sit down. The miller constantly lives and breathes his or her work.”

Other staff are employed with Mrs Cookson at the mill, according to the volume of work during the year, and volunteers are also involved.

The skills of making new cogs for the waterwheel and dressing the stones are particularly important. Handtools are the best means of achieving perfection, according to Mrs Cookson.

“I don’t think you can judge to one-sixteenth of an inch unless you have a hand and eye on what you are doing. You have to cut accurately into the stonework.

“The stonedressing is required about every nine to 12 months. By using power tools it might take a morning, but by hand as long as three days. You are dealing with measurements of the equivalent of the thickness of brown paper down to that of tissue paper. That is why precision is so important,” she said.

Most of the grain used is wheat, with occasionally some rye. It used to be grown on the estate but is now bought from suppliers, up to seven tonnes at a time.

“I feed the gain through the millstone and it comes out ready to go out to the bakeries for breadmaking machines, or for the cook at home,” said Mrs Cookson.

By changing the gaps between the millstones, different types of flour can be produced.

The darker flour, the full grain, is suitable for brown bread, scones and heavier and richer fruit cakes, while the lighter ‘81 per cent’ flour produces a creamy-coloured loaf, and is ideal for sponge cakes, pastry and lighter scones.

The remaining content is sold as bran or ‘middlings’ and its uses also include semolina and pudding mixes.

Mrs Cookson recalled that, in earlier days, the miller would feed the middlings to his pigs, poultry and other livestock, which he would keep near the entrance to his mill so that customers could see how well they were doing on his fine-quality products.

As a trustee of SPAB, Mrs Cookson has a wider interest in casework for projects such as churches and cathedrals.

With the mills section, she is involved in planning courses for millers and millwrights, grant applications for restoration work, organising talks and attending the international symposium held every four years. The latest was in the Czech republic, and the next will be in Denmark.

She is concerned that the specialist skills of the millwright should be continued, although the seven-year apprenticeship is a challenge in itself.