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Instinctively I would say yes, but when I look back at the short time (6 months) I have been hand making bread, I am ashamed to say that most of it has been with roller milled flour.

This in the main is due to convenience but also in part education, as there is a perception (be it right or wrong) that breadmaking with this type of flour is more challenging and time consuming. Certainly new bakers such as myself are looking to achieve repeatable success in the first instance and in doing so their repetoires consist of mainly white flour based breads.

Interestingly I did recently purchase a small batch of stone milled flour from the Pann Mill Watermill in High Wycombe with a view to extending my skills but unfortunately they only mill 3 times a year.

Also their recipe booklet almost exclusively consists of cake and biscuit recipes so perhaps I am not the only one that finds the prospect of bread making with this type of flour a little intimidating!

I live about 200yds from Daniels Mill, a traditional overshoot watermill. This is just outside of Bridgnorth, Shropshire. Wholemeal flour is on sale on site (guided tours also available) and as a keen amateur baker, only buy it occasionally but would say yes, it is worth the extra, as it is a different product. Bread from this flour can be bought from Catherines Bakery in Bridgnorth. Hh.

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I have recently started buying flour locally produced by Glebe Farm, Huntingdon and have been very pleased. It costs 拢5.20 for 3kg.

Dan Lepard recently spoke at Crop to Crust a conference organized by the Society for the Protection Buildings Mills Section , the Traditional Cornmillers Guild and the Real Bread Campaign
that celebrated the role of the traditional mill in the local community as a source of local food, employment, community and renewable energy. Through a series of workshops, demonstrations and networking opportunities traditional millers and bakers shared their passion and conviction that the local mill will again be at the centre of the village community in 21st Century Britain.

If you want to know more about traditional Windmills and Watermills contact

Simon Hudson, SPAB, Mills Section Administrator,
SPAB Mills Section, 37 Spital Square, London E1 6DY

[Personal details removed by Moderator]

Some of the stone milled flours work and some do not. At the end of the day it's the raw materials tied in with the skill of a miller which will determine the quality and consistency of the flour.
A modern mill will outperform a stone mill by a large margin in the amount of flour it can produce from a kernel of grain (modern roller mill can extract upto 83%) The flour will also be cleaner as roller mills in the break and scalp process use a scissor action to cut and scrape the endosperm from the grain. A stone mill will grind and crush the bran leading to bran powder in the finished flour. This bran powder has a detrimental effect on the finished product.
The modern millers have come in for a lot of bashing from the traditional brigade over the last couple of years and a lot of it unwarranted. The modern day flour millers in the UK are a well run, hygienic, lean operation which manufacture massive amounts of flour on a daily basis utilizing some cutting edge technology. They do use some lower protein wheats which are blended into a grist to taylor make a flour for the customer.

I use flour milled by Yorkshire Organic Millers to produce my sourdoughs. Today i spoke to joe the miller while he was milling my flour, which will be delivered to me tomorrow. I'll bake with that flour on saturday and customers can buy the retail packs too. I pay more for the flour than other flours, this bread costs slighty more than my other breads, but flavour, quality, locality and a sense of baker/miller tradition out weigh the difference in price. The 1.5kg retail bags outsell all the other flours we stock by a mile.

Great to read so many positive comments about traditionally milled flour.
We've been restoring our watermill in West Wales for the last four years. A pretty steep learning curve but hugely satisfying, and we've been really encouraged by the support and interest we've received from everyone who's visited the mill and baked with our flour.
We only produce wholemeal flours at the moment, but there are traditional millers out there making white flours to satisfy the most discerning bechamel sauce makers! Once our flour dresser is fully restored we hope to learn to do the same. Check out Maud Foster Windmill's white.

Apologies for coming so late to this topic. For me, the wonderful smell when opening a bag of traditionally milled flour is worth the price tag. However, taste aside, I would economise in other areas to buy this type of flour because bread is such an essential part of our diet that I prefer to know that I'm buying good quality, and good nutrition. I can live with cheaper washing-up liquid, but not flour.

I started making bread years ago due to my partner suffering after eating bread. At the time I struggled until I read a book by Daniel Stevens and I started to use flour from Shiptons. This week, I have had the joy of finding an organic miller, Yorkshire Organic Millers a couple of miles up the road from me. After speaking with Joe, I collected my flour from the farm, with the intention of using it on my next batch.
I not only make bread at home, but now I know the miller who makes my flour! I can't express the joy at completing this cycle, a boy who grew up in North Manchester, who now lives in North Yorkshire.