A Loaf of Bread
The mill in this film is driven by the waters of Crakehall Beck and has been around since the 17th century. Crakehall Mill is now a popular tourist attraction, run by owners of bed-and-breakfast accommodation, but it was used for commercial grinding up until 1930. It was restored to working order in 1977 and started grinding corn again in 1980, producing only modest quantities of flour for the little shop downstairs. Today, the mill is not working on a regular basis.
The practice of adding living yeast to bread to make it rise probably dates from prehistoric times. Without yeast, bread is known as "unleavened" and is flat with no bounce.
The location used for the bread-making itself was chosen mainly because it was extremely accessible, which made it easy for us to get the shots we needed. By coincidence, a camera crew from the local art college was also present, and between the lot of us we must have made the bakers rather nervous because, although it looked delicious, the batch of bread that we filmed tasted quite revolting! - certainly not up to the standard of the usual Harrington's loaf.
Bread made on the industrial scale is different in that "improvers" in the form of enzymes and chemicals are added to the mix to speed up the fermentation time.
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Production Notes
Locations:
Crakehall Water Mill, Bedale, North Yorkshire;
Harrington's Bakery, Leatherhead, Surrey.