The Great British Bake Off, a television programme that has captured the imaginations of the British viewing public, has provided companies such as W & H Marriage and Sons Ltd of Essex in the UK with

increasing demand for its artisan flours for bread making and baking.

Mr George Marriage, who is from the ‘William side’ of the family and therefore flour mill orientated, is responsible for the overall operation of the mill and says, “The quality drivers for flour today come from the marketplace.”

Making a comparison, he says, “Nobody wants a cheap car these days” and there is a universal awareness of quality throughout the flour and food industry that is being better understood by consumers through programmes such as the Great British Bake Off.

“Everyone wants things to be better,” he adds. And consumers of flour are no different.

Flour milling, says George, is the same process no matter where in the world you are.

“The technology used is similar. It’s the materials used in manufacturing the equipment that has changed, such as the bearings and drives and resulting energy savings.”

Another significant change is in the control systems used in a modern mill.

“Today everything is controlled and recorded by computer.“For example, we are operating from a building built in 1899

and which started out producing just three-quarters of a tonne of flour per hour. Today, we house much newer equipment, and our colour sorter and computerised control systems combined with our laboratory mean we can control, trace and test quality at all stages throughout the process using our own laboratory services.”

It was in 1997 when a seven tonne-per-hour roller flour mill was installed which took the factory from a line shaft driven mill over to direct drive for its roller mills.

W & H MARRIAGE & SONS LTD

MILLING SINCE 1824 The Marriage family have been flour millers in Essex since 1824 and farmers in the local area since the seventeenth century

The Great British Bake Off starts with quality flour and Marriage’sby Roger Gilbert and Olivia Holden, Milling and Grain magazine

part 1: The flour mill

26 | Milling and Grain

FLOUR

However, being unique in the marketplace is critical and Marriage’s are no different in defining what makes them special.

“It’s our customer services that are unique and provide us with our selling point.

“Comparing our industry to others, we know ours will always be there.”

A tour of the flour millMr Andrew Thain, the Head Miller at Marriage’s, took us on a

tour of the factory when we visited in February. He explained that his first visit to the company was as a schoolboy in college.

“That was 28 years ago. Something just clicked and I knew this would be the job for me.”

To this day he doesn’t know what it was about the flour mill ‘that clicked’, but he treats his job of head miller as a vocation and not simply a job. His dedication and attention to detail when Milling and Grain visited was obvious and reminded the writer of the principles of milling extolled in the past by our feature-writer Jonathan Bradshaw in these pages: that a miller must walk the floors of his mill every day looking over all the equipment and looking out for anything out of place. It was

fascinating to see this discipline in action.From the intake that can take in up to 60 tonnes of wheat per

hour - or two (30 tonne) lorry deliveries an hour - to the reception control room where it takes just four hours to send and receive all the necessary test results from the company’s laboratory, to the roller mill floor itself, passing along all floors on the way while the writer was learning all the time about the uniqueness of this facility.

The mill has off-site storage but holds up to 700 tonnes on site with the new UK crops coming in between August and end of December.

Storage on site includes some 35 bins of varying capacities: 45 tonnes, 21 tonnes and a couple of 18-tonne bins.

“The range of storage helps us to handle the mill’s requirements,” says Andrew.

The mill’s emphasis is on producing strong, predominantly white flours; organic is an important consideration for some customers; flours made from high protein Canadian wheat can be selected by the customer; wholemeal flour traditionally milled on the French burr stones is also popular. Spelt, barley and rye are speciality flours that have been recently launched.

This company supplies a wide range of flours, including

Mr George Marriage

stands alongside

portraits of his ancestors

Still a fifth and sixth generation family run company, Marriage’s produce premium quality wheat flour for home bakers, as well as supplying traditional independent artisan high street bakeries and bulk contract customers. Marriage’s mill a broad range of white, brown, wholemeal, rye, spelt and barley flours; stoneground wholemeal flour is a speciality, traditionally milled on horizontal French Burr stones

March 2015 | 27

F

speciality and traditional stoneground varieties to high street and artisan bakeries, caterers and pizza manufacturers as well as an extensive range for home bakers.

And that was the surprise to the visitor – seeing a room housing a four-year-old Bühler colour sorter, going about its work in an orderly and accurate manner driven remotely by a computer housed in a cabinet on the wall and inspected occasionally, to the ‘stone room’ where four of the five large 100-year-old French Burr stones were in operation. The fifth was being dressed, resharpened by hand in the traditional manner that has been carried out down the centuries – what an impressive sight!

And what a juxtaposition these two images created - the very old competing in a modern marketplace with the very new! How can the two operate in the same mill just a flight of stairs and a room apart from each other?

Obviously, they are doing quite different jobs, but the irony of the traditional Burr stones – producing just half-a-tonne per hour of flour - and the modern Bühler colour sorter processing some 25 tonnes per hour, located almost side-by-side and intricately involved in producing a product that the UK’s leading bakeries and manufacturers are calling for, was hard to comprehend.

Quality controlMarriage’s undertake stringent quality assurance procedures throughout the

milling process. They are Campden Research affiliates and are BRC Certificated. “Our onsite technical laboratory tests the wheat from intake for factors such as

protein quality, content and moisture levels and throughout the milling process,” says George.

Marriage’s end flour is baked into various products by their onsite master baker. This is vital, as the most important thing for Marriage’s customers, be they a

A Flour World Museum story

No. 1

www.muehlenchemie.de

King-sizeking cakeYou can get it as a dry cake, with

cream, truffle chocolate, or in world-

record size – king cake, eaten in

Mexico since the 16th century at

Epiphany. To celebrate 200 years

of Mexican independence, Mexico

City bakers made a truly king-size

"Rosca de Reyes" weighing ten tons

and measuring 2360 feet long. The

massive cake took 16,684 pounds of

flour, 56,880 eggs and 8157 pounds

of butter, and cut nicely into 254,000

pieces. But no one knows who

found the porcelain figurine that is

hidden in every Rosca de Reyes. This

will no doubt remain a mystery, for

whoever finds it must make tamales

for all the guests, later at the

"Fiesta de la Candelaria". With this

gargantuan cake that would be an

impossible task.

The Mühlenchemie FlourWorld Museum

in Wittenburg is an expression of our

company culture and the responsibility

we feel towards the miller and his flour,

as one of the most important staple

foods. The museum is a journey through

the millennia, illuminating the devel-

opment and importance of flour. It is

the only one of its kind in the world.

www.flourworld.de

Olivia Holden from the Milling and Grain team taking a tour of the Marriage’s flour mill

28 | Milling and Grain

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professional artisan bread baker or someone baking at home for pleasure, is that they receive a consistent product every time.

Marriage’s have produced organic certified flour varieties since 1986, and Sampson David Marriage (fourth generation family member) was interested in organic production long before it became so high profile. George Marriage played a key role in the early development of the Organic Food Federation and served as Chairman for several years. Marriage’s have been active in organic industry research projects across the agricultural, milling and baking industries.

In the milling process, the best possible wheats are selected to ensure consistent flour quality. Marriage’s source English wheat from local Essex farmers where possible, including from the family’s own arable farms near the mill. This local commitment helps to keep food miles to a minimum. All of the farmers that Marriage’s source wheat from are members of the Assured Crops Scheme. Many of the farmers that supply Marriage’s have been farming families for generations – the same is true of many of the

smaller independent family bakery firms that purchase Marriage’s flour.

In addition, Marriage’s source high protein Canadian Red Wheat; this is world renowned for quality in bread, pasta and pizza making.

Marriage’s have been members of the National Association of British and Irish Millers for many years. George Marriage is Chair of the Pre-Pack Flour Committee.

Marriage’s are also committed to supporting artisan bakery customers, many of which are small family run businesses. Marriage’s have sponsored National Craft Bakers’ Weeks since 2009 and Hannah Marriage is the Chairman of the week in 2015.

Marriage’s ongoing professional development of staff includes milling staff going to Switzerland for milling training.

“The foundation of Marriage’s trusted reputation has been built on our focus upon customer satisfaction.

“Marriage’s dedicated sales and technical teams are available to support customers face to face – for example visiting bakeries and production sites to ensure customers are achieving consistent production results. As a company, Marriage’s retain core family values yet are always looking ahead - one of the reasons the business is still thriving after almost two centuries. In the UK there are now only about thirty full scale milling firms, and Marriage’s are in a minority of family run companies.

“Marriage’s produce a range of organic flours; its registration body is the Organic Food Federation (OFF) and all its products display the OFF symbol as part of its organic status”

FLOUR

March 2015 | 29

UK Essex farmers William and Henry Marriage diversified their 17th Century farming operations in 1824 by installing a mill to process grain, with some branny co-product being used as fodder for the farm animals. That was the starting point for one of today’s oldest UK milling operations.

Since then, William’s side of the family has been the flour millers, while Henry’s descendants continued to farm the land.

In the 1970s, compound feed was added to the manufacturing facility by Peter Marriage and he continues to run this today with cousin James, a sixth generation descendant of Henry Marriage.

The board of directors has always contained between three and six family members. There are currently three directors from the sixth generation and three from the fifth.

115 years ago the mill moved from outside Chelmsford - where it had been located for wind power and access to water - into the town itself and started to use mechanical power. Distribution also became more of a factor when competing with other flour millers.

The railway running through Chelmsford provided the company

with easy access to the markets of Norwich, Ipswich and London, and eventually proved useful for raw materials coming

in from overseas. The mill remains in the same location today, despite the conversion of other local factories into apartments, most notably that of Marconi, the builder of the first radio.

Future developments suggest that it will become ever more important to be close to the road network, as road haulage is now the only form of transport in and out.

Most recently the company has bought a pet food production plant in Driby, Lincolnshire, to complement the output in Essex.

“Our commercial poultry and livestock feed production is all done here in Chelmsford,” says James.

“The Driby site specialises in coarse mixing of bird food and small animal feeds, amongst other light processing.”

“Chelmer Mills has a strong reputation for making starter diets for poultry. We have a number of other niche areas, such as medicated, organic and non-GM feeds.”

“Organic output has waned in the UK in recent years, despite some support around Europe, particularly in Germany, where the ‘BIO’ or non-GMO movement is strongly supported. South American countries now take some persuading to produce organic or even non-GM soya.”

“We are proud of the traceability and reliability of our products.”

W & H MARRIAGE & SONS LTD

MILLING SINCE 1824 The Marriage family have been flour millers in Essex since 1824 and farmers in the local area since the seventeenth century

by Roger Gilbert and Olivia Holden, Milling and Grain magazine

part 2: The feed mill

32 | Milling and Grain

FEED

“We also make absolutely sure that the service is there, which retains customers in a competitive marketplace.”

Having the flourmill on site provides essential high quality co-products, such as the wheatfeed used in the feed mill. Retailers will also buy bran alongside compound feeds.

Wheatfeed produced during the roller milling of white flour is sold to pig farms where it is milled and mixed on-farm.

Local farms, including the family’s own 2000 acres to the west of Chelmsford, provide feed wheat, oats, barley, peas and beans direct to the mill.

“The cover we carry is about a month and a half, which may be extended if the futures markets are low.”

The mill imports fishmeal and soya, the former providing an exceptional and often essential form of protein.

Emphasis on poultry feed “In recent years the feed mill has been producing up to 35,000

tonnes,” says James.

The emphasis is on poultry feeds, mainly layer hen, duck and turkey, which together make up almost 90 percent of production.

The are now ever fewer pig and dairy farms in the area and this has partly driven the change. The company does like to have a speciality like poultry but also wishes to retain an interest in all areas of agriculture. Being a relatively small feed mill and having its own transport has led to the company providing excellent service to the small farms in the area.

Compliance and accreditationAccreditation and compliance become more important every

year. The site has to accommodate up to 10 independent audits per year from various customer- and organisation-based services.

“These audits are taken very seriously and prepared for with a technical team, specific related procedures and processes and internal audits”.

In addition to this the company has a third-party pest controller who specialises in wheat mills and food stores.

StaffChelmer Mills has approximately 100 staff at any one time: 40

in the two mills, 20-30 in the transport department and 40 in the office, including sales teams.

UK Essex farmers William and Henry Marriage diversified their 17th Century farming operations in 1824 by installing a mill to process grain, with some branny co-product being used as fodder for the farm animals. That was the starting point for one of today’s oldest UK milling operations.Since then, William’s side of the family has been the flour millers, while Henry’s descendants continued to farm the land. In the 1970s, compound feed was added to the manufacturing facility by Peter Marriage and he continues to run this today with cousin James, a sixth generation descendant of Henry Marriage.

March 2015 | 33

FEED