Living History
The old informs the new
We’re actually not the first gristmill in
Middletown Springs!
Our gristmill and bakery are located in Burnham Hollow, where John Burnam had two grist mills on the Poultney River in the late 1700’s. As far as we know, no trace of either remains. In 1785, Burnham of Ipswich, Massachusetts moved to Middletown Springs. In 1791, he started a grist mill on the Poultney river, merely a stone’s throw away from us.
The mill operated for 2 decades before being completely washed away in the flood of 1811, in a robust spring storm commonly known as a “freshet”; the rare combination of a suddenly rising river caused by heavy rain and melting snow". Although he did rebuild several water powered enterprises, he did not rebuild the gristmill.
As far as we know, no trace of either remains. There are no photos of either, nor any of the other early gristmills, because they were all destroyed before the invention of photography.
Over time, Middletown Springs actually had several gristmills, tanneries, and sawmills on the Poultney River. It was described as a “destination” for neighboring farmers who brought their grain harvests for milling. This all happened just a hop, step and a jump from our location. We have a word we love and that's; “re-barning”; which we define as re-building and re-establishing the infrastructure to manufacture and process grains into flour.
That’s what we’re doing here.
