The Sturminster Newton Mill has occupied its picturesque spot on the banks of the River Stour in North Dorset since 1016. It earned a mention in the Domesday Book - a survey of England penned in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror - and was reportedly updated during the Elizabethan era in 1566. Shut down in 1970, the mill was converted into a museum run by the Sturminster Newton Heritage Trust in 1994.

When millers Pete Loosmore and Imogen Bittner heard that stores were running out of flour, they realised the water-powered mill could make a real difference.

“When COVID-19 struck, all of the local shops ran out of flour very quickly,” Mr Loosmore tells the Washington Post. “We had a stock of good-quality milling wheat and the means and skills to grind it into flour, so we thought we could help.”