In 1980 Eling Tide Mill Trust sponsored “THE FLOUR OF THE FOREST” as part of a fund-raising campaign for the £50,000 needed to complete the restoration of the mill machinery and develop a comprehensive interpretative display to show how the mill works.

The artists were all resident singers at Southampton’s Fo’c’s’le Folk Music Club and their work reflected aspects of the restoration project, and the affection that so many people feel for the mill. The songs also looked forward to the mill’s new role as a working tide mill, where Hampshire wheat would be ground by millstones powered by the tides of the Solent.