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Arva Flour Mills · Farm to Table. Good. Clean. Food. 100% Canadian.
Historic Arva Flour Mill — Since 1819
Learn · Our Story

Canada's oldest
commercial flour mill.

Since 1819.

A family-run business for 207 years, on the banks of Medway Creek in Arva, Ontario. This is the story — from a Crown land grant on the road between Lucan and London, to a state-of-the-art 1904 roller mill, to a national breakfast icon, to the Buy Canadian moment of 2025 — of how the mill has kept turning wheat into flour, week after week, without stopping.

1819
Established as St. Johns Mill
10
Goldie & McCulloch roller stations
#6
Among Canada's oldest businesses
1,000+
Retailers carrying Red River Cereal
Chapter One · Chronology

Two centuries on Medway Creek

Every era of Arva is anchored to a decision about water, wheat, and machinery. Few written records survive from the mill's first four decades — but the mill itself, the dam, and the pond are themselves the record.

  1. Before 1819 Before the mill
    The land before Arva

    The creek, the people, the survey

    Long before the mill was built, this stretch of the Deshkan Ziibi — the Thames River watershed — was a travel, settlement, and resource corridor. By 1500 CE, the Attawandaron established agricultural villages along waterways including Medway Creek. Following their dispersal in the mid-seventeenth century, Haudenosaunee influence expanded briefly, before Anishinaabe groups — including the Chippewa — reoccupied the region for seasonal travel, hunting, and trade.

    European surveyors began mapping the Thames in the 1780s. Permanent settlement began after 1800, guided by treaties including the London Township Treaty (1796), through which Chippewa leaders ceded land for settlement, and the later Longwoods Treaty (1822).

    In 1818–1819, surveyor Mahlon Burwell, working for Colonel Thomas Talbot, mapped London Township. Burwell specifically noted the site on Medway Creek as a “good mill seat.” Before his survey was complete, the land had already been granted to Thomas Martin, on condition that he build a gristmill there.

    We acknowledge that the mill and the village of Arva sit on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Attawandaron peoples, who have longstanding relationships with the land and Medway Creek that far predate the mill. Content drawn from Western University's Public History research, April 2026.

  2. 1819
    Early black-and-white photograph of the Arva Flour Mill on the banks of Medway Creek, with 'ARVA FLOUR MILLS' painted on the timber siding and the head-race visible along the water
    The mill in its early years — on the banks of Medway Creek, with the head-race running along the water. Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (AFC526-5).
    Founding · St. Johns Mill

    The mill begins on Medway Creek

    Under Colonel Thomas Talbot's land grant program, Thomas Martin receives 50 acres at lot 16, concession 7 — on condition that he build a gristmill on Medway Creek. Martin's brother-in-law, Michael Flood, settles the north half of the lot. Construction begins on the road between Lucan and London.

    The mill is originally known as St. Johns Mill — named for the village of St. Johns that grows up around it, which in turn is named for the Anglican church of St. John the Divine (built 1822 on William Geary's farm). Both the creek and the mill were, at the time, called after Martin himself.

    Water is the only source of power, drawn from a dammed section of Medway Creek that still forms the Mill Pond today — though the dam itself is not completed until 1825. Very little is recorded of the mill's first four decades: it changes hands more than once, and Martin himself dies in 1837 before the mill and dam are fully built.

  3. 1822 – present
    Sister institution

    St. John the Divine — the church across the road

    Long before Arva had its current name, it had St. John the Divine — the Anglican church founded in 1822 on William Geary’s farm, a few minutes’ walk from the mill. The village was called St. Johns after the church, and the mill itself was originally the St. Johns Mill. When the post office needed a distinct name in 1849, the village became Arva; the church kept the older name.

    In the 1830s, before he became first Bishop of Huron, Benjamin Cronyn — the Irish-born evangelical who would go on to found Huron College (now part of Western University) and shape Anglicanism across southwestern Ontario — served as rector of the Arva township church, giving it up only in 1841. The church’s present brick building went up in 1875, replacing the original frame structure.

    Two hundred years on, the church and the mill still anchor the same small crossroads. Mark Rinker’s late father, Fred Rinker — who ran Magna-Pak just across the highway from the mill and first drew the family into Arva — is buried in St. John’s Cemetery, a few blocks from the rollers. The mill grinds; the church endures; the same valley holds both.

  4. 1837 – 1869 The struggle to build
    A contested half-century

    Ownership fights, but the mill keeps working

    Thomas Martin dies in 1837 with the dam and mill only partly built. His nephews — James and Thomas Flood — clash with millwright William Carlill over who will finish the mill and inherit the land. Petitions fly across the township (one signed by Rev. Benjamin Cronyn, later first Bishop of Huron), the case goes to court, and the land is ultimately forfeited by both sides. A public auction is held in September 1840.

    Edward Matthews — no relation to the later Matthews family — wins the auction. He dies in 1850 leaving heavy debts, and the property sits tangled in his estate for nineteen years.

    Through all of it, the mill keeps turning: by 1857 Wm. Saunby is on record running the grist mill, and by 1867 an English immigrant named Jacob Hawkins is the miller in charge — two years before he finally buys the site from the Matthews estate. The 1819 mill seat has changed hands under duress, but it never stops grinding grain.

  5. 1849
    Naming

    St. Johns becomes Arva

    The village is first known as St. Johns — after St. John the Divine, the church built in 1822 on William Geary’s farm. When a post office is established in 1849 with Joseph Sifton as postmaster, a different name is required (there is already a St. Johns post office elsewhere in Ontario). The name Arva is chosen, after Arvagh in County Cavan, Ireland. Officially the village is Arva from 1849 onward — but locals keep calling it St. Johns well into the 1880s before “Arva” fully takes over.

    Around the same time, the first concrete record of the mill’s operator appears: Wm. Saunby, running the grist mill in 1857.

  6. 1869
    Hawkins era begins

    Jacob Hawkins buys the mill for $5,075

    Renamed the Jacob Hawkins Flouring Mill. Under Hawkins, the enduring Imperial and Daisy flour brands are established — labels the mill still uses today. The Daisy brand takes its name from Hawkins's daughter Daisy, who modeled for the original red-and-white poster. By 1880, Arva is home to 260 residents anchored by the mill.

    Vintage HAWKINS FLOUR newspaper advertisement — 'Made from the Purest Wheat, Daisy Flour for Bread, Imperial Patent for Pastry, manufactured by J. Hawkins, Arva'
    A Hawkins-era ad: “Daisy Flour for bread, Imperial Patent for pastry — manufactured by J. Hawkins, Arva.” Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (AFC526-159).
  7. 1904 Pivotal transition
    Dustin Blackall, head miller and general manager at Arva Flour Mills, working among the 1904 Goldie and McCulloch roller stations
    Dustin Blackall, Arva's head miller and GM, in his earlier days at the mill — among the 1904 Goldie & McCulloch roller stations still in daily use today.
    Stones out. Cold roller mills in.

    Ten Goldie & McCulloch cold roller mills go live

    The Goldie & McCulloch Co. of Galt, Ontario — a major Canadian machinery builder — supplies ten cold roller milling stations. Each pair of rollers crushes grain quicker, cooler, and finer than millstones, letting Arva produce fine white flour at competitive volumes while nearby water-powered mills fold.

    These are the same machines, driven by leather belts up to 20 metres long running from a central line shaft, that still mill flour at Arva today.

    10roller stations
    ~1,200 lbflour per hour
    ~4 tonsflour per day, today
    Colour poster advertisement, 'Compliments of Arva Roller Mills, J. Hawkins Proprietor, Arva Ont.' — a young girl in a red beret holds lilies beside a barrel labelled 'Celebrated Daisy Flour' and a sack of Imperial Patent Flour with breads and pastries on the floor. Caption reads 'The Flower of the Family — Our Specialty, Celebrated Daisy Flour.'
    The “Flower of the Family” Daisy Flour poster from the Hawkins-era Arva Roller Mills — Daisy for bread, Imperial Patent for pastry. Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (AFC526-265).
  8. 1907 – 1985
    The McCormick's contract

    78 years supplying a London institution

    In 1907, Arva signs a supply agreement with London's McCormick Manufacturing Company — the “Sunshine Palace” biscuit and confectionery works on Dundas Street East, one of the largest food factories in North America. The deal is developed by Clarence Scott, who would come to own the mill in 1919. Arva provides the soft wheat flour McCormick's needs for its biscuits; in return, the mill gets a steady income and job security.

    By the 1940s, Arva is producing roughly 3 million pounds of flour a year for McCormick's. The contract runs 78 years, ending when the industry's shift to speed and scale leaves the slow, artisan Goldie & McCulloch rollers behind — which is exactly the trait that would define the mill's next chapter.

  9. 1912
    A local legend, before the White Stripes

    The nitroglycerine safe robbery

    In 1912, John Murray and Peter Fairburn blew the mill's office safe with nitroglycerine and made off with roughly $180 — about $5,000 in today's money. Both were caught and sentenced to three years.

    The safe is still in the mill office today. The scars from the blast are still visible on it.

  10. 1916 – 1923
    Power & modernization

    Barber turbines installed; electric motor drives the roller line

    c. 1916 — Barber horizontal turbines are installed in the mill race, replacing the earlier waterwheel. Water flows through the race, spins the turbines, and the resulting mechanical rotation is coupled to the mill's line shaft by belts. No electricity required — the turbines run on Medway Creek itself.

    1919 — Jacob Hawkins petitions London Township Municipal Hydro to bring electricity to the mill. Service arrives in the following years.

    1923 — An electric motor is installed and takes over driving the Goldie & McCulloch roller mills via leather belts and a line shaft. The turbines keep spinning under water power, but on the front half of the mill they are no longer the primary drivetrain — they continue to power the back half (the elevator shafts that lift flour to the sifting baskets at the top of the mill) for another century.

  11. 1919 – 2021
    A century of family stewardship

    Templeman → Scott → Matthews: one family, one mill, a century

    1919 — Hugh Templeman, a Peterborough native and bookkeeper, and his son-in-law Clarence Scott, a miller from Port Hope who had been working at Hunt Milling in London, purchase the mill together. Templeman keeps the books; Scott runs the mill floor. The Templeman daughter's marriage to Clarence is the first of two marriage-in threads that will carry the mill through the century.

    Newspaper advertisement, 'Arva Flour Mills, Arva, Ont. — Millers of Daisy Manitoba Bread Flour and Imperial Patent Special Pastry Flour, Sold At Leading Grocery Stores In Western Ontario, SCOTT and TEMPLEMAN, Flour Millers for Over 77 Years'
    Scott & Templeman — “Flour Millers for Over 77 Years.” A newspaper ad from the Scott-Templeman partnership era. Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (AFC526-169).

    1935 – 1978 — Harold Scott, Clarence's son, joins the mill in 1935. He takes over his grandfather Templeman's shares in 1946, becomes president in 1961, and leads Arva through the postwar decades. Harold is committed to producing nutritious, wholesome flour — rather than following the industry trend of stripping vitamins and minerals during milling. His brother-in-law John (Jack) McFarland serves as head miller for thirty years alongside him.

    Black-and-white photograph of Harold Scott, owner of Arva Flour Mills, in a fedora seated at a roll-top desk with invoices and paperwork pinned above him on the wall
    Harold Scott at his roll-top desk in the mill office — owner of Arva Flour Mills from 1946, president from 1961, and the third generation of the Templeman–Scott family line to run the mill. Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (AFC526-60).

    Still here. That same roll-top desk sits in the same spot in the mill office today — the paperwork has changed, but the desk is still the centre of operations.

    1978 – 2021 — The second marriage-in thread: Bill Matthews — no relation to Edward Matthews — grew up in Sarnia and spent eighteen years as a Great Lakes sailor before marrying Harold's daughter, Susan Scott. Bill learned the milling trade and took over from Harold in 1978. Bill's son Mike Matthews, who grew up on the mill property, takes over at age 22 in 1999. From Templeman and Scott through the Matthews name, it's the same family thread — a century of continuous stewardship.

    Colour photograph of the Arva Flour Mill in the 1970s or 1980s, with 'ARVA FLOUR MILLS' painted in red on the white timber siding and a grain elevator alongside a truck at the loading dock
    The mill during the Matthews era — the classic red-lettered exterior with elevator and loading dock. Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (AFC526-23).
  12. 1978
    Black-and-white photograph from October 1973, dozens of people lined up outside the Arva Flour Mill
    Even before the Mill Store opened, Arva drew a crowd — people lined up outside the mill, October 1973. Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (AFC526-30).
    The retail Mill Store opens

    Bill Matthews turns a working mill into a destination

    Bill takes over from his father-in-law Harold Scott and opens a retail store on the mill site — selling flour, baking supplies, and later dog and cat food, gradually expanding the inventory to fill customer requests. Where wholesalers once loaded burlap sacks off the dock, neighbours now come in for a bag of flour and a chat. Within a generation, the retail store becomes the mainstay of the operation.

    Newspaper clipping from The Mirror, July 22, 1999, headline 'HAPPY 180TH' — photo of Bill Matthews, owner of the Arva Flour Mill, standing in the retail Mill Store beside a painting of the mill
    The Mirror, July 22, 1999 — “Happy 180th”: Bill Matthews in the retail Mill Store beside a painting of the mill, marking Arva's 180-year milestone. Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (AFC526-193).
  13. 1999 – present
    Community tradition

    From Millfest to today's Heritage Festival

    In July 1999, the mill's 180th anniversary is marked with Millfest — a one-off community celebration on the mill grounds. The Mirror ran “Happy 180th” to mark the occasion.

    Under Mark Rinker, the idea returns as the Arva Heritage Festival — an annual weekend celebrating the mill, the village, and the surrounding farming community. Same crossroads, same creek, same idea: everyone gathers at the mill.

  14. c. 2007 – 2016
    A chef's flour

    The Only on King orders from Arva

    Through the Matthews era, London's celebrated The Only on King restaurant becomes a regular buyer of Arva flour. enRoute magazine names The Only #6 on its Best New Restaurants in Canada list for 2008 — a national spotlight that put Arva-milled flour on plates far beyond the mill's usual radius. The partnership anchors a generation of London chefs learning to cook with a stone-mill-adjacent, cold-roller flour they could get by driving twenty minutes north.

  15. July 7, 2007
    Local legend

    The White Stripes play the loading dock

    Jack White in a red shirt performing on the Arva Flour Mill loading dock on July 7, 2007, with a packed crowd of fans watching from below the dock.
    Jack White on the mill’s loading dock — July 7, 2007. Photograph from the London Free Press front-page story, framed in the mill office.

    On July 7, 2007, during their Icky Thump Canadian tour, The White Stripes perform a free “B-show” — announced only hours ahead on their fan bulletin board — on the mill’s 100+ year-old loading dock. Jack and Meg White play a full nine-song set including Hotel Yorba, Jack the Ripper, One More Cup of Coffee, and Hello Operator, hours before their main show that night at London’s John Labatt Centre.

    The set is later released on the vinyl Under Great White Northern Lights — B-Shows, and the mill’s appearance is featured in the tour’s 2009 documentary Under Great White Northern Lights (dir. Emmett Malloy).

    The London Free Press ran the story on the front page. The framed article still hangs in the mill office.

  16. 2016 – 2017
    Newspaper page from Ontario Farmer, headline 'Federal officials bringing flour mill to a grinding halt' — photograph of the exterior of the Arva Flour Mill and inset photo of Mike Matthews inside the mill among the vintage rollers
    Ontario Farmer, 2016 — “Federal officials bringing flour mill to a grinding halt.” Mike Matthews inside the mill among the century-old rollers. Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (AFC526-181).
    The safety-order fight

    Mike Matthews defends the roller line

    In May 2016, a federal Occupational Health & Safety inspector orders the mill to shut its rollers down or install modern guards over the Goldie & McCulloch machines — machinery the inspector deemed a safety hazard. Mike Matthews argues the guards would obscure the very equipment that makes the mill a working museum, and that the mill has operated the same machines for over a century without a single recorded operator injury on the roller line.

    Community support pours in: 10,000 signatures on a petition, calls from local MPs Peter Fragiskatos and Bev Shipley, and backing from the London Chamber of Commerce. In February 2017, the Occupational Health & Safety Tribunal overturns the initial order. The London Free Press covers the ruling on the front page: “Arva mill back to the old grind.”

    London Free Press article dated February 2017, headline 'Arva mill back to the old grind' — photo of Mike Matthews standing beside the vintage Goldie and McCulloch roller drivetrain inside the mill
    London Free Press, February 2017 — “Arva mill back to the old grind.” Mike Matthews with the vintage rollers after the tribunal's ruling. Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (AFC526-180).

    “I want to make it visually pleasing. It’s antique. That’s how we sell our product, through the vintage equipment. We don’t want it all blocked with a metal monstrosity.” — Mike Matthews, London Free Press, 2017

  17. 2020
    Pandemic pivot

    The back half of the mill converts to electric drive

    Pandemic-era flour demand exceeds what the water-powered back half of the mill can support. The elevator shafts and sifting-basket line — the last mechanical link between Medway Creek and the mill's drivetrain — are converted to electric drive to keep up with demand. It is the end of 201 years of continuous mechanical water power at Arva.

    Water still flows through the mill race today, and the Barber turbines still turn on the creek — but they are no longer mechanically coupled to the mill.

  18. July – September 2021 The mill goes up for sale
    A national story

    “End of an era?” — Arva goes on the market

    In July 2021, Mike Matthews lists the mill and its six-acre property for sale. Federal labour rules require him to shut down the entire drivetrain every time something needs fixing — no one else is allowed near the belts while the mill runs. He is 44, has a three-year-old at home, and after two decades of working alone among the century-old rollers, the work is taking a toll.

    “People swear by our flour. I don’t know what I’ll do when I don’t have my flour to bake with.” — Mike Matthews, CBC News, July 30, 2021

    The story lands across Canadian media. CBC calls it “a beloved local flour mill with a storied past and an uncertain future.” The listing draws interest from developers as far away as China — many of them pitching redevelopment plans. Fear spreads locally: the working museum could become a condo site.

  19. September 15, 2021 Saved
    New stewardship

    “End of an era? Not so fast.”

    On the morning of September 15, 2021, a release goes out: the mill has been sold to a local businessman, Mark Rinker, who intends to keep it running. Matthews had had offers from around the world — interest had come from as far away as China, and many of the parties wanted to redevelop the land — but he chose the local buyer whose plan was to preserve the legacy rather than replace it.

    “We had a lot of interest from multiple parties all over the world who wanted to re-develop the land, but ultimately, Mark’s vision to respect and continue the legacy of what our family has built over the last 100 years was most important to us.” — Mike Matthews, CTV News London, September 15, 2021

    “It’s simple really, being at the Mill gives me joy. From a very young age I formed a bond with the property, the people and processes that make the Mill special. Keeping the rich history and traditions of the Mill intact are as important to me as any commercial success.” — Mark Rinker, CTV News London, September 15, 2021

    The transaction closes in October 2021. Mark — recently retired as a Vice President in Pharmacy Automation Sales — and Joelle Rinker formally take ownership of Canada’s sixth-oldest business. The heritage is safe; the Goldie & McCulloch rollers keep turning; the same corner, the same creek, still grinding wheat.

  20. June 2022 National inflection
    Red River Cereal

    Arva acquires a discontinued Canadian breakfast icon

    On June 1, 2022, Arva Flour Mills acquires the Red River Cereal brand from Smucker Foods of Canada Corp., a subsidiary of the J.M. Smucker Co. Red River — a hearty blend of cracked wheat, rye, and flax created in Winnipeg in 1924 — had been discontinued by Smucker's in 2020–21, devastating the northern Canadian communities where it was a breakfast staple.

    Arva restores the original 1924 recipe (Smucker's had switched to steel-cut wheat in 2011) and relaunches the brand. Within three years, Red River Cereal reaches 1,000+ retailers with Canada-wide distribution. It becomes Arva's first fully national brand — and one of the more distinctive brand-rescue stories in Canadian food.

    1924brand origin (Winnipeg)
    2022acquired from Smucker's
    1,000+retailers by 2025
  21. August 2022
    Full of Beans acquisition

    Arva acquires a local artisan gluten-free brand

    In 2022, Arva acquires Full of Beans, a local Ontario artisan gluten-free baking brand. The Full of Beans line — gluten-free flours and baking mixes — is co-packed by BCC Foods, keeping production close and quality tight while giving Arva a dedicated gluten-free portfolio alongside its heritage flours.

  22. February 2024
    Red River Café opens

    A café rises next to the mill

    In late February 2024, the Red River Café opens adjacent to the historic mill — a culinary showcase for Arva’s artisan flours and the newly-revived Red River Cereal brand. The menu features fresh baked goods, breakfast, and lunch, all made with flour milled steps away on the vintage Goldie & McCulloch rollers.

    Housed adjacent to the mill’s historic property, the café turns the site from a working mill with a retail shop into a genuine destination — the kind of place where a Saturday-morning drive up Highway 4 ends in scones, sourdough, and a bag of flour ground that week. Hours: Mon – Sat 9AM – 3PM, Sun 10AM – 3PM.

  23. August 2024
    Certified Organic

    Arva earns organic certification from CSI

    After months of preparation led by Head Miller and GM Dustin Blackall — auditing grain sourcing, cleaning protocols, segregation practices, traceability records, and every point where organic and conventional grains could touch — Arva Flour Mills achieves formal organic certification from CSI in August 2024.

    For a 205-year-old operation, the certification is less about changing what Arva does than proving what it already does. The mill has always sourced from a tight network of Ontario growers; the CSI audit puts that supply chain, and the mill’s handling of it, on the public record. Certified organic flours now sit alongside the conventional lines on the shelf — same rollers, same millers, same creek.

  24. February 2025 Buy Canadian
    On the front page

    Riding the Buy Canadian wave

    On February 4, 2025, Canada imposes 25% counter-tariffs on the first tranche of a $155-billion package of U.S. goods in response to new American tariffs. A Buy Canadian movement takes hold across the country.

    On February 10, 2025, the London Free Press reports — in a story republished the same day by Bakers Journal — that Arva Flour Mills is "riding a business boom from the buy-Canadian push prompted by the threatened U.S. trade war."

  25. Today
    The Arva Flour Mills building — white timber cladding with ‘ARVA FLOUR MILLS’ painted across it and the red brick chimney rising alongside
    The mill today — the classic exterior on the banks of Medway Creek, unchanged in silhouette for over a century.
    Living heritage

    Canada's oldest commercial flour mill, still working

    The mill operates as a working artisan production facility, a retail Mill Store, and the Red River Café. It is a Certified B Corporation (pending reverification), produces roughly 370 tonnes of flour per year from ~500 tonnes of grain, and closes the loop by sending bran and middlings to a local livestock farmer and chaff back to Arva Grain for mulch.

    Water still flows through the mill race, and the Barber turbines still turn. A long-standing plan sits on file: to pair them to a generator and convert that free mechanical energy into renewable electricity for on-site use, closing a loop begun 207 years ago on Medway Creek.

    Living operations

    Electric delivery truck

    Arva’s wholesale flour deliveries run on an electric truck — short local routes, zero tailpipe emissions from mill to bakery.

    Free public Level 2 EV charger

    The mill hosts a free public Level 2 charger, listed on PlugShare — open to any driver stopping in for coffee, flour, or a walk along the creek.

    Mill Store

    The retail Mill Store sells every flour ground that week, plus grains, baking supplies, and local food from partner producers.

    arvaflourmills.com

    The mill’s e-commerce platform ships flour, Red River Cereal, and baking mixes across Canada — direct from Arva to the customer’s door.

    Sourdough workshops

    Regular hands-on sourdough classes teach home bakers to work with Arva’s heritage flours — an active thread of the mill’s education program.

    Mill tours

    Public and group tours — including school groups, community organizations, and industry partners — remain a regular part of the operation.

Four archival photographs of Arva Flour Mills across different eras, from early 1900s to modern day
The mill through the eras. Same building, same Medway Creek site, four different centuries of Arva photography — from the early 1900s to today.
Chapter Two · Power & Machinery

How the mill has been powered

The story of Arva's power is the story of every industrial mill in Canada — but told in one building, with the same machines, over 207 years. What follows is what drives the flour, and what has changed.

1819 – 1923

100% water-powered

For the mill's first 104 years, water is the only power source. A dam on Medway Creek — built in 1825 — creates the Mill Pond. Water is channeled through the mill race to a waterwheel and, later, to horizontal Barber turbines (c. 1916). Rotational energy is transferred by leather belts and a line shaft to the millstones, and after 1904, to the ten Goldie & McCulloch roller mills.

  • Power source: Medway Creek
  • Drive: waterwheel → Barber turbines (c.1916)
  • Coupling: leather belts + line shaft
1923 – 2020

The hybrid century

An electric motor is installed in 1923 and takes over the roller-mill drivetrain via leather belts and a line shaft. But water power isn't retired — the back half of the mill (the elevator shafts that lift flour to the top of the building for sifting) continues to run on the Barber turbines for another 97 years.

  • Front half: electric drive (rollers)
  • Back half: water turbines (elevator + sifters)
  • Combined: the mill's hybrid drive era
2020 – present

Fully electric drivetrain

During the pandemic surge, flour demand exceeds what the water-driven back half can support. The elevator and sifting lines are converted to electric drive. For the first time since 1819, no part of the mill's drivetrain is mechanically coupled to Medway Creek.

  • Drive: fully electric across both halves
  • Turbines: still spinning, not coupled
  • Water flow: unchanged through the mill race
A dormant on-site asset

The 1916 turbines are still there

Arva's dam, mill race, and 1916 Barber horizontal turbines are all still on-site — water still flows, the turbines still turn, they're just uncoupled from the grain drivetrain. Arva recognizes the hydro system as a real on-site renewable asset and continues to monitor the conditions that would make reactivation viable: Ontario export compensation, net-metering rules, and small-hydro procurement openings.

The path is straightforward when the economics are: pair the still-turning turbines to a generator and convert free mechanical rotation into renewable electricity for on-site use — closing the loop opened in 1819. Documented in Arva's B Corp Climate Action Plan (CA 2.1) as monitored renewable readiness.

  • Asset: 1916 Barber horizontal turbines, mill race, dam
  • Status: fully operable, uncoupled since 2020
  • Path: turbine + generator = renewable electricity
  • Governance: B Corp CA 2.1 climate plan, monthly Ontario-policy watch
Close-up of a Goldie and McCulloch roller mill with cast-iron flywheel and belt drive
Cast-iron flywheel and belt drive on one of the Goldie & McCulloch roller stations — the same drivetrain design in place since 1904.
A word on "water-powered"

Trade press and national media often describe Arva as "North America's oldest water-powered commercial flour mill." That's how the outside world knows us. Strictly speaking, the mill's drivetrain became fully electric in 2020 — but the water-power heritage is real, continuous, and physically still here: the dam, the mill race, and the turbines. Our clearest claim, and the one on our masthead, is what remains unambiguously true: Canada's oldest commercial flour mill, since 1819.

Chapter Three · The Road Past the Door

The Proof Line — how a toll road became Highway 4

Long before it was Highway 4, the road running past the mill was called the Proof Line — the surveyed corridor from London to Lucan through the Medway Creek valley. The mill was here first, watched the toll gates go up, watched them come down in flames, and remains at the same crossroads more than a century after the last toll was paid.

1849

Freeman Talbot organizes the Proof Line Road Joint Stock Co.

Freeman Talbot organizes a private company with £8,000 in capital — the Proof Line Road Joint Stock Company — to formalize the corridor from the corner of Dundas and Richmond Streets in London north through Arva and Birr to Elginfield. The road serves London's northern hinterland and quickly becomes a profitable investment. The mill has already been grinding for 30 years.

1850s – 1880s

Three toll gates, one profitable route

The completed road runs three toll gates along Richmond Street north through Arva, Birr, and Elginfield. Farmers, teamsters, and merchants pay to move grain, flour, and goods between London and its hinterland. The mill sends its own flour south down the same road — paying the tolls that would eventually be burned in its own front yard.

1882

First tollgates come down

Middlesex County Council trades away most of its tollgates in exchange for the abolition of London's market fees. But three toll gates on the Proof Line — on the 4th, 9th, and 15th concessions — remain. Public frustration with the “medieval tollgate” has been building for decades. As one contemporary writer put it: “the toll-bar across the road is a sore trial to twentieth century humanity.”

July 26, 1907

The great Arva bonfire

After long negotiation, the City of London, London Township, Middlesex County, and the Province of Ontario jointly purchase the Proof Line Road for $11,000, transferring it to public ownership. That night, in Arva, the collected toll gates are burned in a huge bonfire — preceded by speeches from local magnates delivered from the balcony of the Arva Hotel.

“On the night of July 26th, 1907, following much speaking and congratulation delivered from the Arva Hotel balcony, by local magnates, a huge bonfire gladdened the hearts of the assembled crowd, and the medieval tollgate passed forever from the County of Middlesex.”
— Historic Sketches of London Ontario
1920

Ontario designates it King's Highway 4

Ontario formalizes the old Proof Line corridor as King's Highway 4, preserving the wagon route as one of the province's major modern roads. The mill's front door, unchanged, opens onto what is now a provincial highway.

Today

The same crossroads, still

Every driver going north out of London on Richmond Street is retracing the Proof Line. The Arva Hotel is long gone. The toll gates are ash. Almost nothing on that 1907 map is still working.

The mill is. Same corner, same creek, still grinding wheat.

Chapter Four · Red River Cereal

A discontinued Canadian brand, brought back

Red River Cereal is the second story of Arva. It's the story of a discontinued Canadian icon — and how a 200-year-old family mill brought it back, restored the original recipe, and put it back on 1,000+ shelves.

1924

Winnipeg, Gertrude Skilling's kitchen

Gertrude Edna Skilling develops the original Red River recipe in her kitchen in Winnipeg — a hearty porridge of cracked wheat, rye, and brown flaxseeds grown in the Red River Valley. Her husband, president of the Red River Grain Co., begins manufacturing it. The recipe is patented in 1929.

1928 – 1995

Maple Leaf, then Robin Hood, then Smucker's

Manufacturing is taken over by Maple Leaf Milling Co. in 1928. In 1995 the brand is acquired by Robin Hood Multifoods, part of Smucker Foods of Canada. Under Smucker's, the recipe is altered in 2011 to include steel-cut wheat rather than the original cracked-wheat formulation.

2020 – 2021

Discontinuation

Smucker's pulls Red River Cereal from Canadian shelves in mid-2020, then announces in March 2021 that production has ceased entirely. Northern Canadian customers — where Red River was a breakfast staple — are hit hardest.

June 1, 2022

Arva acquires the brand

Arva Flour Mills officially acquires the Red River Cereal brand from Smucker Foods of Canada Corp. Arva reverts to the original cracked-wheat-and-rye formulation and begins on-site production. Retail relaunch begins that summer at the Mill Store and online.

2022 – 2025

1,000+ retailers and growing

Within three years, Red River Cereal reaches 1,000+ retailers with Canada-wide distribution. National coverage — including CBC's feature on how an Ontario flour mill brought back a cereal that had disappeared from northern shelves — becomes part of the wider story of the acquisition.

Alongside grocery, Red River Cereal is also available direct to Canadians through arvaflourmills.com.

December 2023

100-year anniversary

Arva celebrates the brand's centennial with limited-edition black-and-red boxes in the original 1.35 kg format, echoing the 1924 packaging.

Chapter Five · Buy Canadian, February 2025

A Buy Canadian moment

For 207 years Arva has been mostly a local story. In February 2025, national attention arrived unexpectedly.

February 1, 2025
Canada announces a $155-billion counter-tariff package on U.S. imports in response to new American tariffs on Canadian goods.
February 4, 2025
The first $30 billion tranche of 25% Canadian counter-tariffs takes effect. A grassroots Buy Canadian movement gains national momentum overnight.
February 10, 2025
The London Free Press publishes "Pro-Canada sales (from the U.S., too) boom at Arva Flour Mill near London, Ont." The story is republished the same day by Bakers Journal, reaching a national baking-industry audience. Arva is publicly framed as "Canada's oldest water-powered flour mill … riding a business boom from the buy-Canadian push prompted by the threatened U.S. trade war."
Through 2025
The story reaches readers well beyond southwestern Ontario. Arva keeps doing what it has always done: milling 100% Canadian grain at a working heritage site on Medway Creek.
"

Canada's oldest water-powered flour mill, just north of London, Ont., is riding a business boom from the buy-Canadian push prompted by the threatened U.S. trade war.

The London Free Press · February 10, 2025
Chapter Six · Supply chain

The farmers behind the flour

Arva's sourcing philosophy is hyper-local first, Canadian second. Every grain that comes into the mill is tied to a specific wheat variety, a specific Arva product, and a specific growing region — four of them in Southwestern Ontario, two outside the province by necessity.

Grain by grain, farm by region

Each Arva flour SKU is milled from a specific wheat variety, sourced from a defined growing region.

Soft Red Winter Wheat
Locally adjacent farms · Arva
Milled into Imperial Pastry Flour. Sourced from farms immediately adjacent to the mill, including Arva Grain across the highway.
Hard Red Winter Wheat
Monkton – Mitchell region · Perth County
Milled into Daisy Hard Unbleached and Daisy Hard Whole Wheat Flour. Sourced from farms in the Monkton – Mitchell region of Perth County.
Spelt Wheat
Petrolia – Wyoming region · Lambton County
Milled into Arva Organic White Spelt and Whole Spelt Flour. Sourced from organic farms in the Petrolia – Wyoming region of Lambton County.
Red Fife Wheat
Blyth region · Huron County
Milled into Arva White Red Fife and Whole Red Fife Flour. Sourced from farms in the Blyth region of Huron County.
Organic Einkorn
South of Regina · Saskatchewan
Milled into Arva Organic Whole Einkorn Flour. Sourced from an organic farm south of Regina, Saskatchewan — the only commercial organic einkorn producer at Arva's volume.
Organic Emmer Wheat
Armstrong · British Columbia
Milled into Arva Organic Emmer Flour. Sourced from an organic farm in Armstrong, B.C. — the only commercial organic emmer producer at Arva's volume.
Across the highway

Arva Grain / Arva Heights Farm

The grain elevator on the north edge of Arva, immediately across the highway from the mill, is Arva's primary local partner — growing and storing corn, soybeans, and wheat, including the soft red winter wheat that becomes Imperial pastry flour. Same-day deliveries are routine: the mill calls in the morning, wheat is on-site by afternoon.

A pile of wheat grain and a pile of milled flour side by side on a worktable inside the mill
Wheat in, flour out — side by side on a worktable inside the mill.

Grain flow — one year at Arva

~500 t
Grain in
from local & Canadian farms
~370 t
Flour out
Arva & wholesale customers
~120 t
Bran & middlings
to a local livestock farmer
~10 t
Chaff
back to Arva Grain for mulch
Chapter Seven · Disambiguation

Arva, Ontario ≠ Arvada, Colorado

Search engines routinely conflate two very different mills a border and a century apart. This is about the Arva Flour Mill in Ontario. The Arvada Flour Mill in Colorado is a preserved museum, not a working commercial mill.

🇨🇦 Ontario

Arva Flour Mill

Arva, Ontario, Canada
Established
1819 (as St. Johns Mill)
Age
207 years, continuously operating
Status today
Working commercial mill, Mill Store, Red River Café, and e-commerce at arvaflourmills.com
Original power
100% water (Medway Creek dam, 1825)
Current drivetrain
Fully electric since 2020; turbines still turn on the mill race
Core machinery
10 Goldie & McCulloch cold roller mills, installed 1904
Product output
~4 tons flour / day, ~370 t / year
Distinction
Canada's oldest commercial flour mill; 6th oldest business in Canada
Owner
Rinker family (since 2021), 5th ownership era
Certifications
Certified B Corporation (pending reverification); CSI Organic Certification
Signature brands
Arva Flour Mills, Red River Cereal, Imperial Pastry Flour, Daisy Hard Unbleached Flour
arvaflourmills.com →
🇺🇸 Colorado

Arvada Flour Mill

Arvada, Colorado, USA
Established
Built 1923–1925; opened April 1926
Age
~100 years (celebrating centennial April 2026)
Status today
Museum only — ceased commercial milling by early 1950s
Power
25 HP Fairbanks-Morse engine (never water-powered)
Core machinery
Roller mill + bucket elevator; bought secondhand
Peak output
~200 lb flour / hour
Distinction
U.S. National Register of Historic Places (1975); Jefferson County Landmark (2023)
Founder
Eugene Emory Benjamin; later Frank Tiller (1944)
Current steward
Arvada Historical Society
Signature brand
Arva-Pride Flour (defunct)
historyarvada.org →
Bottom line: the Colorado mill is a beautifully preserved artifact of 1920s American agriculture. The Ontario mill is over a century older, still turns wheat into flour every week, and has never stopped operating since 1819. They share only a coincidental name.
Historical research & archive

With thanks to Western University

Historical research contributed by graduate students from Western University’s Digital Public History course, April 2026: Rylee Brooks, Erin Case, Kim DelMedico, Helen Edwards, Grace Lazzuri, Claire Pidduck, David Seston, and Beth Zentner — under the direction of Mike Dove, Director of Western Public History.

“Producing this timeline for Arva Flour Mill as a Western University–supported Industry Project was a superb experiential learning opportunity. Our students conducted primary and secondary research into the history of the Mill, its operations and products, and its wider impact on communities, while also gathering visual material to share with the public through the Mill’s website. In doing so, they gained tremendous appreciation for the site’s historical significance and ongoing value to the local community and those across Canada.”

— Mike Dove, Director, Western Public History
Mill records now at Western

The historical documents of Arva Flour Mill — ledgers, correspondence, photographs, and business records — are now held at Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries (Fonds AFC526 — Arva Flour Mill), ensuring that more than two centuries of Ontario milling history remain accessible to researchers, students, and the public.