Author: Chris Wheeler
Further to my blog on Whitmore & Binyon, I have been working hard on Peter’s Collection for the past three weeks. During that time I have come across some interesting discoveries. One of these was a mill that I came across in Peter’s collection recently, namely Smith & Girling’s Steam Mill in Southwold (see image)
According to Peter’s notes in the Suffolk Mills Group Newsletter in the early 1990s, this steam mill was built in 1894 and used Whitmore & Binyon machinery in the form of a roller plant. The company seemed to be initially successful, with the offices situated close by the mill in Southwold. However, again according to Peter’s notes, the company seemed to cease operationally and the mill itself effectively close down as an operating concern in 1901. Now, seeming as this was the year that the Whitmore & Binyon offices and works were auctioned off, is the decline of Smith & Girlings steam mill, that used Whitmore & Binyon machinery, directly related to the demise of Whitmore & Binyon itself, or was it simply a co-incidence? The mill itself was converted into flats later on, and that is how it appears today.
I have now finished going through the photographs of the Whitmore & Binyon part of the collection, and will now turn my attention to the notes, documents and correspondence on the company in Peter’s Collection. I hope they will reveal some interesting and fascinating points!