Author: Hannah Pearce
After 12 weeks of blogging, researching and writing stories, I only have a few days left at the Archive. When I first arrived, I had the basic knowledge that mills and archives existed but not much beyond that. Now, I can tell you about post, smock and tower mills, as well as overshot and undershot waterwheels. I can also explain the importance of archives and the work of small charities. But what has fascinated me most are the stories – the snapshots of people’s lives – that the archives here contain.
During the course of my time here, I was lucky enough to work closely with the collections. I had the chance to explore collections owned by famous mill people such as Rex Wailes, mill recorders such as Arthur C Smith, and collections like The Northwestern Miller that span a century. I hunted within them and others like it for stories to share with you and a few of my favourites include:
Arthur C Smith’s bicycle mishaps: during his mill recording adventures he fell head first off his bicycle into a 6ft deep ditch.
Stephen Buckland’s letters of complaint: he wrote strongly-worded letters annoyed that articles he spent a significant amount creating were ignored.
Karl Wood’s drawing encounters- he was forced to paint a windmill through a hole in a hedge after permission was refused to paint in the fields.
But these are only a sample of the stories to be discovered at the Archive.
As an English Language student, the chance to work and write stories was a pleasure and I would like to thank everyone here at the Archive for making my summer memorable.