We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded archive accreditation by the National Archives. The badge of accreditation is national recognition for the quality of our work caring for the vulnerable records of milling history.
Accreditation is the UK standard which recognises good performance in all areas of caring for historic records and making them available to public. To receive accreditation, we needed to demonstrate that the Mills Archive has met clearly defined national standards relating to management and resourcing; the care of our unique collections and what we offer to our users.
The Archive Service Accreditation Panel “praised the excellent website and the very strong documentation supporting the application, which was a model for a small, specialist service. They also strongly commended the service’s work with the wider mills heritage community and hope to see its support for that community continued and developed.”
Previously they had “noted particularly strong activity in areas including volunteering, fundraising development, online provision and cataloguing”.
A big part of our success lies in the support that our donors and funders have given us to protect our collections and help provide free public access. In particular, we are grateful for the support we have received over the years from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The HLF is funding our current project called From Quern to Computer, which tells the story of flour milling from its ancient origins and up to the present day.
We are also very grateful to our team, the work of our volunteers and particularly to our archivist, Nathanael Hodge, who had this to say:
“We’ve found the accreditation process very rewarding. Comparing our day to day work with national standards has challenged us to improve in many areas we might never have thought about. We’re very excited to hear that our application has been successful!”
To find out more about archive accreditation, visit the National Archives website here.