The collection
Back in 2001 when we were considering setting up the Mills Archive, Derek offered us his material, as he was concerned for the future of his life’s work. This was our first promise of millwrighting files and drawings and I said we would be delighted to take these into safe custody. With every mill Derek was asked to work on he would do his own drawings for the repair or replacement of parts of the mill, and he kept a file on each with great detail. This amounted to over 200 files, most with drawings.
His files on UK mills eventually got through customs in a crate and made their way to the Archive, and a few years later the US files followed. More than 100 digital images are featured in our catalogue. As well as the files there are reports, correspondence and photographs as well as other documents relating to UK and US millwrighting projects between 1963 and 2010. Further material including 100 photograph albums are still to come.
Derek says he is very happy to know it is all safe with us and hopes it was worth waiting for! He says he now knows they are in good hands, although he will soon have nothing but fond memories to look back on. Of course we keep Derek up to date with the progress on his collection with images such as this one of volunteer Beth Grant cataloguing and repackaging his files:
