We are delighted to announce that we have been granted £30,000 by the Millers’ Mutual Association, to transform how we care for our precious milling records. Faced with a funding gap to complete the project, the MMA have kindly stepped in and have agreed to fund the project over 3 years.
This project, also partly funded by the Pilgrim Trust and the Garfield Weston Foundation, will see many of our catalogued items be rehoused offsite in Upper Heyford (pictured above). While our premises at Watlington House, a grade-II* listed building in the centre of Reading, are beautiful and attractive to visitors, we face challenges in terms of how we can store our material. Some material is very fragile and can’t be handled, such as glass plates. Other material has been digitised and is available online.
The MMA’s grant will help us prepare to move such material offsite to Upper Heyford. The site was once a military base and has several large, indestructible air hangars. Some of these hangars have been converted into impressive and cost-effective archival storage solutions. This storage meets the highest level of archival storage standard requirements, and has the benefit of being close to the Archive. We can request items to be returned to our Reading base when visiting researchers wish to view an item in person, and material can be returned very quickly.
At a time when we are actively attracting new material to create the world’s first roller flour mill archive and library, we are faced with increasing pressure on storage space, which this project will alleviate.
With the MMA’s own history reflecting the changes in milling from traditional to roller milling, their support seems particularly appropriate. In the aftermath of WWI, the issue of over-capacity re-emerged and competition between mills increased. This was hurting the British milling industry so a solution had to be found. After encouraging the two big companies of Ranks and Spillers to meet, a meeting was held where the formation of the Millers’ Mutual Association was agreed upon. The MMA then introduced a production quota system and a rationalisation scheme which ultimately strengthened British millers and reduced the amount of imports.
The MMA’s support for this project also demonstrates the recognised need to save roller mill material so that along with the rest of the milling records, this important part of our heritage is preserved for future generations.