In the New Year, we launched an appeal for funds towards a new project, ‘Mills make the world go ‘round’. We had been promised £15,000 by the Foyle Foundation, but only if we could secure an additional £8,645 that was needed to carry out the work. Thanks to the generous contributions of our Friends and supporters, we have managed to raise these essential funds!
The project is designed to open up our collections to a wider audience, with a focus on industrial heritage.
We have a range of important material relating to industrial history and the part that mills have played in this, but we have not yet had the resources to promote it or make it fully accessible.
Over the coming year, we will create an online educational resource, which we will promote to related interest groups and the general public to promote a wider interest in engineering and our industrial heritage. This resource will also be made available to groups running mills around the UK, particularly those whose heritage is rooted in industrial developments.
Our volunteers will catalogue and preserve some of our industrial collections, which will help us to build links with related organisations and individuals with an interest in industrial history.
I have been touched by the response we received from the appeal and I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to those whose support means that we will be able to make this project a success.
If you have suggestions as to the mill-powered industries that you consider particularly key in the history of technology, or wish to donate material to enrich the Archive and Library, then do get in touch with us.