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Gems of the Archive: Water and Wind

One of the things I have realised whilst working with the collections is how inspirational traditional milling has been to a huge variety of artists. This beautiful watercolour comes from one such artist. This week I have been working on the book Windmills, a collection of watercolours and poetic anecdotes by the internationally renowned artist Frank…

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Unfolding a new era

You never know what may lie inside an advertisement. This Gem is a trade card for Washburn Crosby Company Flour Mills, produced in around 1890 to advertise their Gold Standard Flour. What makes this trade card a Gem is the fascinating folding design: the picture of a traditional windmill on the front of the card…

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Your fate is like that of man

“You worked blindly and towards an unknown end; but your end was certain.” This beautiful watercolour is from a collection by Frank Brangwyn and Hayter Preston. The collection consists of a number of watercolours of different windmills, each with poetic anecdotes, which make up a beautiful and moving series exploring the state of milling and…

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A direct hit

‘By a piece of singular good fortune, no one was killed.’ This book called A Train Errant shines a light on a little-known aspect of the First World War. The book contains a bound collection of newsletters called The Orderly Review, which were published on board Great War Ambulance Train No.16, which was donated to the war effort by the…

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Germans reborn

Mills are often used as a symbol of rebirth. This intriguing Gem is a pre-First World War postcard entitled ‘The Reservist Mill’. It depicts German recruits going into the mill and coming out as reservists – the image explained by a poem underneath the mill: ‘Just as the finely-milled cornComes out as flourThe Recruit goes…

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Disasters

Mills are fabulous buildings; however, they are also incredibly fragile, and unfortunately they sometimes suffer huge disasters. See the items relating to disasters in our collection on our Gems pages here. Lightning strikes Windmills, like other tall buildings such as churches and skyscrapers, are particularly susceptible to lightning damage. In particular, iron sail rods on…

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A brush with death

“It was then that she heard the bloodcurdling screams of her stricken husband.” This contemporary sketch was sold following a miller’s brush with death. The caption describes what is happening in the picture, as well as the reason for the sketch: Toot Hill WindmillIn the Parish of Stanford Rivers, Essex,Shattered by Lightning, June 18 1829,This sketch sold…

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Gems of the Archive: The surprising link between the Mills Archive and WWI trains

Hello everyone! As Lucy mentioned last week I’m Chris and I am the new intern, I’m a Second Year History student from the University of Reading and thanks to the Reading Internship Scheme I will be working at the Archive for the next three months. I’ve been busy uncovering the fascinating story about two of…

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