My family roots hail from Huntingdonshire and in particular St Neots which sits right on the boundary of old Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire along the Great Ouse. I descend from the families Paine and McNish. The Paines had long been established in the area as farmers at Toseland Hall and were well known in the small…
A few weeks ago we featured the history of the firm Holman Brothers of Canterbury in our newsletter. In this newsletter we will look in more detail at the employees of the firm, including their experiences in the First and Second World Wars. The Staff of Holmans Thomas Richard Holman and his employees, 1870s (Mills…
The Montefiore Windmill is a landmark in Jerusalem. Built in 1857, it was funded by British Jewish banker and philanthropist Moses Montefiore and constructed by the Kent firm of millwrights, Holmans of Canterbury. It was restored in 2012 by Vincent Pargeter and Willem Dijkstra. This history of the mill is taken from the work Holman Bros.,…
Huntingdonshire was an historic county until it was merged with Cambridgeshire in 1974. However, in 1984, the district was reinstated as a non-metropolitan county. In 2002, Huntingdonshire Day was established on the former county’s most famous son Oliver Cromwell’s birthdate – 25 April. For me Huntingdonshire will always be. My family roots hail from Huntingdonshire…
Of the 91 counties and shires of England, Wales and Scotland, several are recognised each year celebrating the cultural heritage of that particular county. Today is Shropshire’s county day, the feast day of St Milburga, abbess of Wenlock Priory. St Milburga was the daughter of Anglo-Saxon king Merewalh, who founded the abbey within his sub-kingdom…
Recent findings at a 14,000-year-old archaeological site in Amman, Jordan have rewritten the history of bread-making by 5,000 years! Rebecca Sherratt, Production editor, reports on the recent findings of the ‘earliest-known evidence of bread-making’ found in the Black Desert, Amman, Jordan, in this month’s issue of Milling and Grain. You can read the full article here. …
“Explore Your Archive Week 2018”, organised by the Archives and Records Association, has drawn to a close, and we’ve enjoyed participating. Each year archives throughout the UK and Ireland take part in this initiative, showcasing material and shining a light on the mysterious happenings at archives. This year we took up the challenge and here…
Like many companies in the milling industry, Holmans Millwrights of Canterbury had men enlist in the First World War. Those who faced active service had to go. However, Holmans negotiated with the War Office by offering the company for munitions work as a means to retain those who were called up for munitions work and…
In 2016 when Michael Harverson passed away, his collection of mill material was left to us. We knew his collection would be a valuable asset to the Archive. Of particular interest to Michael, and indeed to us, was his prolific study of Middle Eastern and Persian mills, more intimately those in Iran and Afghanistan. Michael…
Can you help us identify these archive photos of watermill sites? Unfortunately, many of these are left unidentified or misidentified for various reasons. We need some keen eyes to help us put names and locations to these mill sites. Last month we published a selection of unidentified Welsh mill photos for you to help us identify. Several…
