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Building a Mill: Workforce

The mill has now been built and filled with the best, new machinery. However, ‘Fine buildings, located on traffic arteries, and equipped with the very latest of mechanical appliances do not, alone, make successful bakeries’, or in this case, mills…

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Unusual places to find a mill

This article first appeared on our blog in January 2018.  Boat Mill, 19th century (Mills Archive Collection, MCFC-ENG-064) If asked to name traditional mills, most people would probably name windmills, watermills, possibly tide mills, but less would name ‘floating mills’, also known as ‘boat mills’ or ‘ship mills’. These were structures that had the outside appearance…

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Roller milling romances

With the romance of Valentine’s Day recently past, this blog is looking at some of the romantic stories that have been found whilst researching the history of roller milling. Throughout the early years of roller milling, there is a common factor between many firms, namely that they tended to be family-run businesses. This was true…

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Six Nations

This weekend sees the beginning of the Six Nations, so whether you’re planning on following the games or doing everything you can to avoid them, this week’s blog should be able to give you some interesting roller milling facts about each of the six nations, to either whet your appetite for the weekend games, or…

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Meg O’ The Mill

It was Burns Night last night, so it seemed appropriate to start this week’s blog with a poem by Robert Burns himself: O ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten? An’ ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten? She gotten a coof wi’ a claute o’ siller, And broken the heart o’ the barley Miller!The Miller was strappin, the Miller was ruddy, A heart like…

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Detective work from the UK to New Zealand

This week has seen me draw from one resource that the Archive houses in large numbers for our roller mill history project: namely postcards. A search for ‘postcard’ in the online catalogue returns with 6304 results, and there are more that have not yet been catalogued. These items provide a wealth of information and can…

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