Today is International Women’s Day. We thought it fitting to highlight one example of the contribution that women have made to milling. Inspiration for this blog comes from Lydia, our intern in 2017 who was exploring the Archive for items that are particularly special. The gem she found is a cigarette card dating back to…
Author: Liz Bartram
The Mills Archive Trust wins National Lottery support
I am delighted to announce that the Archive has received £95,300 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting project, ‘Succession Breeds Success’. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project will focus on transforming the charity in three strategic areas so that the rare milling records we care for continue…
A visit to Jordans Mill
Last week I visited Jordans Mill in Biggleswade with Ron and Mildred, where we were treated like guests of honour! Read on to find out more about this fascinating mill and our trip there. We met David Jordan and his sister Lindsay, who accompanied us on a tour of the mill with volunteer Ray. I…
Treasures hidden in binbags
To celebrate #GivingTuesday, each week we will highlight a collection available for adoption. This week we are featuring the Armfield Drawings Collection. Yellowing, torn and crumpled, this collection comprises hundreds of attractive drawings of milling machinery. Created by the millwrighting and engineering firm Armfield between the 1870s-1920s, these documents provide valuable information about the construction…
Building windmills on top of watermills: The Derek Ogden Collection
To celebrate #GivingTuesday, we are highlighting a collection available for adoption. Today’s collection is the Derek Ogden Collection. A millwright for many years, Derek repaired mills throughout the UK until he moved to the USA in 1974, continuing his mill work across the pond. His life’s work is documented in detail in the notes, photographs…
The treasure trove that is our Antiquarian Book Collection
To celebrate #GivingTuesday, each week we are highlighting a collection available for adoption. Today’s collection is the Antiquarian Book Collection. You may not have known of it, but here at the Mills Archive we have a large library full of all sorts of mill-related books, covering more subjects than you could imagine. These books come…
Rescue of one of the most important millwright collections
To celebrate #GivingTuesday, each week we will highlight a collection available for adoption. Collection adopters help secure the safety and availability of all the Archive’s images and documents for generations to come. Today’s highlighted collection is the Vincent Pargeter Collection. One of the most admired millwrights in recent years, Vincent’s sudden death shocked the mills…
New Year, New Collections
We’d like to say a big thank you to those who have adopted a collection in 2017. The New Year feels like the right time to look back at the difference that our supporters have made in looking after the Archive. We are also excited to announce that new collections have been added to the…
Office hours over the festive period
The office is closed from 22nd December to 2nd January. We will respond to any enquiries sent in over Christmas after that time. Thank you for your patience. We appreciate the support you have all given us over the past year and we look forward to seeing you or hearing from you in 2018! Merry…
Celebrating with the Hampshire Mills Group
On Friday the Hampshire Mills Group paid us a visit. The Group has helped the Archive in a number of ways over the years and so it is was decided that we would have a well-deserved celebration with some of their members. Two events were being celebrated in particular: the donation of the Arthur Lowe…