In the year 1892, a formidable force arrived on British shores: a lady by the name of Emilie Montgomery Gardner, or simply E. M. Gardner, as she is widely known. A forerunner of the women’s suffrage act who travelled around the country by horse-drawn caravan, and a civil servant who won an OBE for her…
Author: Lucy Noble
The Friends’ Garden Party was a Great Success!
Last Saturday, the Mills Archive opened its doors to welcome our Friends of the Archive, volunteers and alumni to our annual Friends’ Garden Party at Watlington House in Reading. It was a glorious day: we were fortunate that the sun was shining and our beautiful herb and flower garden was in full bloom. Upon arrival,…
As the Darkness Closes Round Us…
The artist Frank Brangwyn is famous for his cheerful watercolour and ink scenes of windmills, alongside which his annotations describe the long-lost peaceful arcadia of the mills’ pasts, contrasting them harshly with the stark reality of their present-day fate of ruin and decline. The emotive descriptions against which Brangwyn contrasts his paintings often tell stories…
National Mills Weekend 2019 – report and pictures!
The sun was shining and the weather was warm last weekend: the perfect weather to celebrate National Mills Weekend! A festival of open-house mills that takes place across the UK every May, National Mills Weekend is run by the SPAB Mills Section, the UK’s national organisation devoted to protecting and promoting traditional windmills and watermills.…
Gems of the Archive: Hand to Mouth
Although most of the records we hold at the Archive are in paper form, or similar – photos, drawings, documents, diaries and the like – we also have a small range of larger artefacts which pop up in our collections every now and then. Two such artefacts from our Gems collection are hand-powered milling devices:…
Rudyard Kipling, Mill Enthusiast: World Poetry Day 2019
Today is World Poetry Day, an event to promote and to “give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements”. An ideal opportunity, therefore, to show you some of our favourite mill-themed poetry! Mills have long been the subject of romantic poems about England’s green and pleasant land. They represent a fondly-remembered…
Heritage Partner Spotlight: Eling Tide Mill Experience Celebrates One Year Anniversary!
Today the spotlight is on one of our Heritage Partners, Eling Tide Mill! On Tuesday 9th April, Eling Tide Mill celebrated the 1st anniversary of the Eling Tide Mill Experience with a day of fun activities including face painting, balloon-modelling, badge/keyring-making, story-telling, an Easter trail and guided tours of the mill. The Grade II* listed…
Gems of the Archive: Of War and Waterwheels
You may be familiar with the artist Sir Alfred Munnings, known for his impressive oil paintings of everything equine: from elegant race horses, to majestic hunting steeds, to quaint pastoral scenes featuring portly ponies blending into an idyllic, English landscape. But have you ever heard of John Munnings, lesser-known nephew of the great artist? John…
Roundup of the SPAB Mills Section Spring Meeting 2019
On Saturday 9th March, Ron, Mildred and I travelled to London for one of the big events in the Mills Archive calendar: The SPAB Mills Section Spring Meeting. The theme of the day was ‘Pioneers of the Milling World’: slightly different from the usual theme which is more focused on the technical structures and functions…
Gems of the Archive: The Women Who Mill Alone
In recognition of International Women’s Day on 8th March, in this week’s blog we are showing our appreciation for women in milling by featuring two formidable female millers. Milling: a man’s job in a man’s world, or so it certainly was in the first half of the 20th century. As a profession dating back thousands…