With a title that sounds like it comes straight from a John le Carré spy novel, our Gems of the Archive story featuring the unusual life of Karl Wood is an intrepid tale of adventure and scandal, passion and faith. Like any good action film hero, Karl Wood had a quest: to publish a book…
Author: Lucy Noble
The Man with the Dragon Stamp
Happy Chinese New Year, or as one would say in Mandarin, 新年快乐! 2019 is the year of the Pig, the twelfth and last animal of the zodiac. As the ancient myths tell us, each year is named after one of twelve animals who were invited by the Jade Emperor to his party – the order…
Armistice 100: The Link Between the Archive and Great War Ambulance Trains
This week the Mills Archive has joined in with commemorating 100 years since the end of the First World War. Ahead of the upcoming launch of our new website feature, Gems of the Archive, we thought we’d share with you a couple of Gems that are particularly topical for this week’s remembrance events. In June…
Heage Windmill Goes to Bed for the Winter
With the onset of November, some chilly frosty mornings and the dark nights creeping in, a lot of us are starting to feel like hedgehogs have been getting it right all along: it really is time to curl up somewhere warm and dry and hibernate until spring! Heage Windmill Society in Derbyshire agrees, and last…
Heritage Open Day a great success
On Saturday 8th September, the Mills Archive hosted a very successful Heritage Open Day. The event kicked off with much excitement to the arrival of Anoushka Williams, the BBC Radio Berkshire presenter! She and her assistant decided to visit us as part of their journey on ‘The Peach Quest’ – a madcap dash around Reading…
Visit to Upminster Windmill
On Friday 20th July, Liz, Nathanael, Paul and I went on an exciting visit to one of the Mills Archive’s valued Heritage Partners: Upminster Windmill in Essex. Most of us had never visited Upminster before, so it was an excellent opportunity to build our relationship with them by discovering new ways of working together, and…
2018 Website Survey
Some of you may have had an email to tell you about this already, but if you’re not on our mailing list, consider this your official invitation to take part in the Mills Archive 2018 Website Survey! It’s a short, easy questionnaire which will only take about 5 minutes of your time. The Mills Archive…
Introducing Lucy, the new Development Assistant – and her first trip to a mill!
Hello everyone, I’m Lucy and I joined the Mills Archive at the beginning of June as the new Development Assistant. I’ll be helping Liz with the fundraising and relationship-building side of the Archive, so you’ll be seeing me at events and posting around our social media pages as well. As I’ve written a few blog…
Introducing Chris: The Archive’s new Gemfinder
This week we’re excited to have a new member of the team on board: meet Chris, our brand new summer intern! Chris is a second-year History student at Reading University, with aspirations to become a future archivist. His previous volunteering placements at Canterbury Cathedral and Berkshire Record Office have encouraged Chris to develop a real…
Volunteers’ Week Profile Showcase: Meet Kolja
Today is the last day of #VolunteersWeek, and the Mills Archive would like to say another huge thank you to our volunteers – it’s your passion, expertise and hours of dedication that allow the Mills Archive to continue to flourish and work towards our mission of preserving records of milling heritage and making them available…