The articles on which this newsletter is based first appeared in Mill Memories 26, Spring 2020 and 28, Spring 2021.Millers need to keep up with each other with all phases of manufacture and distribution. Whilst packaging is not an integral part of the operation of turning wheat into flour, nevertheless, had it not progressed with…
Last May I featured William Gardner of Gloucester in a brief review of 10 succesful milling engineers with works in the UK. In The Miller (5 August 1895) there is a detailed account of this highly regarded firm, well-known in Gloucester and the West of England since the 1870s. The firm underwent several moves since it was founded around…
Mills are most well-known for grinding corn into flour. Over the centuries mills powered by wind, water and other power sources have been used for many other types of industry. These series of newsletters will highlight a different use each month. You can find the full set here at https://new.millsarchive.org/2020/06/25/mills-make-the-world-go-round/. Salt mills Salt (sodium chloride) is essential for…
In our digital world, it is easy to forget the debt we owe to photography. Records of our 19th and 20th century milling heritage are enriched by photographs of historic mills. Rex Wailes demonstrated that the person behind the camera was equally important. Not only was he an engineer interested in mills, he was keen…
Last month I mentioned that in 2017 the Mills Archive played a vital part in the rescue of an important archive destined for destruction. The important architectural practice of Gelder and Kitchen had recently been liquidated and their large collection of files at Maister House, a National Trust property in Hull, was under severe threat.Alfred…
Mills are most well-known for grinding corn into flour. Over the centuries mills powered by wind, water and other power sources have been used for many other types of industry. These series of newsletters will highlight a different use each month. You can find the full set here at https://new.millsarchive.org/2020/06/25/mills-make-the-world-go-round/. Bone mills Bone mills were designed to crush…
Rex Wailes, like his father, was first and foremost an engineer, but soon became the authority on wind and watermills. As an engineer he was also interested in industrial sites, such as foundries, brickworks and waterworks. One of my other interest is breweries, so I was delighted to see that he had spent some time…
One of our first visitors to the Archive, as we carefully start to welcome researchers back, expressed great interest in our valuable collection of the Hull-based architects, Gelder and Kitchen. Five years ago the firm had gone into liquidation and we rescued several hundred files from the basement of their practice in a 17th century…
Many articles from The Miller or Milling demonstrate the importance to the milling trade of conventions and exhibitions. Both these Victorian publications are held at the Mills Archive, along with the American Northwestern Miller. All three journals have some significant gaps, so we would welcome any offers of material as we continue to build the…
Mills are most well-known for grinding corn into flour. Over the centuries mills powered by wind, water and other power sources have been used for many other types of industry. These series of newsletters will highlight a different use each month. You can find the full set here at https://new.millsarchive.org/2020/06/25/mills-make-the-world-go-round/. Water powered saw mill Saw mills, both wind…
