Noor One of our volunteers, Noor, has written about her experience at the Mills Archive: I am sure everyone has their own different experiences of being an archival volunteer. Today I am sharing some of my beautiful experience of working as an unexperienced volunteer at The Mills Archive Trust. Before I thought librarians and archivists…
Author: Nathanael Hodge
The Devil’s Mill
The issue of The Miller dated 5 May 1930 contains this story about the ‘Devil’s Mill’ A miller’s apprentice loved a pretty peasant girl named Yvonne, but the young people concealed their deep affection from others, swore eternal fidelity and for a long time preserved their own secret. Meanwhile the ‘prentice laid plans for the…
The story of Sant Janabai
An image found in Hindu temples shows a god and woman grinding together at a mill. This is the revered Hindu sant (holy person) called Janabai. Janabai was a low-caste maidservant and poet. There are various versions of her story, but according to one of these she was taken as a five-year-old child to the…
More mills in the news
Here’s another round up of mills featured in the news over the past few weeks. Wheat field. Photo: Sue Watts As we mentioned in our previous blog, the impact of the pandemic on mills has been significant, with flour still in short supply and many smaller and traditional mills working overtime to meet demand. In spite of…
Bored? Why not take a look at our images and documents
If you’re stuck with nothing to do, try having a look through our Archive Catalogue, and help us improve our data. Our Archive Catalogue can be found here. It contains 84,554 entries relating to mills and milling, including 70,382 photographs and 2,078 text documents. There are various ways to search the catalogue. From the search bars…
Mills in the news
It seems the coronavirus pandemic has affected every area of life, and milling is no exception. In fact news stories about mills, milling, flour and bread production have been particularly frequent in the last few weeks. Here is an overview of some of the stories. Photo: Martin Watts The main milling related story in the…
Help us record the impact of coronavirus on mills
The Mills Archive needs your help to record the story of how mills have been affected by the current crisis. If you’re involved with a mill, why not send us a record of your experiences (e.g. a diary and/or pictures), so that this can be preserved for future generations? Tomorrow’s history depends on your efforts,…
The Mills Archive’s response to the coronavirus
During these unprecedented times, we thought we should reach out and reassure you that here at the Mills Archive Trust, we are working hard to continue to safeguard milling heritage. The Mills Archive is now closed to visitors and staff will be working from home, while continuing to maintain the security of the collections in…
Across the pond with Rex Wailes: Home again
The last entry in our series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada. 1929 press cutting from Rex’s files, showing Canadian landscape Unfortunately the last part of Rex’s diary is missing, so his account of his time in Canada is lost. Correspondence from the collection fills in some of the…
Cleaning, folding and fixing – a conservation training day
A recent training day at the Archive, run by conservator Victoria Stevens, saw volunteers try out conservation techniques including cleaning, repairing and housing documents. The course was funded by our recent grant from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust. Everyone who attended found the day a rewarding and enjoyable experience. We asked one of our volunteers,…