A man in a monk’s habit kneels on the floor, books and implements scattered about him. In his hand he holds a pair of scales – he is weighing ingredients to add to the mortar in front of him. Over him stands a sinister winged figure, directing his actions with a cruel smirk on his…
Author: Nathanael Hodge
A visit to Wright’s flour mill
Last week Liz and I had the privilege of visiting Ponders End Mills, the home of family milling business G R Wright and Sons. Above: the mill and mill house as they once looked. The mill has a rich heritage, which is evident when you take a tour round the site. Huge modern grain silos…
New Collections 2018
Each year we submit a list of all our acquisitions to the National Archives. 2018 saw an interesting and varied array of collections and smaller donations arriving at the Archive. The total list of accessions for 2018 is available here. It includes: 14 new collections (22 boxes and 33.6 GB of data)11 significant additions to collections…
Browse images by county and mill type
A new feature we have recently added to our Images and Documents catalogue allows you to browse images by country, county and mill type. You can find the page here: https://catalogue.millsarchive.org/images-type-country For instance, selecting England, Buckinghamshire and Tower mills brings up a page showing only tower mills in that county. All results other than images have been filtered out, as have…
James Venn Collection
Stanley Freese. Photo Brian Flint, 1971. The James Venn Collection is in fact two collections, one built on top of the other. The story starts with Stanley Freese, who in the 1920s and 1930s cycled across the country with his brother Cyril, sketching, photographing and gathering information on rural England, particularly mills. Freese published several books on…
Over Family Collection
The Over Family Collection contains records relating to the family’s work in milling in the 19th and 20th centuries, a period of significant change in the milling industry. THE OVERS AND THEIR MILLS HIGHLIGHTS OF THE COLLECTION
Roller flour mills at the Mills Archive
We’re adding to our extensive collections about traditional wind and water mills to tell the story of the most recent phase of flour milling, roller flour mills. Changes in technology in the 19th century including steam power and the development of the roller mill led to a revolution in flour milling in which rural wind…
Peter Dolman Collection
Peter Dolman was a millwright and mill expert from Suffolk. His extensive collection contains photographs and research on wind and watermills throughout the UK. PETER DOLMAN’S LIFE WORKING ON THE COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS OF THE COLLECTION
Geoff Holman Collection
Geoff Holman. Photo: Colin O’Brien Geoff Holman came from a family of millwrights, the Holmans of Canterbury, and this milling connection in his family sparked a life long interest in traditional mills. His collection, given to the Archive in 2012, contains parts of his family archive as well as his own mill photos and records. Holman Brothers offices,…
New arrival at the Archive
Last Friday the Mills Archive received the Michael Dufau collection. This important and valuable collection of over 50 boxes comprising mill books and records was left to the Archive in Michael Dufau’s will. The job of sorting through and processing his collection has only just begun, but a initial scan reveals a particular interest in…