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,…
Author: Nathanael Hodge
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…
Milling mystery solved
Thanks to everyone who got in touch about the mystery image we posted last week. It turns out to be an ‘old women mill’ or ‘old wives mill’ – an old joke about a place old women could go. When they passed between the mill stones they would come out looking young and attractive again!…
A milling mystery
We have several copies of this image in the Archive, which appears to show someone being crushed between millstones. Does anyone know what it is? Can anyone offer a translation of the text? Contact us if you can help! Details of the text:
Goodbye Andrew
Volunteer Andrew Munro has left us after two years of hard work on the E M Gardner collection. Andrew joined us in 2014 to gain work experience with archives. For most of his time here he has been working throught the collection of notes and photographs created by E M Gardner, a leading watermill researcher…
Explore Anglesey Windmills
Windmills are an important part of the history of the island of Anglesey. Here are some of the resources on Anglesey mills in the Archive. Our database lists 48 windmills on the island, many still standing and some long gone. A recent addition to our catalogue is the SPAB’s Anglesey file from their 1929 mill survey…
Hear about life at Union Mill, Cranbrook
The latest additions to the Cranbrook mill archive are two audio recordings of reminiscences about life at the mill. You can hear the recordings here. They were made in 1994 and feature Helen Wilson (pictured) talking about her family and her memories of the mill. She was the niece of the last miller, John Russell, and…
Oldland Mill archive online
The archives of Oldland Windmill, Keymer, have now been made available online. Oldland’s archive collection has been sorted, listed and digitised by mill archivist Peter Sheppard and is now housed at the Mills Archive. Minutes of the mill committee from the 1920s-30s and 1980s-90s and correspondence and documents from the 1970s-1990s are available to view on…
Union Mill, Cranbrook archive online
The archives of Union Mill in Cranbrook, Kent, collected by the late Wynn Tremenheere, are now available online. The smock mill in Cranbrook was built in 1814 and was owned and worked by the Russell family from 1832 to 1958. It is now a grade I listed visitor attraction maintained by the Cranbrook Windmill Association.…
The Decline of Wind and Water Mills
1: Overview2: The heyday of mills3: New technology4: Mill preservation Overview There was a time when every village had its wind or watermill; when mills were everywhere – an essential part of the economy. But over the past few centuries they have all but vanished. Slowly, the development of new technology drove traditional mills out…