The Mills Archive is holding Open Days to mark National Heritage Weekend. For the first time Watlington House itself will be open. The House is interesting in its own right – built in the William and Mary Style and then altered in the reign of Queen Anne, it is the oldest house in Reading. We…
Author: Ron Cookson
National Lottery Share for Heritage consultation closes on 21 August 2010
It sounds as though more Lottery money will be coming to heritage projects! This is a welcome reversal of the sharp decline in recent years. You can add your voice to a public consultation that ends on 21 August, so please act now! Three years ago the National Audit Office highlighted the way grants from…
A much awaited new edition
The original version of Guise and Lees’ book on Anglesey was so successful, the authors wished they had published a longer print run. When they discovered a copy of the book, secondhand on the Internet for £100, they thought the time was right for a second edition. The result is a splendidly produced, much extended…
Brill Windmill – major new book
Luke Bonwick’s new book published this month looks to be a winner! Subtitled “The History, Technology, Conservation and Repair of a 17th-Century Post Mill with a report on the dendrochronology by Martin Bridge” and with 100 A4 pages, packed with photographs and measured drawings, it is amazing value for money. Published by Buckinghamshire County Council,…
A Threat to all our Mill Groups
It will only be a few years before members of mill groups will no longer be able to pay their subscriptions by cheque! Whatever alternatives are introduced will cause problems of one sort or another. The Payments Council states that “Following extensive research and consultation with users”, it has taken the decision to set a…
Interested in Windmill Postcards?
The Mills Archive has several copies of many Simmons postcards and is starting to sell them on eBay to raise funds. Friends of the Mills Archive get the first chance to buy them at a fixed price and post free. These low resolution thumbnails show the first of several hundred that we will be offering…
New Book on the arrival of a steam mill
An interesting new approach to a mill book is taken by Chris Mesely in Millers and Methodists Following the successful new version of Hugh Howes book on Bedfordshire Windmills and Watermills, this new book focuses on three milling families in Leighton Buzzard. Attractively produced, well illustrated with 39 colour and grayscale illustrations, the book is…
Amazing price for a piece of paper
An eBay auction has just finished fo a Carte de Visite fetching £265. Can anyone identify it? It was captioned “Victorian SUSSEX MILL FARM + Windmill c.1860s” and a fuller description mentions a couple of possible sites. ANTIQUE ENGLISH CARTE DE VISITE PHOTOGRAPH: West Sussex” Stunning early farming scene original albumen photo. Excellent clarity &…
Mills and Milling in the Herne Bay Area
The Friends of Herne Mill and the Herne Bay Historical Society have just published an impressive update of Harold Gough’s 1986 book on the mills of Herne Bay. The book, much expanded and revised and now an A4 publication (46 pp, 26 greyscale images) is a fitting tribute to the original author and was partly…
Bodley Foundry Collection
The iron foundry of Bodley & Co was located on Commercial Road in Exeter, Devon. Much archival material, relating to mills for which parts were made by Bodley & Co, was rescued by Reading industrial archaeologist Cyril McCombe from the ruins of the demolished Bodley Foundry. The drawings were passed to the Mills Archive for…