Filter posts by tag:
A few weeks ago we featured the history of the firm Holman Brothers of Canterbury in our newsletter. In this newsletter we will look in more detail at the employees of the firm, including their experiences in the First and Second World Wars. The Staff of Holmans Thomas Richard Holman and his employees, 1870s (Mills…
At the Mills Archive we have a wide range of interests covering a variety of subjects connected to mills and milling. Much of our collections relates to traditional wind and water powered mills and these have often been featured in this newsletter. However, we are equally interested in capturing the more recent history of flour…
A few weeks ago, we featured some of the writing of John Munnings (1916-1987) with his memories about growing up at Mendham Mill, Suffolk, where his father was the miller. This newsletter gives Munnings’ account of his grandfather, also called John Munnings and miller at Mendham Mill. John Munnings (1839-1914) Unfortunately, my grandfather died a…
The database of mills on our website contains more than 12,000 entries, and can be searched in a variety of ways. Read on to find out more.Searching the databaseYou can search the database here: https://new.millsarchive.org/mills/. The easiest way is to put the name of the mill you are looking for in the search bar at the top of…
This article first appeared on our blog in March 2019. Whilst recording the many histories of millers in our collections, I came across a very flowery yet fascinating obituary for a man named Alfred Jermy, “The Old Miller of Sidestrand and Poppyland” by Jessie Robinson, published in the Great Eastern Railway Magazine. Reading through the article,…
From Quern to Computer; a history of flour milling by Martin and Sue Watts covers a wide range of topics and Chapter 14 is particularly interesting. The importance of bread in the early medieval period is highlighted by the Old English words for lord (hlaford) and lady (hloefdige), meaning loaf keeper and loaf kneader respectively. Payments and rents were…
Stephen Buckland George Packham was an English miller and millwright who made his name in France in the early 19th century. He became a friend of Louis-Philippe I, a king whose reign was destined to be short lived. This is an abridged version of an unpublished paper on Packham by Stephen Buckland (1935-2006), which is…
In the last few months this newsletter has featured several articles about the Montefiore Windmill in Jerusalem, which was built by the firm Holman Brothers of Canterbury. This newsletter delves deeper into the history of the firm. Holman Brothers was a Canterbury firm founded in 1816 by John Holman. Originally millwrights, they built smock mills…
One of the main ways we provide access to our archives is through our images and documents catalogue, which you can access here: https://catalogue.millsarchive.org/In this newsletter we have put together some guidance about what the site contains and how you can use it. What does the catalogue include? In our archival collections we hold a wide…
John Munnings (1916-1987) was the nephew of the famous artist Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959), and like his uncle before him he was born and raised at Mendham Mill, Suffolk, where his father was the miller. Mendham watermill in Suffolk, photograph by Peter Dolman, 1975(Mills Archive Collection, DOLM-1123588) Munnings fought in the Second World War and was…
