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This week’s Gem is an unusual item from the Alan Stoyel Collection. It is a set of papers with images for the characters and scenes of a toy theatre play, “The Miller and his Men”. In the early 19th century the toy theatre was one of the most popular children’s toys. You could buy a…
Alan Gifford (Founder Trustee) Early illustration of Heage windmill with four sails, Unknown artist, 2005(scan of original from c 1890), Mills Archive Collection, SMDN-19211 Heage Windmill, near to Belper in Derbyshire, was built in c 1795 and worked until 1919. It was partially restored to present a good visual image by its owners, Derbyshire County Council, in…
Elizabeth Trout To celebrate International Women’s Day this week (8 March) this newsletter features an interesting woman who played an important role in the early history of mill preservation. This is reproduced from a blog by Elizabeth Trout, originally published on our website in 2020. Image of Marjorie Batten from The Sphere March 21, 1931 M. I.…
Hannah Pomeroy This week’s gem is the beautiful calligraphic certificate shown below, given to William Cornwell on the occasion of his retirement from the Sun Flour Mills Company in 1926. The story of William Cornwell is reproduced here from a blog post by Hannah Pomeroy, originally published on our website in 2017. William Cornwell and…
This article first appeared on our blog in May 2020. While sat in a meeting in our Founders’ Room, my eyes travelled across the spines of the antiquarian books visible from my seat, and I couldn’t help but notice a small, gold-decorated book covered in tan-coloured leather. The name of the book was too small…
It’s time for the third in our series of 21 gems of the Mills Archive. In the last two newsletters we looked at both the oldest and the largest artefacts we hold. This week we are looking at the oldest document in our archives, a legal deed in the Mildred Cookson collection dating from 1552.…
This week’s newsletter is another extract from the writings and sketchbooks of John Munnings (1916-1987), this time on the mills on the river Chelmer, Essex.Many of the mills around Chelmsford were run by members of the Marriage family. Much of my knowledge about this family derives from Llewellen and Samson Marriage, who I used to…
Two weeks ago our newsletter featured the oldest artefact held by the Mills Archive, the rotary quern from the iron age. This week’s gem is the largest item in our collections: a threshing sledge from Alan Stoyel’s collection. The history of the threshing sledge Threshing is the stage in the processing of grain which follows…
Agnes C Meeker This is a gem of a find located at Homestead Heritage site just outside the town of Waco, Texas.The restored gristmill from the 1760s operates daily, grinding cornmeal and flour. Homestead is an agrarian and craft-based intentional community. Its literature stresses simplicity, sustainability, sufficiency, cooperation, service and quality craftmanship. The daily activities…
Nathanael Hodge Happy New Year to all readers of our newsletter! 2023 is the Mills Archive’s 21st birthday, and in honour of this we will be featuring a series of 21 gems from our collections in these newsletters in the coming months.Our first gem is a beehive quern dating back to the Iron Age, from…
