Here’s another round up of mills featured in the news over the past few weeks. Wheat field. Photo: Sue Watts As we mentioned in our previous blog, the impact of the pandemic on mills has been significant, with flour still in short supply and many smaller and traditional mills working overtime to meet demand. In spite of…
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A tree swallows a mill
An article in “The Miller” dating from 1900 tells this wonderful story of the mill-swallowing tree. “The annexed cut, which is reproduced from the Strand Magazine, shows a tree in the act of swallowing a corn mill. Fifteen years ago, in Natal, South Africa, a hand corn mill was attached to a post some 6…
The man in the brown paper boat: An epic voyage down the Thames
Sailing down the Thames in a brown paper boat is a rather unusual idea to say the least. One that many people would never imagine doing, but apparently someone did just that in 1620. The person in question was John Taylor, author of “one of the earliest and most enthusiastic” texts in English, on the…
Smugglers’ Mills and Nefarious Thrills
Throughout the ages, the role of the miller has been subject to all sorts of stories and stereotypes: millers have been slandered, satirised, respected and romanticised all in equal measure. Langstone Mill, Havant. Photo: Ashok Vaidya Oft-times in literature, the miller has been the recipient of a similar treatment to smugglers and pirates, his contemporary…
Bored? Why not take a look at our images and documents
If you’re stuck with nothing to do, try having a look through our Archive Catalogue, and help us improve our data. Our Archive Catalogue can be found here. It contains 84,554 entries relating to mills and milling, including 70,382 photographs and 2,078 text documents. There are various ways to search the catalogue. From the search bars…
Mills in the news
It seems the coronavirus pandemic has affected every area of life, and milling is no exception. In fact news stories about mills, milling, flour and bread production have been particularly frequent in the last few weeks. Here is an overview of some of the stories. Photo: Martin Watts The main milling related story in the…
Help us record the impact of coronavirus on mills
The Mills Archive needs your help to record the story of how mills have been affected by the current crisis. If you’re involved with a mill, why not send us a record of your experiences (e.g. a diary and/or pictures), so that this can be preserved for future generations? Tomorrow’s history depends on your efforts,…
The Mills Archive’s response to the coronavirus
During these unprecedented times, we thought we should reach out and reassure you that here at the Mills Archive Trust, we are working hard to continue to safeguard milling heritage. The Mills Archive is now closed to visitors and staff will be working from home, while continuing to maintain the security of the collections in…
Across the pond with Rex Wailes: Home again
The last entry in our series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada. 1929 press cutting from Rex’s files, showing Canadian landscape Unfortunately the last part of Rex’s diary is missing, so his account of his time in Canada is lost. Correspondence from the collection fills in some of the…
International Women’s Day – Marjorie Isabel Batten 1903-1962
To celebrate International Women’s Day, today the 8th March, our Information Manager, Elizabeth, has been looking at the role of women in milling – who are not as few and far between as one might think! M. I. Batten[1] is the author of English Windmills Volume 1 which was published by the Architectural Press in 1930. We have…