Filter posts by tag:
Elizabeth Trout This article was originally published in our blog on 31 October 2019.Last week, Tom, one of our dedicated volunteers, found amongst the press cuttings, a piece of card upon which were written a few scrappy handwritten notes. He saw the word ‘mill’ and a date of 1549. Knowing that I like a mystery,…
Millwrighting has been on the Heritage Craft Association Red List of Endangered Crafts since 2019. Without increased opportunities and interest for millwrighting in Britain, the number of mills will slowly decline. To bring the craft into the public eye and highlight its importance in the preservation of our milling heritage, we have put together an…
Vincent Pargeter In a recent newsletter we shared the history of the Montefiore Windmill which was built by the Holmans of Kent. Vincent Pargeter, who worked on the restoration of the mill, wrote up an account of his experiences (originally published in Mill News, Oct 2012 and Jan 2013). This is an abridged version. The…
‘Mill people’ images Mills have often been a popular theme for artworks, ranging from realistic depictions to some of the more unusual symbolic and allegorical uses of milling imagery. There are not many mill images however which are as strange as the ones shown here. For want of a better term we could call them…
From Quern to Computer; a history of flour milling by Martin and Sue Watts covers a wide range of topics and this summarises Chapter 13. The domestication of wild cereal plants in the eastern Mediterranean some 8,000-10,000 years ago led to, or indeed may even have been caused by, an increased consumption of cereal-based products which could…
Alan Stoyel (1939-2021), a miller at Venn Mill, Oxfordshire, millwright and author of milling books The Alan Stoyel Foundation Collection is one of the four foundation collections of the Mills Archive Trust. Alan played an essential role in setting up the Mills Archive. His collection contains vital technical information and documentation of watermills across the…
The Montefiore Windmill is a landmark in Jerusalem. Built in 1857, it was funded by British Jewish banker and philanthropist Moses Montefiore and constructed by the Kent firm of millwrights, Holmans of Canterbury. It was restored in 2012 by Vincent Pargeter and Willem Dijkstra. This history of the mill is taken from the work Holman Bros.,…
Though the use of iron in millwrighting is not as traditional as that of wood, iron has firmly cemented its place as a valuable material in the craft. Two types of iron have been used in millwrighting, these being wrought iron and cast iron. Wrought iron was used mainly for bearings and hinges, as it was…
From Quern to Computer; a history of flour milling by Martin and Sue Watts covers a wide range of topics and this summarises Chapter 12. Alford mill, Lincolnshire built in the 1830s(Photo P. Dolman, Mills Archive Collection, DOLM-07229) The most common method of stone milling used in Britain was and is low milling, whereby the grain is…
Dave Pearce Wicken Windmill Partnership Mike Newland died aged 86 on 15th February. He was a kind, private man, with no time…
