On Saturday 9th March, Ron, Mildred and I travelled to London for one of the big events in the Mills Archive calendar: The SPAB Mills Section Spring Meeting. The theme of the day was ‘Pioneers of the Milling World’: slightly different from the usual theme which is more focused on the technical structures and functions…
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Mills – and our supporters – make the world go ‘round
In the New Year, we launched an appeal for funds towards a new project, ‘Mills make the world go ‘round’. We had been promised £15,000 by the Foyle Foundation, but only if we could secure an additional £8,645 that was needed to carry out the work. Thanks to the generous contributions of our Friends and…
Gems of the Archive: The Women Who Mill Alone
In recognition of International Women’s Day on 8th March, in this week’s blog we are showing our appreciation for women in milling by featuring two formidable female millers. Milling: a man’s job in a man’s world, or so it certainly was in the first half of the 20th century. As a profession dating back thousands…
Volunteer Spotlight: The Old Miller of Sidestrand and Poppyland
Author: Pru Barrett Pru, one of our volunteers, often comes across records of interesting and oft-times eccentric people during her research… Whilst recording the many histories of millers in our collections, I came across a very flowery yet fascinating epitaph for a man named Alfred Jermy, also known as “The Old Miller of Sidestrand and…
County Day Series: Shropshire – Chipnall Mill
Of the 91 counties and shires of England, Wales and Scotland, several are recognised each year celebrating the cultural heritage of that particular county. Today is Shropshire’s county day, the feast day of St Milburga, abbess of Wenlock Priory. St Milburga was the daughter of Anglo-Saxon king Merewalh, who founded the abbey within his sub-kingdom…
Succession breeds success: one year on
At the time of writing this article we are one year into our National Lottery Heritage Fund-supported project, Succession Breeds Success, and I find myself reflecting on what’s been achieved so far. Here are my top 3 highlights from the project so far. You might recall our announcement in February 2018 that we had received…
Gems of the Archive: Drama, Scandal and Mills
With a title that sounds like it comes straight from a John le Carré spy novel, our Gems of the Archive story featuring the unusual life of Karl Wood is an intrepid tale of adventure and scandal, passion and faith. Like any good action film hero, Karl Wood had a quest: to publish a book…
The Man with the Dragon Stamp
Happy Chinese New Year, or as one would say in Mandarin, 新年快乐! 2019 is the year of the Pig, the twelfth and last animal of the zodiac. As the ancient myths tell us, each year is named after one of twelve animals who were invited by the Jade Emperor to his party – the order…
Volunteer Spotlight: Menier and the Chocolate Factory
February hosts a very popular and tasty-sounding celebration: National Chocolate Lover’s Month! In honour of this, our volunteer Susan has written a blog to get your taste buds tingling… A recent interesting read from my research at the Archive led me to the discovery of the Menier Chocolate Factory, the largest chocolate factory in France,…
A visit to Wright’s flour mill
Last week Liz and I had the privilege of visiting Ponders End Mills, the home of family milling business G R Wright and Sons. Above: the mill and mill house as they once looked. The mill has a rich heritage, which is evident when you take a tour round the site. Huge modern grain silos…