Helen Major passed away peacefully on the evening of Sunday March 24th. RIP Helen was well known in the mill world and much loved. She will be remembered as an active volunteer at the Mills Archive and earlier at the Mills Section in London. She and her late husband, Ken, attended most TIMS and SPAB…
Category: Blog
Filter posts by tag:
Watermill for BBC2 programme
Author: Emma Randle-Caprez Please help! Calling all watermills needing restoration! I am looking for a disused watermill which we can restore for our series, Tudor Abbey Farm, the follow-up series to Wartime Farm, for BBC2. We are hoping to base our farm in the Chichester area, so any mills local to here would be great, although of…
Hot off the press!
An important and unusual book, “Mapping the windmill” represents a new approach to the literature of mills and the sheer quirkiness of the treatment meted out to windmills by the Ordnance Survey. Published in March 2013, this heavy book is available online and you can save postage by buying it at the SPAB Mills Section meeting on Saturday…
Millstones
Author: Charles Rowntree Whilst excavating to build a new house attached to Beckside mill we found a millstone with what has obviously been a drilled and bolted rynd. The ones that I have seen in the past have been secured with lead. Whilst I have no objection to drilling and bolting, though I would have…
Water courses and water power
The Association for Industrial Archaeology is holding an interesting meeting on the weekend of 13th-14th April. FROM THE AIA WEBSITE: Normally held about April each year, this is an informal meeting looking at various topics relevant to those active in industrial archaeology. In 2013 the topic will be Water Courses and Water Power and the…
Windsor Castle hydro power passes test and ready to start
BBC Berkshire has just announced that cable tests, which caused delays, have now been successfully completed, Two giant water turbines were installed at Romney Weir on the Thames in Berkshire in December 2011 to supply electricity to the Royal residence. Now they are ready to go – here is the full report.
Millstone thefts in Sussex
Author: Sussex Miller These thieves stole five millstones from one Sussex Windmill. It would appear that they are using a lorry and hydraulic lifting equipment, as there was no evidence that the millstones had been rolled using manpower. Anyone who may have recently seen ‘contractors’ moving millstones or who has seen 4-foot-diameter millstones for sale…
Sack scales
Author: David Friend for Oldland Mill Trust Oldland Windmill of Keymer Sussex, rebuilt to working order, now wishes to make flour for sale to offset our maintenance. The Thatched Inn kindly donated a set of sack scales which we would like to use but we have no weights. Can anyone supply one of each, 28lb,…
Mills Archive new accessions
Each year we shall be providing the National Archives with a list of material that we have received. The latest list includes 23 collections of varying size and importance, three of which are important millwrighting records. Some of the collections may not yet be available to view as they are largely unsorted and in a…
Researching watermill in East Leake
Author: Paul Cooper I am working on a project with my ten-year-old adopted granddaughter to discover the origins of a local watermill that isn’t shown on any maps as far back as 1750 but for which we have strong evidence that the ruins that remain were not a bridge but a mill race. The image…