Archives of Historical Information on Mills 🌍

The Mills Archive

A New Initiative - The Mills Archive - was launched in 2001 to establish:

A new specialist archive to store, care for and preserve important collections of mill-related material
A new charitable trust to bring together the different needs of researchers and serious collectors
An Internet gateway to the indexes and high resolution digitised images of key material in the archive.

Other Archives for UK mills

Apart from the many published sources of information on wind and water mills, researchers often need access to historical documents and pictorial records that might not be so easily obtained. The relevant information may be stored, but not necessarily well indexed in:

One of the main UK archives such as
- the National Monuments Record
- the Rylands Museum - E Mitford Abraham Windmills and Watermill collection
- the SPAB
- the Science Museum.
These collections require phone calls and possibly visits to check material.
Although a visit may still be necessary, the Templeman Library special collections of wind and water mills give more detailed indexes on the Internet of the Muggeridge, Davies and Holman Collections.
Individual collections and private archives scattered around the country. Few of these are accessible via the Internet. Exceptions are the historical images of T C Vickers on this site and the Ian Scotter's archive of recent images at Mill Scenes. (now unfortunately inaccessible).

Other Internet Mills archives, surveys and collections

Database of Northern European mills with comprehensive coverage of: The Netherlands (existing windmills), The Netherlands (vanished windmills), Windmills in Belgium, Mills in Germany, Scandanavia, Poland, and the Baltic states.
Windmills in Eastern Germany - a comprehensive photographic survey of all available windmills in the former GDR, 1992 - 1998
Windmills in England
Windmills in France
Windmills of Mallorca
Windmills of Lanzarote - a photographic survey of the windmills of Lanzarote, Sept/Oct 1997
Windmills of Barbados - a selective photographic survey, October 1999
Windmills in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - North Germany
Survey of the Windmills on the Island of Tinos, Greece
The windmills of Surrey - includes photos of remaining mills, plus list of all known mills
Windmills in the province Groningen, The Netherlands
A Gazetteer of Tidemills in England & Wales

General Archives with good mill contents

Buckinghamshire County Council - photo archive
Leeds Library Local Studies Collection

Archives whose contents are not on the Internet

Historical Society of Pennsylvania - Windmill Collection, ca. 1918, 57 lantern slides

Last updated 16/09/2025