Mill news and topical information - Archive page 13

Buildings at Risk Register 2004

The Buildings at Risk Register 2004 from English Heritage is now available. As in past years, there are a number of wind and watermills whose condition is causing concern, and are include on the list. Unfortunately I find the English Heritage site very difficult to use, and its not easy to get real information from it - the best I can do quickly is to note that 83 building have "mill" in their name.
Item: #324, Posted: 8/7/04.

Wood Wizards windmill playhouse

The Great Yorkshire Show is running from 13-15 July 2004, and the Wood Wizards stand features a 16ft high windmill playhouse. The playhouse costs around £40,000, and took 3 and a half months to make. I'm not sure if its the same design as shown in this design drawing.
Item: #323, Posted: 8/7/04.

Friston mill featured at the Mills Archive

The Mills Archive is running a feature on Friston post mill, following the news that work has commenced to make this important mill stable. The feature highlights the 73 documents and photos currently in the archive about this mill.
Mills: [Friston]
See also:Item #312
Item: #322, Posted: 7/7/04.

New life for Himalayan region watermills

IT Power is short listed for the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy, for the work it has done over a number of years to design a way to modernize the 200,000 traditional watermills in the Himalayan region, using micro-hydro systems to make them viable for grinding flour, rice hulling and generating electricity.

There are two designs used in the improvements; a new horizontal water wheel, and a vertical turbine. Detailed engineering plans for both are available on the website.

Update:[6/8/04] The awards have been presented, and the Himalayan project was a runner up in the international section.
Item: #321, Posted: 17/6/04.

Wray Common windmill auctioned - 19th May 2004

The recent article from The Mail on Sunday on property auctions is now available online at Homes and Property.

It includes a couple of paragraphs on Wray common windmill: At Clarke Gammon Weller's sale in Guildford three weeks ago, The Windmill at Reigate went under the hammer with a guide price of £250,000. Built in 1824, Grade II listed and with an attached granary, it stands proud in a quiet residential area overlooking Wray Common on the outskirts of Reigate. Two bidders slogged it out and auctioneer Jeremy Zeid's hammer fell at £326,000. 'The room was packed and there was a great buzz,' he said. 'This sale proved the effectiveness of auctions. They serve to concentrate interest within a set time frame, create a competitive market place and ensure the deal is concluded on the day.'

The auction catalog still has the illustrated property details, but I guess it will soon be displaced by the catalog for the next auction. The details stated ADDRESS: The Windmill, 66 Batts Hill, Reigate, Surrey RH2 0LQ DESCRIPTION: Beautiful Grade II Listed windmill and attached granary. The windmill offers exceptional views and is set in a delightful elevated location. Now in need of renovation and modernisation. ACCOMMODATION Entrance hall, kitchen, large converted granary/studio, bathroom, large circular sitting/dining room, four further floors, small secluded garden.
Mills: [Reigate]
See also:Item #315
Item: #320, Posted: 16/6/04.

Beaufort Court open day

Beaufort Court is the new headquarters building at Kings Langley of the RES group - the UK based wind farm developer. It was officially opened on 24th May by Stephen Timms, Minister for Energy.

The site, adjacent to the M25 motorway, is a conversion of the Ovaltine Egg Farm into a zero emissions office development. As well as the energy efficient office building, the site produces its own power via a wind turbine (a "second hand" Vestas V29 225kW system), has 170 square metres of solar panels proving both heat and photo-voltaics, stores heat in an underground heat store, uses underground water for cooling, and grows biomas (elephant grass) for fuel.

The site has an energy trail laid out around all these features, and on 12th June this was well used as part of an open day. Hundreds of people visited for a look round this high profile innovative site - where the bright sun and brisk breeze meant the major systems were producing power. The website has charts of energy production so you can see how these systems run over time.
See also:Item #141
Item: #319, Posted: 16/6/04.

More details on Kenn windmill destruction

The 2003 SPAB Report of the Committee contains more details of the loss of Kenn windmill last year. The stump of the parallel sided tower was visible from the M5 motorway, and was due to be repaired as part of the development of a business park / industrial estate. Instead the developers demolished it, and have built a mock tower as part of another building on the estate. The mock tower is the wrong shape (being conical), and has been given a wrong date on a replacement for the original tower's carved date stone (which has apparently been lost). Despite strong protests to the local authority, the developers appear to have got away with destroying this historical building.
Mills: [Kenn]
See also:Item #165
Item: #318, Posted: 15/6/04.

Wrawby Windmill, near Brigg - Heritage Lincolnshire pick of the month

I'm not sure how long this link will work, but Wrawby Windmill, near Brigg is the pick of the month on the Heritage Lincolnshire website. When the month expires it doesn't look as if old picks are archived.
Mills: [Wrawby]
Item: #317, Posted: 15/6/04.

Llangoed conversion plan now approved

The mill tower at Llangoed, Anglesey, built in 1742, but long ruinous, has been granted planning permission on reconsideration for conversion to a holiday cottage sleeping 4. The access to the mill was considered to be likely to make nearby junctions unsafe, but the council have changed their mind, ahead of a planned public inquiry on the application.

Update:[17/6/04] Another report includes a photo of the mill tower, covered in scaffolding.
Item: #316, Posted: 14/6/04.

Edwardian photo of Wray Common mill

Wray Common mill, Reigate was recently sold at auction. Whilst searching for more details on the sale I came across an Edwardian photo of Wray Common mill.
Mills: [Reigate]
Item: #315, Posted: 14/6/04.

Quirky Bradford Old Windmill

Distinctly Quirky Towers is another travel writer report on Bradford Old Windmill - which is run as a B+B. This one brings in a few new stories I've not seen before.
Mills: [Bradford on Avon]
Item: #314, Posted: 6/6/04.

Thames Town, Shanghai, China

A new £200m city for 8000 residents being built at SongJiang near Shanghai is aiming to recreate the most picturesque elements of a British town to lure homebuyers from China's newly affluent middle class. Thames Town plans include Tudor half-timbered buildings, Victorian red-brick, a castle, and at least one windmill.

Another report from LGIB contains the same "at least one windmill" phrase, so I suspect that it's produced from the same press release, but I've been unable to track down the original source.
Item: #313, Posted: 6/6/04.

Friston mill to get steel framework to allow work to stabilize mill

Friston post mill in Suffolk requires some fairly urgent work to make it stable, and to this end it is gaining a steel framework installed by DGT Steel and Cladding Ltd, to allow the buck to be jacked up, so enabling work on the timbers of the trestle and the bottom of the buck.

The work is a holding operation, whilst site owner Piers Hartley, and the mill owner the Friston Mill Foundation look to secure an estimated £400,000 to restore the mill.
Mills: [Friston]
Item: #312, Posted: 6/6/04.

Coat of paint for Denver windmill

Specialist painters Fishers of Nottingham have the job to paint Denver windmill. The task will take a 2 man team around a week, and use 100 litres of masonry paint on the tower, and 10 litres of acrylic for the cap.
Mills: [Denver]
Item: #311, Posted: 6/6/04.

German mill day - 31st May

The 11th German mill day ("Deutschen Mühlentag") takes place on Monday, 31st May 2004. There is info about it at Mühlentag 2004 - unfortunately the site is only in German, and the site goes out of its way to prevent normal use of the site, which includes trying to read the pages via a translator.

A machine translation of the press release reads:
Presseinformation to the German mill day 2004 the German society for mill customer and mill preservation (DGM) leads on 31 May 2004 (whit-monday) country widely the 11. German mill day through. A large prelude meeting is prepared at present at the windmill "De Vrouw Johanna" in Emden, for which the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony Christian Wulff took over the patronage. In his greeting word to the special meaning of this daily one refers and one represents Lower Saxony as one of the mill-richest regions of Germany. The preservation of wind and wassermuehlen as historical building witnesses of our technical and economic development over many centuries finds a ever more largely becoming interest in the public. For years constantly the rising number on the German mill day of the participating mills is for it a safe proof. Since 1994 have itself their number more than doubled (s. attached statistics) some the mills, which participate in the German mill day, are all year round opened. That applies among other things to the historical mill Sanssouci in potsdam, which was visited in the last year by approximately 60,000 visitors. Exhibitions do not take place rarely and the subject of the former Mueller handicraft are shown in the opened mills, which obtain a view of the mill technology of verflossener years. Often also literary-musical meetings belong to the program of opened mills (among other things in the mill circle Minden Luebbecke), which enrich often the attendance in a mill apart from the numerous historically arranged mill celebrations and a cultural experience of special kind become to let. As well known climb around mills many cheerful and serious stories as well as poems and narrations of grinding and the meaning of wind and water. Each mill has its special history. With alone around meals never are from grain. Above all in the course of centuries developed more than 160 productive ranges of application also today still constitute the fascinating at the mill technology and its history. Many wind and wassermuehlen are already represented with own homepage in the InterNet. That applies also to the German mill company (www.muehlen dgm ev.de). Numerous "surfer" avail themselves of this source of information already, in order to experience details over mills, their locations, its age and its function. Also this points economically important technology which was on an increasing interest in one, which will further receive for historical and denkmalpflegerischen reasons of future generations should. Further information can be caught up at the 14 regional organizations of the German mill company as well as from the participant taker listings in the InterNet under www.muehlen dgm ev.de. I ask you therefore, over the 11. To report German mill day on 31 May 2004. Minden, in April 2004 gez. Erhard Jahn (Erhard Jahn) president
Item: #310, Posted: 25/5/04.

New sails for Herne mill, Kent

Millwrights from IJP Building Conservation (Luke Bonwick, Dan Barton, Ricky Quinton, Paul Sellwood) built new sweeps for Herne mill during March and April, which were placed on the mill with the aid of a crane in time for National Mills Weekend. Two of the sweeps are made from laminated baltic pine and two are solid pine baulks. An approximate 66% complement of shutters have been fitted; the striking gear has been returned to its original black colour scheme. It was possible to re-use many of the existing shutters, and some new ones which were made by the Friends of the Mill have been added. The sails were in use for the Saturday of mills weekend, and also in the sunshine of the subsequent weekend's Sunday opening, where they made a grand advertisement that the mill was open.
Mills: [Herne]
Item: #309, Posted: 23/5/04.

Millwall - origins of the name

The Millwall area of London, famed this weekend for its football club, takes its name from a group of 7 or more windmills for grinding corn, which were situated along the raised bank of the Thames on the west side of the Isle of Dogs. These are variously described at PortCities, About the Isle of Dogs, and also Origins of Millwall FC.
Item: #308, Posted: 23/5/04.

Stream power: watermills in Newquay

Stream power is an article on watermills in Newquay from the Newquay Voice. Part of their historical Then and Now series, the article contains a number of stories about past millers and their mills. Unfortunately the web page layout of the text is very poor, and makes it quite a struggle to read.
Item: #307, Posted: 13/5/04.

Mills Section custom franking

The SPAB Mills Section has started to frank its mail with its logo featuring a windmill.

Item: #306, Posted: 12/5/04.

Bourn mill reopens after renovations

The post mill at Bourn, Cambridgeshire, has just reopened after a £46,000 renovation (of which £38,300 came from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £7,200 from Waste Recycling Environmental, and £720 from South Cambridgeshire District Council). The mill has been mostly closed to the public since 2000, but will now be open from 2-5pm on the last Sunday of every month until September.
Mills: [Bourn]
Item: #305, Posted: 11/5/04.

Drinkstone mills open for National Mills Weekend

Drinkstone mills - a site featuring the UK's oldest post mill, a smock mill, a Great Eastern railway carriage, and other items of interest is open once again for National Mills Weekend.
Mills: [Drinkstone]
Item: #304, Posted: 6/5/04.

Lambeth Council grants £25,000 to Brixton windmill

Brixton windmill is to get some much needed maintenance work, thanks to a £25,000 grant from Lambeth council. £16,000 of specialist mill work will include repairing and painting the cap, repointing and painting the brick work, and attention to the sails which have slipped downwards. The rest of the money will be used for more general improvement to the gardens around the mill
Mills: [Brixton]
Item: #303, Posted: 1/5/04.

Foxton windmill, NZ attracts 64,000 visitors in its first year

Foxton Windmill, a fully working smock mill constructed over the past few years in New Zealand, officially opened in April 2003. Since then it has attracted 64,000 visitors - which for a country with as small a population as New Zealand is very impressive.

I've also put together a page on the Windmills of New Zealand.
See also:Item #70
Item: #302, Posted: 1/5/04.

2nd series of Restoration - buildings announced

The BBC have announced the list of buildings that will feature in the 2nd series of Restoration. These include 2 water powered textile mills

Item: #301, Posted: 30/4/04.

Model of Saxmundham mill in newly opened museum

Saxmundham museum which opened earlier this month has a 1/32 scale model of Saxmundham post mill, recently built by John Goldsmith and his brother.

The mill was reputed to be the tallest post mill in Europe, until the buck was taken down in 1907. The last working owners were the Turner family, who also owned a shop in the High Street. Photos show the shop front advertising "Miller and Baker, Dealer in Corn, Chaff, Malt and Hops. Ilims smoked and dried". What are "ilims" - noone yet seems to know. If you know what they are, please let me know.

Update:[1/5/04] Thanks to John Goldsmith, I now have some photos of the model.
Mills: [Saxmundham]
Item: #300, Posted: 26/4/04.

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