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Mill news and topical information - Archive page 22

windmills The George Grantham Bain Collection

The George Grantham Bain Collection, held by the US Library of Congress, represents the photographic files of one of America's earliest news picture agencies. Available online are 39,744 glass negatives and a selection of about 1,600 photographic prints for which copy negatives exist.

Searching for windmill turns up nothing beyond an ornamental Dutch windmill at a flower show, but a wider search for "mill" brings up: For a major national library, frankly their website interface is terrible - I have linked direct to images above, since it seems to be impossible to link to the catalog entry for the images, since they do not have unique URLs.
Item: #549, Posted: 15/5/06.

windmills Illinois Windmills website

Although it has a very strange graphical setup, the new website Illinois Windmills is a very rare thing - an American website, dedicated to real windmills, rather than American wind engines.

There are 4 "original" windmills remaining in the state, and a fifth recently constructed mill. (The site fails to mention a proposed 6th mill that is hoping to be erected in the next few years). Historical research has shown around 20 windmills existed in the state at some time, and these are detailed, with pictures where available.
Item: #548, Posted: 12/5/06.

windmills Holgate windmill plans 3 stage restoration

Holgate Windmill Preservation Society is now planning a three stage restoration of the mill.
  1. reinstate water and electricity, repoint and tar the walls, and reroof the cap. Much of the £90K stage 1 funding is in place. (April 2006).
  2. get the machinery restored and electrically driven.
  3. restore the sails.
The total cost will be around £600K. Unfortunately the Heritage Lottery fund cannot assist, to the extent originally foreseen, and would require a resource centre for school groups close by, which is not easy in the mill's urban situation. However the society shall persevere! All donations will be gratefully received.

The mill is open for Mills Weekend.
Mills: [Holgate Mill]
Item: #547, Posted: 8/5/06.

watermills New model display at Bishops Lydeard watermill

Bishops Lydeard mill is the setting for a newly constructed model mills display. The 7 display models, built by Vic Newey are in 1/72 scale (00 model railway scale), and show examples of Bishops Lydeard mill will be open for Mills Weekend, and then begins its regular season from 30th May onwards.
Item: #546, Posted: 8/5/06.

windmills New cap for the tower of Bidborough windmill

I've received notification that
Bidborough windmill had a new cap lifted on 1st May. There is a housing development around the mill, and the mill is being "refurbished." I don't know if this means restored or converted though.
More research shows that the local council in May 2005 approved a planning application 
    04/02906/7: Four Winds Windmill and Land, Penshurst Road
    Restoration of windmill, extension and conversion to form one house and erection of four houses and three flats.
so despite the misleading "restoration" in the title, it does look as if this is another mill falling prey to house conversion.
Mills: [Bidborough]
Item: #545, Posted: 8/5/06.

mills National Mills Weekend

Just as reminder, as if you needed it, that this coming weekend in the UK it's National Mills Weekend.

The current TIMS newsletter also provides the following list of other national and regional mills days across Europe:
See also:Item #527
Item: #544, Posted: 8/5/06.

windmills Danzey Green mill working by wind again

After being under repair for a while, at the hands of Adam Marriot, the restored Midlands post mill from Danzey Green, now at Avoncroft museum of buildings, is once again capable of working by wind. She only has a single pair of sails at the moment, but nonetheless, Adam reports that, just in time for the Easter holiday weekend, he
"finally got the backstays on and had the mill working this evening. She was struggling in a very light wind but cracked wheat well and nearly ground. Hopefully have her running at the weekend!"

Mills: [Bromsgrove]
Item: #543, Posted: 11/4/06.

windmills Listing of mock mills

A windmill is a popular and striking landscape or townscape feature. For this reason, a number of so called "mock mills" have been constructed in the UK in recent years. The definition of a mock mill is a building constructed to look like a windmill, but which was never capable of using wind as a power source.

A number of these have been built as pubs or restaurants, sometimes employing millwrights who also work on true mills. Their appearance ranges from the authentic, through to the crude.

I've put together a list of such mock mills that I'm aware of, but I'm always interested to hear of other examples. I have excluded rebuilt mills from this list, where the rebuild, although itself never used for milling, was at least built on a historical foundation - an example of which is Rye, Sussex. I have also excluded a number of "large model" windmills, which are much smaller than building size.
Mills: [Caldecotte]
Item: #542, Posted: 11/4/06.

watermills Spring Mill State Park, Indiana

Riya is a new online photo service just started up, (whose main point of difference to existing services it its ability to recognise faces within the photos). A search for windmills or windmills does not turn up much at the moment, but I did come across a large selection of photos of the watermill at Sprint Mill State Park, Indiana.
Item: #541, Posted: 27/3/06.

windmills 'He'yer fa'got a dickey, bor?' isn't rude... in Norfolk

There is an article in The Times today about a plan to preserve the Norfolk dialect via a Local Heritage Initiative grant to schools. The article is illustrated with a photo of "Eric Edwards, 63, one of the last of the Norfolk reed cutters whose traditional country dialect is being revived", on a reed cutter's boat in front of a Broadland windmill. (Looks to be Turf Fen again).
Mills: [Irstead]
Item: #540, Posted: 23/3/06.

windmills Chitty Chitty Bang Bang National Tour

Having completed its run at the London Palladium, the musical stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is off on a national tour round the UK. As well as a most impressive flying car (of course), the stage set features the windmill home of Caractacus Potts, and his children Jeremy and Jemima.

The Tour dates are: The film version featured Ibstone windmill, Bucks.
Mills: [Ibstone]
Item: #539, Posted: 21/3/06.

windmills World's Most Extreme Homes

The title is not mine, but airing today (20/3/06) in the USA, the HGTV channel (Home and Garden TV) has a programme in their "World's Most Extreme Homes" series. This episode is described as including:
Whale House, Windmill, Darwin House

First visit a windmill in Holland that's still grinding corn. A young family in Mexico lives inside the belly of their whale house. Finally, down in Australia a family beats the heat in an open-air house.
The mill in question is Molen van Piet in Alkmaar.
See also:Item #517
Item: #538, Posted: 20/3/06.

windmills Brill windmill on cover of Driving section of Sunday Times

The Driving section of the Sunday Times, 19/3/06 shows off the new Fiat Grande Punto car in front of Brill windmill. The review of the car itself by Jeremy Clarkson, inside the section, is well worth reading, though it has no further photos of the mill. Overall Jeremy liked it, but gives a verdict of cheap, cheerful, and slow.

Mills: [Brill]
Item: #537, Posted: 19/3/06.

windmills Photography Monthly cover carries Broadland windmill shot

The March 06 issue of Photography Monthly magazine carries an atmospheric shot of a windmill somewhere on the Norfolk Broads.

Update:[20/3/06] The mill in the photo is the drainage mill at Turf Fen, Norfolk. There is a similar photo available.
Mills: [Irstead]
Item: #536, Posted: 19/3/06.

windmills Mapping the Golden Gate windmills

My page on Windmills in California details the two windmills in Golden Gate Park. I'm not sure of the current state of the southernmost windmill, the Murphy Windmill, which was dismantled for reconstruction a few years ago. (The timeline page at the Campaign to save the Golden Gate Park Windmills suggests that work should have started by now to rebuild this). I have been able to find a few photos of the windmills via the various mapping and aerial photo services available on the web, though these images are undated. All images currently seem to show the Murphy Windmill dismantled with just the base remaining.
Item: #535, Posted: 12/3/06.

energy Investigating wind energy with Google Earth

Juicy Geography is a site that looks to teach geography in fun ways. They have recently put together a 2 part article which uses Google Earth to look at wind energy in the UK. Even if you don't feel you want to be taught geography, these are interesting exercises.
Item: #534, Posted: 2/3/06.

energy Project Profile: Beaufort Court

The March/April 2006 edition of Renewable Energy World magazine carries a project profile of Beaufort Court - RES's headquarters building, with its wind turbine, at Kings Langley, just alongside the M25.

It notes that the wind turbine, a 36 metre high 225 kW Vestas V-29 was bought second hand from a wind farm in the Netherlands for £140,000 (206,000 Euro).
See also:Item #319, Item #141
Item: #533, Posted: 2/3/06.

windmills The World's Oldest Windmills in Danger

I don't normally include the full text of news reports available elsewhere on the web, but I have no idea how long this Iranian news agency keeps articles available for, and this story is too important to miss.

The Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency reports that:
Tehran, 19 February 2006 (CHN) -- The remained rare and limited windmills in the Province of South Khorassan are close to complete destruction.

These windmills, called "A'sbad" among the locals of the region, are located in the Village of Chahar Farsakh, most southern point of the province. It is strongly believed that their revival can definitely lead to the promotion of tourism in this region.

The Village of Chahar Farsakh is located at the terminal point of a desert without any accessible communicative road except one old route from the city of Nahbandan.

As Alireza Shahbakhsh, tourism deputy of Cultural Heritage & Tourism Department in the province says the implemented studies and surveys in the region and its suburbs show that these windmills are among the oldest windmills of the world. He also emphasized that the initial idea to construct windmills in other countries, particularly the Netherlands, has been transferred to these countries from Iran, the city of Zabol and its suburban areas.

According to Shahbakhsh, despite registration of these windmills by the officials of Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, no positive measure has been taken for protection and restoration of these windmills which once had key roles in the culture and life of desert residents.

"Lack of efficient budget is one of the chief factors behind negligence toward revival of these unique windmills", an expert from Cultural Heritage & Tourism Department of the province pointed out.

Windmills were an essential part of daily life for many of the region's early residents. They helped colonial farmers grind grains and gave pioneers a way to pump water along trails, rail lines and new farmlands.

Farmers relied on the power of wind during much of the past 20 years in this region. However, today due to development of technology, many windmills stand unused and deteriorating in fields.

Except for a few windmills in the City of Zabol and its suburban areas, the rest of the windmills are under the danger of complete destruction. A small model of complete construction of these windmills has been exhibited in the temporary museum of Cultural Heritage & Tourism Department in the city of Zahedan (capital of Sistan va Baluchestan province).

Contrary to other desert regions which suffer from water shortage all the time, the Village of Chahar Farsakh enjoys a great Qanat (subterranean canal) which has flourished the agriculture of the region. The region is under the impression of 120-day winds of Sistan most of the time during the year. That is why windmills of this village are considered the local industry of this region

Item: #532, Posted: 20/2/06.

windmills Major reorganization of this site

To pave the way for further changes in the future, I have started down the route of a radical reorganization of the way I present the information on this site. Up to now, I have had one page containing all the information about mills in a particular area, particularly in my series of pages covering the counties of England. However, some of these pages have become extremely large, so I am reorganizing to make the county pages hold a summary table of information, linking through to a dedicated page for each mill.

This has the additional advantage of making it easier for me, and for others, to link through directly to the information on a specific mill. The identifier I am using to identify the page is the Mill Index id, as used by the Mills Archive.

As the first bonus of this change, I have been able to directly include a map/aerial photo of each mill on its dedicated page, thanks to Google Maps. This map hopefully shows the area around the mill, and can be zoomed or panned around as you require. Some locations are only approximate - I'm working on improving their accuracy, but please do tell me if you see any that are wildly off. Within these there are a number of spectacular aerial shots of mills - see the linked mills for a selection of my favorites. Note some of the great shadows that the mills cast.
Mills: [Lacey Green] [Ibstone] [Fulbourn] [Madingley] [Bembridge] [Bromsgrove]
See also:Item #335
Item: #531, Posted: 16/2/06.

windpumps Bob Morse's wind engines - windengines.com

I'm very pleased to post the following on behalf of Debra Nicholson, of Bob Morse's Wind Engine Park in Repps, Norfolk:
Who are we?

In the depths of the Norfolk countryside a young man by the name of Bob Morse thankfully had a fascination with Windmills. Starting back in 1947 he purchased the then very derelict Thurne Mill. Nature had taken its toll on the poor thing which had stood with only the stocks remaining, even the interior floors and stairs had rotted away. Work began and Bob managed to secure the help of Albert England, a direct descendant of England's of Ludham, the Millwright family who built the Mill in 1820. It took only eighteen months for the pair of them to restore the Tower to its former glory.

Several years later the Mill was leased to the Norfolk Windmill Trust who have very successfully continued with the restoration. In September 2002 the Millwright Vincent Pargetter completed his work on the shutters and the Mill turned again for the first time since 1936. More than 200 people attended the celebrations including a very proud Bob Morse. This year should see the work completed on the turbine and then she will be able to pump again.

The Mill is open to the public (and turning weather permitting) from April - September every 2nd & 4th Sunday of the month between 2pm - 5pm.

Bob Morse continued his work by rescuing derelict wind engines and restoring them to their original condition. Here at Morse's Wind Engine Park we have a historical collection of unique wind engines and a scoopwheel dating back to the nineteenth century. Our aim here at the Park is to ensure the long-term conservation of the collection. We are a "not for profit" organisation, and the time has come for these great machines to help pay for themselves. In order to do this we will be offering a membership scheme, which will include a copy of our twice-yearly publication "The Morse Messenger". We are intending to have our own web site, which will be "windengines.com", so for those of you who surf please watch this space, it should be packed full with information, images and souvenirs.

However, in these early stages it would be really encouraging to hear from any of you out there who would like to comment on the above, ask questions, get involved, offer advice, fill out a questionnaire or just have a chat. My name is Debra Nicholson and I can be contacted by: -

E-mail:- debranicholson@windengines.com

Post to: -
Mrs Debra Nicholson
Morse's Wind Engine Park
Marsh View
Staithe Road
Repps
Norfolk NR29 5JU
Telephone: - 01692 672155

Thank you for reading this article, I'd love to hear from you.

Mills: [Repps with Bastwick]
Item: #530, Posted: 14/2/06.

mills Germaine Greer stands up for Essex girls - and Essex mills

In an article in the Observer newspaper on 5th February 2006, Germaine Greer, an Essex resident, stands up for Essex girls, and relates what she loves about the country. She has this to say on the subject of Essex mills:
The history of the English working class has been written only in dribs and drabs; one day soon people will turn round and realise that all the monuments to England's industrial greatness have disappeared. Nobody now remembers that the Essex village of Bocking is where Samuel Courtauld first began to manufacture artificial silk in the early 1800s. The original mill, near the parish church, has long since disappeared. Most of the Essex windmills were allowed to collapse, some after long struggle to find money to conserve them. We have other examples of early power generation - tide-mills for example. One day we will have to decide what to do with Tilbury power station when it is mothballed.

Item: #529, Posted: 14/2/06.

windmills Windmills of Porto Santo

Thanks to Mike Matthews, I have put together a page of photos showing the windmills on the Portuguese island of Porto Santo.
Item: #528, Posted: 3/2/06.

mills Stone-ground Flour by Natural Power - National Mills Weekend 2006

National Mills Weekend 2006 (May 13/14) celebrates the 75th anniversary of SPAB's Mills Section.

More than 80 Mills In UK Are Taking Part.

Wind and water are sustainable power sources, used for hundreds of years in Britain in the production of natural food. 2006 sees the 75th anniversary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) Mills Section and what better way to mark this landmark year in the battle to save some of the nation's most loved and evocative buildings than to celebrate their practicality along with their beauty?

SPAB's founder William Morris held that you should have nothing in your home that you do not know to be both beautiful and useful - a maxim that could easily apply to Britain's wind and watermills. There are currently more than 100 working mills capable of producing natural, stone ground flour and 100 of these will be open to the public during SPAB's 75th Anniversary National Mills Weekend - May 13th/14th 2006. In addition, over the weekend, a further 300 mills throughout the country will be welcoming visitors.

SPAB's Windmill Committee was formed in 1931 in response to an alarming decline in the numbers of the country's windmills. Later it included watermills within its interests, and it "encouraged the art of country milling". Still active today the SPAB is the only national amenity society dedicated to the protection of our milling heritage.

Some working mills are more than 300 years old yet still efficiently doing the job in the 21st century that they were built and designed for. Simon Hudson, SPAB?s Mills Section Secretary says:
What could be better or more sustainable than natural food made using a 100% environmentally friendly power source?

Many of the mills open in May are run by members of the Traditional Corn Millers Guild. The Guild was set up in 1987 to promote stone ground, wholemeal, oatmeal and other special flours to a wider public and continue the tradition of milling with stones.

A new publication: Stone Ground Flour - Where Can I Find It? gives information about where these products can be found. Listing mills from Cumbria to Kent and from Cornwall to Scotland, this publication is launched for National Mills Weekend 2006 and is available from the SPAB Mills Section and from participating mills.

Further details of National Mills Weekend are available from Simon Hudson, Mills Section Secretary, SPAB Mills Section, 37 Spital Square, London E1 6DY (0207 456 0909). e-mail millsinfo@spab.org.uk or visit to the website.

Item: #527, Posted: 1/2/06.

windmills Goole mill exposed as surrounding development demolished

As Timms flour mill in Goole outgrew the capacity of the windmill at its centre, a large complex of buildings was built up attached to the retained windmill tower. The flour mill closed a number of years ago, and redevelopment of the site is ongoing - resulting in the clearing of the additional buildings, leaving the windmill tower standing proud once again.

A photo of the windmill tower, by Gordon Kneale Brooke has been posted at the geograph site.
Mills: [Goole]
See also:Item #270, Item #98
Item: #526, Posted: 19/1/06.

windmills Broads Authority bursary scheme for millwrights and reed cutters

With the help of a £714,500 grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Broads Authority has plans to launch a bursary scheme this summer to train and employ 10 reed and sedge cutters for nearly two years each, and five millwrights for three and a half years.

Announcing the scheme on 17/1/06 on the marshes of Haddiscoe Island, near Yarmouth, Broads Authority landscape architect Lesley Harrison outlined their vision of restoring many of the 74 windpumps on the Broads, which are all listed. The aim is to return some at least to working order as an added attraction for visitors.
Item: #525, Posted: 18/1/06.
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