Mill news and topical information - Archive page 23

Windmills of Malta

A couple of the first batch of photos placed on this site were of windmills in Malta, and they have long been visible on my world photo tour page.

However, when I received an email asking about windmills in Malta, I realized that I didn't actually have a page bringing together information on the mills of the islands of Malta and Gozo. I've now fixed that, by creating a Windmills of Malta page. Whilst looking for other pages to link to, I also came across the Malta Windmill Database which is run by a Dutchman, W Jellema, who has visited Malta over a number of years to photograph the mills. The English is occasionally a little strange, and the site design infuriating, but this is also a useful resource.
Item: #574, Posted: 9/1/07.

Maintenance work at Windmill Hill, Swindon

Roger Cornfoot has posted a photo to Geograph showing the current maintenance work in progress on the windmill at Windmill Hill business park, Swindon. The photo shows the scaffolded mill with one of its sails leaning freely against the mill - it's not clear where its matching pair is.
Mills: [Swindon]
Item: #573, Posted: 3/1/07.

Site updates

Updates to this site, including this news feed, have been rather sporadic for a while, due to other committments.

However I've just managed a complete refresh of the site, updating all pages where I can. Of note are the UK county pages, where I've rearranged the columns to make these a bit more usable - the mill name and locations are now clickable, to take you through to the details pages for individual mills.

The individual mill pages have also benefitted from access to more data - notable amongst these are more links through to windmill photographs on Flickr. Flickr is a great image resource, growing at the rate of around 1 million images per day! Try a search for the latest pictures tagged as "windmill", and see what crops up.

Pictures of particular note from 2006 include:

Chesterton windmill after a sail broke off in September
A mill I can't identify, which claims to be on the Isle of Wight - can anyone accurately identify this? Update: Identified as being in the grounds of Calbourne watermill, though any more info on it would be welcome.
Open House at Shirley Windmill in September

Mills: [Shirley] [Chesterton]
Item: #572, Posted: 31/12/06.

Holgate's cap craned off for restoration

Paul Hepworth of Holgate Windmill Preservation Society informs me:

Holgate Windmill's cap was craned off last month and awaits restoration. Funds required are approx £50,000 with craning back on planned for Spring 2007. The tower has a temporary roof. More pictures of the event on our website.
Brickwork repairs are in hand, and an electrical supply has been installed. Separate funding has been secured for internal repairs to floor beams, enabling temporary internal supports to be removed.
Machinery repair and new sails still awaiting further fundraising.

Mills: [Holgate Mill]
Item: #571, Posted: 9/11/06.

Windmills at the Gaylord Building, Chicago

The Chicago area was the {American} windmill manufacturing capital of the world at one time. The Gaylord Building celebrates this windmill heritage with two programs in November. Dinner and a Lecture On November 9, landscape architect Barbara Geiger will present “Generating Change: Windmills in the Midwest.” Water-pumping windmills revolutionized the American landscape in the early 20th century though they were so effective, they brought about their own rapid demise. Told from the perspective of LaVerne and Ida Noyes, owners of the Chicago Aermotor Company, Ms. Geiger will trace the history of windmills in America and tell the story of one family that made a fortune making and distributing windmills throughout the world.

A lecturer on landscape history, Ms. Grainger is on the faculty of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She is also principal of the B. Geiger Group, a landscape architecture firm specializing in historic landscapes and heritage gardens.

The cost for the Dinner and a Lecture is $26 for members of the Canal Corridor Association (CCA) and $32 for non-members. Reservations are required; call 588-1100. Collectors Brown Bag Lunch On November 20, the Collectors Brown Bag Lunch program will feature windmill collectibles. Bob Popeck, a windmill collector and past president of the International Windmill Association, will present his finds. Among them, a 3 ½-foot-tall showroom model. It's sort of like a salesman's sample of a windmill,” says Mr. Popeck, who has been collecting windmills for about 15 years. He'll also have windmill photographs and a variety of windmill weights. Serving to counterbalance windmills to keep them from tipping over, the cast iron weights come in a variety of animal shapes.

The one-hour event begins at noon and admission is $4 for CCA members and $6 for non-members. Reservations not required, but are encouraged. Audience members are also encouraged to bring a sack lunch.

The Gaylord Building Historic Site (200 W. 8th Street, Lockport, IL 60441) is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and managed by the Canal Corridor Association. For further information, please call 815.588.1100.
Item: #570, Posted: 1/11/06.

Ashtree Farm drainage mill gains cap and sails

As the latest part of its restoration to working order, the drainage mill at Ashtree Farm, Norfolk had a new cap and sails lifted into place on 8th Sept 2006.
Mills: [Great Yarmouth]
Item: #569, Posted: 25/9/06.

BBC Restoration Village

The BBC slightly changed the name and the format for the third series of what is now called "Restoration Village" this year, but the basic format is the same - viewers voting for the property that they would like to see restored.

There were two mills involved in the selection, both in the North of England region.

Howsham mill, North Yorkshire a Georgian corn mill (Regional winner)
Higherford Mill, Higherford, Lancashire a water powered cotton mill (Regional runner up)

The regional winner (Howsham mill) proceeded through to the final, but was not placed in the top 3.
Item: #568, Posted: 25/9/06.

News sails for Whissendine Windmill

News sails have been fitted to Nigel Moon's working mill at Whissendine. The sails were funded with the help of a grant from English Heritage, and the final pair were fitted on 7th September, 2006.
Mills: [Whissendine]
Item: #567, Posted: 25/9/06.

New cap under construction for Pilling windmill

Millwright Neil Medcalfe is constructing a new cap for Pilling windmill, which is due to be lifted back on in October 2006. It is hoped that the BBC will film the operation.
Mills: [Pilling]
Item: #566, Posted: 25/9/06.

Buildings at Risk 2006

The 2006 Buildings at Risk list is now available. There are 3 windmills listed on it:

Berkswell is a slightly surprising new entry - its enthusiastic fairly new owners have put a lot of work into in the past couple of years. The other two mills were on last years list as well. I don't know of the state of Sneaths Mill, but certainly that of Mitcham Common is extremely worrying. The owners, Whitbread, who run the pub restaurant alongside have had planning permission to protect the structure since 2002, but have done nothing about it. On a recent visit, the upright post now has just 3 of the 4 supports - the fourth is simply missing, as if it has rotted away totally from neglect. The state of the remaining wooden structure is also fairly precarious.
Mills: [Mitcham Common] [Berkswell] [Lutton]
Item: #565, Posted: 12/7/06.

Time Team investigate mill site at Dotton, Devon

Devon 24 reports that

CHANNEL 4's Time Team was at Dotton, near Colaton Raleigh, this week to excavate the remains of an ancient mill.
It was the first time in the programme's 150-show history that the team have excavated a mill site.
Excavations began at the Dotton Farm site, owned by Clinton Devon Estates, on Sunday, with the 60-strong team led by presenters Tony Robinson (aka Baldrick in Black Adder), Mick Aston and Stewart Ainsworth.
It is believed the mill's remains could date from as early as 1600 and there is mention of a mill on the site in the Domesday Book.

A picture feature is planned in the same publication.

There is no mention of this on the Time Team website, so I assume it's for a forthcoming series.
Item: #564, Posted: 8/7/06.

Martin Watts Watermill book now available

Following his recent Shire Album on Windmills, Martin Watts now has an equivalent book just published on watermills.
See also:Item #561
Item: #563, Posted: 7/7//06.

Yes2Wind - Map of New Zealand Windfarms

The Yes2Wind web-site, by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and WWF has been campaigning for wind energy in the UK for a couple of years. I notice the site now has a sister site, run by Greenpeace New Zealand, which carries on the same campaign in New Zealand.

A useful feature of the New Zealand site is a map of windfarms, which uses the Google Maps interface to provide maps and satellite views of the locations. Unfortunately at the moment the aerial views are not particularly high resolution, but by using this interface, if Google updates its imagery, the site will automatically improve.
See also:Item #142
Item: #562, Posted: 19/6/06.

Mill books from Shire Books

Martin Watts has been working hard recently to produce two introductory books on mills for the Shire Album series. Windmills is available now, with the Watermills one due in the next month.
Item: #561, Posted: 15/6/06.

Camera Phone Photographer of the Year

The Times is running a photo competition for images captured via camera phones. There are categories for sport, current affairs, and landscape.

The printed Times on 27th May 2006 carried a photo by photographer Paul Rogers of an in focus red poppy, with Thaxted windmill out of focus behind. The website has more images, obviously taken at the same time, though not identical:

Mills: [Thaxted]
Item: #560, Posted: 30/5/06.

Mills at the supermarket (internet style)

My page on mills at the supermarket covers a selection of mills appearing on food and drink packaging, from countries around the world.

In the USA, Amazon has recently added a grocery store, which ships non-perishables to customers throughout the United States. With this its possible to do a little browsing of the supermarket shelves from afar. The range offered seems to be much smaller than a typical supermarket, tending towards the gourmet end of the market, but even so the following mills related products show up:

Bob's Red Mill offering a large range of flours, cereals, dried fruits and similar.
Hodgson Mill with a range of bread and cake mixes, and pasta - showing a watermill
Dutch liquorice carrying a windmill image
Millstone coffee where some of the range shows a stylized watermill logo

Item: #559, Posted: 30/5/06.

Christopher Wallis dies after short illness

Christopher Wallis, a civil engineer by profession, led the restoration of Lacey Green windmill in Buckinghamshire. In the 1970's the mill had deteriorated to such an extent that it was thought beyond repair, but as probably the oldest smock mill in the country, members of the Chiltern Society under Christopher's leadership were determined to preserve it, and he came up with very successful ideas to straighten and strengthen the mill.

Born in 1935, Christopher Wallis was the son of Barnes Wallis, famed for inventing the Dambusters bouncing bomb. He died on 10th May after a brief battle with liver cancer.
Mills: [Lacey Green]
Item: #558, Posted: 29/5/06.

Charles Allen Clarke tribute tour of Fylde windmills

Shirley Matthews, the granddaughter of Charles Allen Clarke, is organizing a tour of the Fylde windmills, as a tribute to her grandfather who wrote a number of classic books about those windmills .

The tour, on June 10th, by classic bus loaned by Lancastrian Trust Transport, will visit 8 mills at Marsh Mill, Lytham Mill, Little Marton Mill, Staining Mill, Clifton Mill, Pilling Mill, Treales Mill and Craggs Mill.
Mills: [Thornton] [Lytham] [Little Marton] [Staining] [Clifton] [Pilling] [Treales] [Preston, Dowbridge]
Item: #557, Posted: 28/5/06.

Cape Wind Project in Google Earth

There is now a data file available for Google Earth that shows details of the Cape Wind Project, an offshore windfarm planned off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The data includes 3d models of the turbines, though whether they are accurately modeled I rather doubt.

Update: The creator of the model contacted me to say that the model was as accurate as he could make it with the tools he could run on his computer. In particular the hub height and blade length were accurately represented, though the cylindrical tower had to be modelled as straight sided. The datasheet on the turbines, from GE Wind Energy, provides more information.
Item: #556, Posted: 28/5/06.

Old London Maps and views

Further to the last item about old Ordnance Survey maps, I've come across another site which offers old maps and views of London from the 16th - 19th centuries.

There a few windmills I've spotted to be seen:

P Huart's view in the 1640s - near the Tower of London
Newcourt's An Exact Delineation of the Cities of London and Westminster and the Suburbs. Drawn in 1658, and published in facsimile by Edward Stanford 1863 - On the opposite bank to Somerset House, Near St Gyles's Feilds, A group of 6 mills north of Moore Feilds, White Chapel, St Georges, Southwark
London and Westminster in the Time of Henry VIII (pre 1530s) Compiled from Ancient Documents and Other Authentic Sources by William Newton in 1855 Clerkenwell, 3 on Moor Field,
Merian's View across burning London during the Great Fire in 1666 - Whitehall, The Tower
St Paul's Cathedral c. 1702 - mill in foreground
New roads from Westminster Bridge in May 1753, taken from the Gentleman's Magazine - 4 mills in Lambeth
John Fairburn's Plan of Westminster and London 1801 - A number of mills ("Millwall") on the Isle of Dogs
Greenwood, Pringle & Co., 13 Regent Street, Pall Mall, August 21, 1827 - Millwall

Update:[15/6/06] There's a new map of the Isle of Dogs been added: A Plan of the River Thames from the Tower to Blackwall Taken by the Corporation of Trinity House in the Year 1750 that gives names to the 9 mills it shows along Millwall. From the north, these are Lead Mill, Oil Houses, Stile's, Kent's, Pyes, Saunder's, Bingley's, Lewi's [sic], Nashe's,
Item: #555, Posted: 24/5/06.

Old Ordnance Survey maps keyed to Google Maps

When researching mills and mill sites, maps are a key resource, and I've already tied this site closely with the mapping services provided by Google maps - offering an aerial view of each windmill's location via the service.

Another service that looks like it will be very useful is Old Ordnance Survey Maps which offers OS maps from around 1925 - 1945 via the Google Maps interface. Coverage of the UK is patchy, and the site is sometimes rather slow, but these are minor distractions.
Item: #554, Posted: 17/5/06.

Timms mill site at Goole still undetermined

The site around the remaining tower of Timms windmill at Goole has been cleared for a while of the additional mill buildings that were added as the milling firm outgrew the capacity of the windmill. The firm shut down in April 2001, and the site has planning permission for a retail development, provided none of the stores is a food store. However, the developers are having trouble attracting an anchor retailer, and are trying to vary the conditions so that they can include a supermarket in the plans.

The exact fate of the windmill itself is undetermined - a cafe or restaurant have both been suggested in the past, though thankfully plans insist that the tower is preserved in some form. The development is provisionally called the Five Sails Retail Centre, because the flour mill originally had five sails.
Mills: [Goole]
See also:Item #526, Item #270, Item #98
Item: #553, Posted: 17/5/06.

Haastrechtse molen on Molendag

As well as being the UKs National Mills Weekend last weekend, Sunday 14th May was also Molendag in the Netherlands. There's a set of photos on Flickr showing Haastrechtse molen, Gouda on this day - looks like they had good weather, and a reasonable breeze that the mill was working (or at least turning by wind).
Item: #552, Posted: 17/5/06.

Pictures from Upper Tysoe windmill

Upper Tysoe windmill is kept in a good state of preservation, but is only infrequently open to the public. It was however open over Mills Weekend, and despite some less than appealing weather had a steady stream of visitors who made the effort to climb up the hill to the mill.

Millwright Adam Marriot has sent me through some photos, now available on the mill detail page.

Update: Adam has provided more details on the mill thus:

"There were about 100 folk in total on the Sunday. The mill is in need of some tlc again, the stone furniture missing and part of the hurst is split with one stone hanging on the bridge tree. It's an odd mill been burnt out at least once, with two periods of machinery, mostly wood I'd assume early 1800s with a really late metal hand tentering gear to replace a governor. Both pairs are underdriven, 3 burrs, one peak runner. Ran up to 1914 when superseded by an oil engine at the base of the hill. It has a very wierd curb (live) with a double winch to turn it running on external pin holes in the curb wood's circumference. The mill is very similar to Kineton (which although stripped is basically a bigger version, probably of similar date. Underdriven, two large pairs with a very similar cap frame albeit bigger.

Mills: [Upper Tysoe]
Item: #551, Posted: 16/5/06.

The Millers Tale - Fosters Mill, Swaffham Prior

As a Mills Weekend linked feature, the Cambridge Evening News carried an article on Jonathan Cook, miller at Fosters Mill Swaffham Prior. It describes how Jonathan bought the mill in 1998, has milled with it since, and how "milling, in both the modern and old age, isn't just about grinding flour: it's also a big maintenance job". The mill sails are in need of replacement, and the £30,000 cost is not yet raised, but constructing them is underway already.

The article also listed a selection of 6 other Cambridgeshire mills open for Mills Weekend: Bourn post mill, Hixton watermill, Houghton watermill, Impington smock mill, Lode watermill, and the 2 smock mills at Wicken - one corn, and one fen drainage (so thats 7 in total, not 6!)
Mills: [Swaffham Prior]
Item: #550, Posted: 15/5/06.

Previous archive - Current news - Index of headlines - Next archive

Last updated 19th March 2008