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UK Wheat Milled and Flour ProductionIt's not a particularly catchy title, "UK Wheat Milled and Flour Production", and somewhat ambiguous, but the fact that I've been able to access this document is part of a significant breakthrough. That breakthrough is the release of large amounts of UK government data via the just launched UK Public Sector information and data site data.gov.uk.
A search there for "windmill" turns up nothing, but for "mill" leads to the page about the dataset, and from there on to the Defra host page for the data, and the PDF containing the latest figures. The data is made available under Crown Copyright, which is aligned to be interoperable with Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence.
As for the figures themself, they relate to commercial milling - 2.5 million tonnes of wheat milled, producing 2 million tones of flour between July and November 2009. The flour production is split into
The "lost" windmill of ForthamptonThe locations of the remains of windmills in the UK are generally well known, with detailed lists produced by The Mills Research Group, The Mills Archive, and other groups and individuals who cover their own local areas.
Just occasionally something escapes being covered by those lists, and that seems to be the case with the windmill at Forthampton in Gloucestershire, whose base still remains, converted into a building known locally as "The Round House".
Just a few days ago, a photo of "The Round House" by Bob Embleton was posted at the Geograph website, where the caption noted that this (largely obscured by trees) building was the converted base of Alcock's windmill.
A little more detail on the mill is provided by 'Parishes: Forthampton', A History of the County of Gloucester: volume 8 (1968), pp. 196-208 which records that:
...in the same part of the parish is the Round House, comprising the base of Alcock's windmill, a building of the local shaly stone, with a 19th-century brick cottage beside it.
No record has been found of a water-mill in the parish. Tewkesbury Abbey had two windmills there in 1291. The mill mentioned in 1636 may have been the windmill worked by John Alcock in 1649 and 1672, which survived in 1859 as Alcock's Mill ¼ mile ESE. of Alcock's Farm, and the base of which was later called the Round House.
National Trust properties on Google StreetView "Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life" - William Stukeley 1752they remember particularly, that a new windmill, about that time, was set up in the way to Gunnerby; which is now demolished. a windmill is a sort of rarity in this country, abounding so much with rivers, & brooks: for which reason they chiefly use watermills. a walk to this new windmil was the usual amusement of the town of Grantham. the multitude return'd with some satisfaction to thir curiosity, but little improvement in thir understanding, & it was the comon rendezvous of the schoolboys. Newton's innate fire was soon excited, he penetrated beyond the superficial view of the thing. he was daily with the workmen, carefully observed the progress, the manner of every part of it, & the connexion of the whole. he obtain'd so exact a notion of the mechanism of it, that he made a true, & perfect model of it, in wood. & it was said to be as clean a piece of workmanship, as the original. this sometime he would fasten upon the housetop, where he lodged: & clothing it with bits of cloth, for sails, the wind would readily take it. but Isaac was not content with this bare imitation: his spirit prompted him to goe beyond his prototype. & he added an extraordinary composition to it. he could put a mouse into it, which work'd it as naturally as the wind. this he used to style his mouse-miller. & complain'd jokingly, what a thief he was; for he eat up all the corn put into the mill. I made inquiry, what they knew concerning the art, & contrivance of it. some said, he ty'd a string to the mouse, & pulling by it, made the mouse turn the mill. some said, the mouse ran round a wheel like that of a turnspit: and that the hopper emptyed it self with the ground corn in his sight; therefore it always endevord to come to it, & then turn'd the wheel. however it was a piece of diversion, to not a little part of the town & country, to pay a visit to Isaac's mouse miller, & the farmers readily supplyd him with handfuls of corn, on market days.These details come on the pages labelled 34, facing 35, 35, 36. The full memoirs are transcribed at The Newton Project. Stukeley refined his text over many years - an earlier version of the same windmill story was included in a version of the memoirs set to Richard Mead in 1727 (just weeks after Newton's death), and now in the Kings College Library, Cambridge. This version reads:
about this time a new windmill was set up near Grantham in the way to Gunnerby, which is now demolished, this country chiefly using watermills. our lads imitating spirit was soon excited & by frequently prying into the fabric of it, as they were making it, he became master enough to make a very perfect model thereof, & it was said to be as clean & curious a piece of workmanship as the original. this sometime he would set upon the house top where he lodg'd, & clothing it with sailcloth the wind would readily take it. but what was most extraordinary in its composition, was, that he put a mouse into it which he calld the miller, & that the mouse made the mill turn round, when he pleasd, & he would joke too upon the miller eating the corn that was put in. some say he tyd a string to the mouses tail, which was put into a wheel like that of turnspit dogs, so that pulling the string made the mouse goe forward by way of resistance, & this turn'd the mill. others suppose there was some corn plac'd above the wheel, this the mouse endeavoring to get to, made it turn.Again a full transcription is available at The Newton Project.
Flags over Historic Mills - Canadian definitive stamps Geograph photo archive now accepting larger images A technical article on identifying images Benin windmill stamps (cinderellas)Our unit has checklists of hundreds of stamps showing mills of most types. In addition to genuine stamps, there have also been printed considerable numbers of "cinderella" stamps of mills, being invalid postally, but picturesque and interesting nevertheless. There have been a number of attractive sheetlets purported to have been issued by the African country of Benin, showing paintings of mill scenes (including some printed back-to-front!) by a number of artists which we have identified; however, I attach a half-dozen which so far are unknown to us and I was wondering therefore whether you could kindly add them to your website with a request that we would like to know the location of the mills, the artists, and if possible where the paintings are exhibited. The mills shown on no. 5 are clearly the Moulin de la Galette and the Moulin Radet in Montmartre but I'm not sure about the artist. I would guess Maurice Utrillo.
Update:
I've managed to identify all the stamp images as follows:
Updated welcome page at the Mills ArchiveThe items on the Mill Archive welcome page now include:
Vintage advertisments featuring millsA browse around showed some interesting mill related results (though linking to individual items seems to be problematic - the best I've come up with is to use very specific search strings):
flickr windmill photos taken on an iphone SPAB Mills events for 2010 Planning application for Bradleys Mill, Speldhurst, KentNote that there seems to be a problem with the planning website at the moment, but I assume that it will be sorted out when the working week starts again."I recently went down to Bradleys Mill, Speldhurst, near Tunbridge Wells in Kent, and was alarmed to find it fenced off, as if ready for redevelopment or conversion.
The mill itself is a good example of a West Kent/Sussex village corn mill, and remains internally complete, although the waterwheel has deteriorated markedly since it ceased work just over thirty years ago. The structure itself is in good condition.
A recent enquiry to Speldhurst Parish Council, has revealed that in 2008, the mill was subjected to two planning applications, the first of which was for conversion into a house, retaining the basic machinery. This was allowed without too much fuss. The first application was clearly a dummy run, as a month later a second application was entered, which wanted to convert the mill as above, and provide seven new homes. This was rejected, on environmental grounds, and also that the new development would have been a hazard for bus routes turning in from the main road.
I've just been alerted to a third application, which is a revised application of the second one, and includes a comprehensive traffic study. This was submitted on the 16th December, and can be objected to at this website :- http://pa.tunbridgewells.gov.uk/publicaccess/tdc/dcapplication/application_searchform.aspx You need to submit application reference 09/4000/1527 into the top box.
I have been alerted to this by concerned villagers and/or the parish council, who are keenish to see a different use for the mill. Perhaps even preservation. With the Kent Mills Society in its infancy, I've recently been looking at a few sites in Kent, and one thing that has become apparent is the shocking amount of conversion and development that has been allowed in the last twenty years.
Please take a moment to object to this if you can. The application is up for review I think on the 2nd January."
Pictures of Holgate cap, now in place
Paul Hepworth, of Holgate Windmill Preservation Society
continues to keep me updated with the latest good news of Holgate windmill.
His latest images show, in order, the new cap being painted, transported, lifted in to place on Sat 28th Nov 2009,
and a snowy scene taken on 17th Dec 2009.
How to paint a windmillJust came across these instructions on How to paint a windmill which amused me. (To avoid doubt, this is about how an artist captures an image of the windmill on paper - not how to apply a protective layer of paint to a windmill to keep the weather out!).
What the steps boil down to are:
Unidentified windmill fire
I have been sent this photo of a post card apparently showing a windmill on fire, with the following explanation:
"I have this photo in an old album which I picked up in junk shop. Any idea where it may be from, the family had connections near Bury St Edmunds, and in Hartest, Glomsford and Boxted Suffolk,part of the family lived Putney, London area and in High Wycombe. Sadly there is not any writing on the reverse only made out as photo postcard, divided back."
Can anyone help identify the mill?
Ibstone windmill in Day of the Triffids Christmas Series of Victorian FarmThe first programme in the Christmas Series of Victorian Farm, featuring Alex Langlands, Ruth Goodman and Peter Ginn, aired at 9pm on Friday 11th December on BBC2.
This programme includes milling scenes at Wilton Windmill with Alex, Ruth and some of the Wilton Windmill Society's members. Ruth and Alex joined the millers in May this year to film the scenes for the programme. If you are watching this on iPlayer, the segment starts in the 27th minute of the recording.
Register of photographs of English windmillsMembers may know that a few years ago I compiled a national register of photographs of English windmills, encompassing images to be found in printed publications as well as in museums, libraries, record offices and other sources of information. The cost of producing it in paper form would at the moment be prohibitive, and the Mills Archive have experienced problems in formatting it which so far have prevented it being added to their website. At the same time, although I deposited a copy of the manuscript (now out of date) at the Science Museum Library in 2002 it is not in the shelves but in their Archive section, something of which members of the public may not necessarily be aware; after some badgering by myself a notice was put up in the section on mills directing those wishing to consult the register to the Archive section but this has now been taken down.
I have therefore decided to post the register on my own website (http://www.guyblythman.com) where it may be consulted in full. It is spread out over several pages, the first three of which are titled "Windmill Photographic Register" and the fourth "Addenda". The material amounts to the equivalent of several printed books of the length of my recent "Lost Windmills of Sussex". It is meant as a complement to information sources such as the Simmons Collection, to my revision of C F Lindsey's Bibliography of British windmills, doing for photographs what has already been done for written records, and to the new technical archive currently being planned.
Although the aim was to include, as far as possible, every mill in England which has ever been photographed, a project like this can never be entirely complete, and indeed the register is continually being updated and added to; nonetheless I believe it will be of use both in existing research and in prompting molinologists etc to carry out new research.
I have not attempted to include every instance where a photograph appears on the internet (which was in its relative infancy when I began the survey), as this would be too large an operation; however the register should certainly be useful with regard to those information sources which may not have put all of their photographs on line.
The register, which involved extensive research over a period of six years, takes the form of a county-by-county gazetteer, with a section on photos where the mill cannot at present be conclusively identified. Altogether around several thousand (identified) windmills are included. Each entry states where the photograph(s) is/are to be found, the location of the mill, its condition as shown in the image, the date the photo was taken if known, and finally any particular features of interest which are visible.
Jack windmill Clayton Sussex has just lost a sweep
The stock of one of Jack's sails has split, causing the mill to lose a sail.
(Images provided by Paul Barber).
Estonian stamp featuring one of the Angla windmillsThe Angla windmills, a group of 4 post mills and one smock mock, are very much a symbol of Estonia. Eesti Post is issuing a stamp featuring one of the post mills. Although only one of the mills is shown on the stamp, face value 5.50 kroon (0.35 euro), the first day cover shows the full set of 5 mills.
This stamp joins an ongoing series of stamps produced by Eesti Post that feature Estonian mills. Last year's issue was the tower mill at Polma, and the first in the series was the watermill at Hellenurme issued in 2007.
Cap for Holgate windmill ready to lift
The planned date to crane Holgate Windmill's new cap on, is Wed. Nov 25th.
It is currently inside a giant tent, off site.
StreetView wander around Huis Ten BoschGoogle continues to add to their impressive StreetView coverage, and the latest new countries to get images are Canada and the Czech Republic.
However for sheer visual impact, the inclusion of an "off road" set of images taken round Huis Ten Bosch (a Dutched themed town in Japan) is hard to beat.
World War II photos of Barnham windmill
I've been sent these photos which come from the photo collections of several US Army Air Force veterans who served in the 487th Bomb Group at Lavenham, England, in 1944-1945. It's not a mill I recognise, but is assumed to be fairly local to Lavenham since it appears in at least 4 separate collections.
The fourth photo shows Basil O'Connor (fifth from the left), head of the American Red Cross, visiting the airbase near Lavenham, England, during World War II. Notice the photo hanging on the wall at right. It looks to be the same as the first photo, so these photos may have been taken by a 487th Bomb Group photographer.
Please let me know if you can identify the windmill.
Photos in Google StreetViewGoogle StreetView is the result of systematicaly driving along streets with specially constructed cameras to produce a very useful full picture of the areas covered. To further add to the usefulness, for a while Google have been including photos from Panoramio. Thay have now also added photos from Picasa Web Albums, so for popular places its possible to see many shots, often from lots of different angles.
Where possible, I've added StreetView photos to the pages for individual mills. For example see:
| Last updated 23/01/2010 | Text and images © Mark Berry, 1997-2010 - |