National Mills Weekend reports

Item: #72, Posted: 12/5/03

This last weekend, 10th-11th May was National Mills weekend, when many of the UK's mills were open to the public. Showery weather may have kept numbers of visitors down in some locations, but there was still lots going on.

A few reports from the mills are:

White Mill, Sandwich, Kent had demonstrations of lace making, spinning, working farm models, and bread making, plus a vintage car rally
The Sunday Times got in a mention of the weekend in an article on windmills for sale in the May 4th edition. The article included the windmills for sale at West Chiltington, Sussex; Horning, Norfolk; Grantham, Lincolnshire; Kirkham, nr Blackpool. It also covered the mills at Edenbridge, Kent; and Fishlake, South Yorkshire (neither currently for sale), and included a photo of Ibstone windmill (star of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) just for luck. A sidebar of mill facts had a strange collection of info, mentioning Outwood, Shipley, and Ibstone windmills, Mills Weekend and the SPAB, a book on Yorkshire windmills, plus a link to this site.
Mills on the Air once again linked up a number of mills via amateur radio.

Update: More reports:

Pann Mill, High Wycombe was open, and will open 3 times this year.
The Times on 10th May had an article profiling Matt Bowman, miller at Venn watermill, Wantage, Oxfordshire. It details how Matt bought the mill to allow him to expand his milling business, which was being run from a leased watermill at Newbridge, IOW. Recent renovations mean that the waterwheel is once again driving the millstones, which produce a wide range of stoneground flours. The mill is open on at least one day a month year round.
Mills across Norfolk were mentioned in the EDP roundup, which listed 15 Norfolk mills open for the weekend, and their opening times for the rest of the year.

Mills: [Sandwich] Tags: [millsweekend]
See also:Steam engines for Mills Weekend (19/5/03)