Mills Archive Research Award
Competition:
As part of
its brief “to promote, encourage or
undertake research and disseminate the
useful results of such research” the Mills
Archive is once again running two research
competitions with cash prizes and guarantees
of publication. The research must be on a
topic connected with a traditional use of
wind, water or muscle power. Subjects such
as steam power or roller mills are
admissible if their close association with
these uses is demonstrated by the submitted
text. The work must be original, previously
unpublished and written in English.
There is no entry fee. The
competition is open to anyone over the age
of 18 on the date of submission. Researchers
must choose which of the two competitions
they wish to enter and inform the judges of
the intended title by 31st
December 2013.
Two
prizes are on offer: The
Mills Archive
Research Prize of £500
is for a major piece of research of about
25,000 words.
The winning entry will be presented as a
stand-alone individual edition, published by
the Mills Archive Trust;
The Mills
Archive Research Award of £50
is for shorter research communications
of about
5,000 words. The winning entry
will be published in a special edition of Mill Memories. The
deadline for submission for the competition
is 31st May 2014. So don’t delay,
get your skates on now to register
your chosen entry – and Good Luck!
The full rules of the competition are
available www.millsarchive.org and
also by request to: The Research Management
Board, The Mills Archive Trust, Watlington
House, 44 Watlington Street, Reading, RG1
4RJ.
Have you heard of ‘The
Gainsborough Artist’? Karl Wood
(1888-1958)
was attributed this title for
his many paintings and sketches of the
windmills of Lincolnshire and
Nottinghamshire. Born in King's
Newton, Melbourne, Derbyshire, he became Art
Master at Gainsborough Grammar
School, Lincolnshire. Painting tuition
resulted in sketching bicycle tours with his
pupils. His first windmill painting was in
1926 and by 1956 he had completed 1394
windmill paintings! In a few months you
will be able to see his collection of
windmill paintings as they will digitised
for the Archives in Reading. The route of
their arrival is circuitous and veiled in
secrecy but I am told that all will be
revealed in the next issue of Mill
Memories, the newsletter of the Friends
of the Mills Archives, which is due out at
the end of November.
Guy Blythman is making good progress with research for his next
proposed book: The Windmills of Hampshire
and the Isle of Wight. Ken
Kirsopp, a Hampshire resident and mills
enthusiast well known to most HMG members,
has compiled a gazetteer of all types of
mills in Hampshire and is working with Guy
on his massive task.
Meanwhile, I am putting together a presentation on the Watermills
of the Lambourn Valley and Newbury at the
request of the Renewal Project in
Newbury. Tom Hine, who specialises in
milling family history, is working with me
on this and will co-host the evening with
me. Our research will find a place in
MAT’s digital system as part of my
collection on Berkshire mills. Berkshire
has been a very neglected county as far as
molinology is concerned and I am striving to
redress the balance. Ken Major was very
supportive of my efforts and was pleased
that I am following up on his 1967 Berkshire
Watermills Gazetteer. Ken’s drawings and
photographs of Berkshire mills (dated
1950s-1960s) form a valuable part of the
S.P.A.B. collection.
N.B. Make a note of the new website address above: it’s changed
from
.com to .org.
Sheila.
