There are still places available to book for this year’s in-person Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) Mills conference, on the 4 October 2025, at Watlington House, 44 Watlington Street, Reading RG1 4RJ. Organised by the SPAB Mills Section, the conference will focus on the maintenance, repair, and monitoring of mills and how to…
Category: wind mills
Traditional Cornmillers Guild Mill Owners Insurance Survey Looking for More Responses
The Traditional Cornmillers Guild launched an Insurance Survey earlier this year to assess the how the sector is coping. It has already received over 40 responses from water and wind mill owners providing information about their insurance cover, the costs, and the issues they face. The survey is still live. The Mills Archive Trust reports…
National Mills Weekend 2025: Film Now Live
National Mills Weeekend, run by the wind and water mills section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), was establised 20 years ago, and for the last five years SPAB has produced a film to introduce the event. 2025’s film is now live. This year’s event runs over the weekend of the…
Mills Archive Trust ‘Caring for Your Collections’ Webinars in May & June
Do you have old records that need looking after? Then, the Mills Archive Trust’s ‘Caring for your collection’ webinars are designed to help anyone look after archival documents, from photographs and papers, to digital files. The cost is £50 for the two seminars. Part 1: Overview, Arrangement, Description – Sat 24 May 2025, 2:00-4:00 pm…
Mill Archive Trust Water Power Appeal
The Mill Archive Trust needs your help to preserve waterpower records from erosion and protect this knowledge for the future. Their previous appeal has helped them to preserve the work of past watermill and hydropower experts.The latest appeal is to help them with cataloguing and preserving several new collections which have been gifted to the…
National Mills Weekend Events Across the UK: May 2024
On Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 May, hundreds of windmills and watermills will open their doors as part of National Mills Weekend. This is run by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and is an annual celebration of the heritage and history of mills, and the people who care for them. …
Thaxted Windmill Receives Grant Towards Conservation
Thaxted Windmill Trust Community Interest Company (CIO) has received a grant of £116,902 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the development of a project to conserve John Webb’s Mill in Thaxted, Essex. Historic England have provided additional funds of £33,326 for the development of the project, largely towards planning for the structural and millwrighting…
Bourn Windmill, Cambridgeshire, Re-opens after Three-Year Restoration
One of the UK’s oldest working windmill, Bourn Mill is to reopen to the public after the completion of extensive repairs. According to recent Historic England research, the main post of Bourn Mill is from a tree felled in the first half of the 16th century, making this the earliest main post of a mill yet…
SPAB National Mills Weekend, 13 & 14 May 2023
This year’s SPAB National Mills weekend will take place on 13 and 14 May. The theme will be ‘Millwrighting – Past and Present’ to celebrate the repair of wind and watermills which allows these important historical buildings to survive for future generations to come. National Mills Weekend takes place across Britain every May, with more than…
Industrial Heritage Support 