Notes on the Spring Meeting of HMG

Alison Stott - HMG Secretary

In the early afternoon of Saturday 14^th March 2015 members of HMG gathered  in Emsworth, which happened to be celebrating ‘Red Nose Day’ at the same time, so everyone had to make their way through red balloons and strangely-dressed people to arrive at ‘The Hewitt Centre’, in South Street.

Andy Fish welcomed everyone and there were a few brief announcements.

The Midland trip on 15^th to 17^th May 2015 is now booked but there are still a couple of places if anyone would like to join us.

Keith Andrews said that King Alfred Buses were running all day on the May Bank Holiday Monday with a limited number of buses running on the previous evening.  Hockley Mill will be open 10 – 4 on the Monday but Twyford Waterworks will be closed.

Mick Edgeworth reminded everyone that subscriptions were due.

Eleanor Yates had volumes  1, 2 and 3 of ‘The Mills and Millers of Hampshire’ for sale.

Ros Plunkett thanked everyone for items she had received for inclusion in the ‘Newsletter’.

Alison Stott had details of the forthcoming SERIAC (South East Region Industrial Archaeology Conference) meeting which is hosted by HIAS this year and will be held in Winchester on April 25th.

Dave Plunkett said that Eling Tide Mill will be closed for over a year.   He has leaflets on mills in the Midlands which are open.

Jane Yoward was thanked for finding this venue for us, and Peter Mobbs was thanked for arranging this afternoon’s talk:- Alternative Uses of Animal, Water and Wind Power ,   by Peter Hill.

Peter’s illustrated talk took us from the earliest method of crushing grain with the use of quern stones, then horse-driven machinery before the arrival of the horizontal watermill in 85 BC.

The vertical wheel arrived around 20 – 11 BC.    

There then seems to have been a long gap before the windmill arrived on the scene, with the open post-mill being found by the end of the 12^th century.   Smock mills followed at the end of the 14^th and beginning of the 15^th centuries.

He then ranged through many industries for which mills were used, such as crushing walnuts for oil in France, apples being crushed for cider, rice being hulled, the milling of barley to produce pearl barley and numerous other fascinating industries as well as the better-known uses:- to produce flour, for sawing and many other uses on the farm, and of course for drainage,

More modern uses were touched on briefly such as producing electricity, the use of turbines first in watermills and now as wind turbines visible in many parts of the country.

His final slide was the famous ‘Moulin Rouge’ in Paris!

Peter’s talk was illustrated by many wonderful  slides.

Andy thanked Peter for a fascinating talk and the meeting ended with coffee, tea and biscuits – with many thanks to Eleanor - before we all dispersed after a most enjoyable afternoon.