This
intrepid Hampshire Tide Mill scholar risked his
reputation by agreeing to talk about Intermediate
Mills in the centre of England with the Midland
Mills Group. This was booked for Saturday 7th March
this year, at the restored and picturesque New Hall
Mill, Sutton Coldfield.
Ros and I had decided to make it a weekend away, so
travelled up to Litchfield and the National
Arboretum on the day before. On the Saturday
morning we went sightseeing in Litchfield before
making our way to the parkland surrounding New Hall
Mill where we had a picnic lunch.
We arrived early at the small watermill and had time
to view the carefully maintained mill with John
Bedington and other MMG members. Although not in
full working order at present, it is restored and
open at set times to the public and is the base for
the MMG activities. There were several other
faces (well known to me) including: Kate & Tony
Bonson and Tim Booth, who had already attended a
group committee meeting at the Mill in the morning.
I gave my PowerPoint presentation on ‘Intermediate
Mills’ which was derived from my studies on wrongly
attributed tide mills in North Eastern and Southern
England. This created much interest and good
questioning at the end.
It was a pity that the attendance numbers at this
event were low and, like many mill groups, they have
difficulty getting members to attend meetings and
participate in group activities.
