On 30 August myself (and 4 members of HMG) I joined
a group of fellow enthusiasts to visit mills in
Scandinavia, Denmark and Sweden. We were all members
of “The International Molinological Society”, TIMS.
It was truly an international gathering with
participants travelling from as far away as, Japan,
the USA and Australia. The man from Australia lives
more than 150 miles from his nearest Mill! After
meeting up at Copenhagen airport we travelled for
whirlwind “pre-tour” to the island of Bornholm.
(About the same size as the Isle of Wight). It is
referred to as a “Mills paradise” During our stay we
visited 12 mills. They all seemed to me to be very
different to our British mills. The Egeby post mill
at Äker has the very old form of “split sail”
(Picture 1)
On day 3 we travelled through Scania (South Sweden)
on the start of our journey to our conference centre
at Aalborg. To welcome us on our first evening we
were greeted by a man in full Viking costume who
serenaded us with an ancient metal curly horn about
4 feet long. A truly amazing sight and sound!
Thereafter we were treated to a banquet accompanied
by warm Danish hospitability.
After this relaxing start to the Symposium we
started on the more serious aspect, listening to
more than 38 presentations on many facets of
Molinology. In all we spent more than 40 hours being
lectured to. Most papers were fascinating but sad
to say I found that a few were very boring!
During the week we were able to visit 14 mills. It
was apparent that a group of 50 people trying to
view a mill results in a tight squeeze. Most of our
group were dedicated to obtaining a detailed
photographic record of each mill. I found myself
constantly aware that I was standing in the wrong
place, the back of my head obscuring what would
otherwise been a “perfect shot” for someone. One of
our members had a novel solution to this problem. He
sat patiently making beautiful sketches of the
mills. (Picture 2 above)
For me the best visit of all was a large metal
forging factory powered by a “Francis” water
turbine. This factory worked up until 1970 making a
wide range of tools. Forks, spades, Mill Bills,
hoes, hammers (all sorts of) axes, the list seemed
endless. The machinery was driven by overhead
shafting. (Picture 3 below) Our guide set it all in
motion for us. I found it most satisfying to tread
on the foot pedals controlling a variety of forging
hammers, and then see and hear burst into an
animated clatter. As with windmills there was a
complete lack of guards a modern safety officer’s
nightmare.
Another interesting visit was to a millwright. Here
we saw a wood yard storing timber of all shapes and
sizes to build a score of mills. Inside we saw
several large mill components such as a large
complex post mill trestle under construction. A most
impressive facility.
Our final visit for the tour was planned to be a
Watermill on the small island of Tǻsinge.
Unfortunately we were unable to make this visit
because recent heavy rains had made the access road
impassable. We were told that frequently this mail
was flooded with seawater.
