“Why are
you interested in mills?” I am often asked. “Why
not?” I reply, “Just remember that staple food,
clothing, tools and utensils, pots, pans,
ploughshares, swords and battleaxes have all been
fashioned by water, wind and muscle (human and
animal) power in a variety of mills through a
thousand years of civilisation; and those mills have
been developed into the factories we have today, but
their machinery, ways of production and the people
who worked them are far more interesting. What’s
more, in Hampshire we have a mill whose framework is
constructed of a famous American warship’s beams and
flooring . Hello, are you still there…”
Caption reads: “I’ve decided
to teach her to talk; what harm can it do?”
The Editor does not
require responses! Putting this edition together
through February has been a fascinating task and in
the true nature of the current vernacular to ‘think
global’ exactly that has been happening in this new
electronic age with emails toing and froing between
my desk and correspondents in such diverse places as
a Speyside village in Scotland, New York in U.S.A,
and a town in Canada. Meanwhile, Hampshire members
have contributed articles on Berkshire, France,
Middlesex and Devon. Also contributed from Graeme
Stewart at Knockando, Speyside, is this cartoon with
my email address in mind. Yeah, bet you didn’t
reckon I’d print it though, Graeme! The photos are
explained in Starts below.
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STARTS STARTS STARTS STARTS STARTS
STARTS
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David Plunkett
advises that Beaulieu Tide Mill is still
under wraps but at least restoration work is now, at
last, in progress. Two tales from across ‘the
Pond’: Well, we’re used to seeing millstones set in
garden walls and patios but in a busy intersection’s
traffic island? David Plunkett has been involved in
a bid to have the pair of stones removed to a museum
– they are possibly the earliest tide mill’s stones
used in America. The full explanation will appear
in our next newsletter. An altogether unusual
request has come from Fred Addis, Curator of
the Leacock Museum National Historic Site in
Orillia, Ontario. He is hoping to track down a
piece of wood authenticated as from the famous
U.S.S. Chesapeake after it was broken up and a
Mr Holmes made Chesapeake Mill out of the
timbers. Do you know the whereabouts of a sliver of
the old warship which may be in private ownership?
Fred Addis would dearly love to add such a piece to
the memorabilia of Stephen Leacock. If you can
help, please contact Fred Addis by email on:
faddis@primus.ca.
and do have a look at the museum’s website:
www.leacockmuseum.com.
