Windmill and Watermill Organisations

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings - Mills Section

The SPAB Mills Section is the national windmill and watermill organization in the UK, and celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2006. Its website includes all you need to know about its aims and objectives, together with the all important membership form. The Mills Section is just one part of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings - commonly abbreviated to SPAB.

Although the Mills Section does not specifically own any mills, the main Society (SPAB itself) is involved in the ownership of Kibworth Harcourt post mill, in Leicestershire.

Each year, the Mills Section organises National Mills Weekend during the second weekend in May, when a large number of mills are opened to the public.

The Society also has a campaigning role - see its memoranda to the Select Committee on Environment...

For many years the organisation was styled as the Wind and Watermill Section.

Mills Open

The Mills Section's premier publication is Mills Open, which is available from SPAB Mills Section, 37 Spital Square, London E1 6DY. More details (or prices including overseas shipping) available from millsinfo@spab.org.uk.

5th Edition - Cover photo Shipley Windmill, West Sussex, by Jim Woodward-Nutt.

6th Edition - Cover photo Outwood Windmill, Surrey, by Peter Wright

7th Edition - Cover photo Great Bircham, Norfolk, by Mildred Cookson

Mill News

Whilst it is hugely out of date now, UK Windmills on the World Wide Web was an article which appeared in the April 1998 issue.

• The Traditional Cornmillers Guild
• The Mills Research Group researches traditional forms of milling (wind, water and muscle power). Amongst their publications is the comprehensive Windmill Gazetteer for England.
• Mills Archive and Mills Archive Trust
• Essex Mills Group - No current web presence found
• Hampshire Mills group is closely linked with Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society (formerly the Southampton University Industrial Archaeology Group (S.U.I.A.G.)).
• Kent Mills Group - disbanded
• Kent Mills Society newly formed in Nov 2009
• Lincolnshire Mills Group actually covers the area including Lincolnshire, East Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands.
• Midland Wind and Water Mills Group
• Norfolk Windmills Trust maintains 20 corn and pumping windmills in Norfolk.
• Norfolk Mills Group - no current web presence found
• North East Mills Group
• North West Mills Group includes a number of wind and water mills in (primarily) Cumbria, Lancashire, and Cheshire.
• Suffolk Mills Group is a voluntary association for those helping to care for Suffolk's Heritage of old wind and water mills. (See also a local page I used to maintain for the Group).
• Sussex Mills Group is part of the Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society, and operates a "Dusty Miller" passport scheme to a number of mills in the region.
• TEAMS - The East Anglia Mills Society
• Wessex Mills Group covers Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.
• Welsh Mills Society aims are to study, record, interpret and publicise the wind and water mills of Wales; to encourage general interest; to advise on their preservation and use, and to encourage working millers.

The International Molinological Society - TIMS

The main TIMS site is regularly updated. They also have some interesting sub sites, such as the Mill GPS Database.

French Associations

• Moulins Du Quercy
• The Friends of the Mills of Anjou

Also known as SPOOM, this is an American based organization.

There are also separate pages maintained for its North East Chapter, and for the Canadian Chapter of Spoom.

Dutch Mills associations

• De Hollandsche Molen - The Netherlands.
• Association of friends of the windmills of Groningen - The Netherlands

Other related organisations

• The National Trust
• The Newcomen Society - for the history of all engineering and technological disciplines from antiquity to the present day.
• The Society for Industrial Archeology
• Pond Lily Mill Restorations is a commercial American firm offering many milling services.
• English Heritage
• Images of England - a Millennium project to capture an image of every listed building in England.
• The National Monuments Record
• The Surrey Archaeological Society
• The Ancient Monuments Society