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Mill History Project - Background
Progress Reports
Town Mill History Project - Workshops
from Community News magazine
The Town Mill History Project - Organisation
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Progress Reports
Location: Dorset
The Lyme Regis Town Mill History Project has reached the end of its planned development, having attained its objectives of clarifying and recording the history of the Town Mill.
The two history books developed through the project - the definitive academic history book and the popular history book - have been completed, printed and delivered to the Town Mill. Both publications were formally launched on 26 November 2005 at the Town Mill. About a hundred people attended the launch party, where the books were very well received.
The Oral History CD, with its accompanying booklet, has also been completed and the two components were produced for publication in January 2006. This oral history was formally launched at the Town Mill in February 2006. Over fifty people attended this launch party.
A History/Educational Exhibit (HEX) has been given a dedicated room at the mill and the history information has been allocated to ten display boards.
Finally, the archive material has been given secure storage at the Town Mill.
More details of the outcomes generated by this hugely successful project are given below.
20 March 2006
Project Progress - The Academic History Book
The Development Team combined a daunting search of a huge amount of archived information about the mill with extensive archaeological investigation and research into how the mill operated to co-edit and produce the highly acclaimed definitive history book. The book has been titled:
'The Town Mill, Lyme Regis: Archaeology and History AD 1340-2000', by Alan Graham, Jo Draper and Martin Watts. Published by The Town Mill Trust, 2005. ISBN 0-9551576-0-9.
This book provides the definitive academic history of the mill and is the primary source document for research into the history, architecture and working of the mill over its long life. It comprises 116 pages, including 31 figures and 20 plates. Published in softback in A4 size, The book is available for purchase from the Town Mill Shop at £9.95 a copy, or by post from the Manager at the Town Mill, Lyme Regis, DT7 3PU (plus £2 p&p for UK/Europe; £4.75 p&p for Rest of World).
During peer assessment of the book prior to publication, the academic readers stated that the Archaeology and History book 'is a work of major significance to industrial archaeologists and historians and those interested in watermill history and functioning' - a great tribute to the three authors and the volunteers who assisted in its production.
20 March 2006
Project Progress - The Public History and Guidebook
The text of this Town Mill history and guidebook for the general public was written by Martin Watts, the millwright who restored the Town Mill waterwheel and its milling equipment to working order in the year 2000. The book is titled:
'A Thousand Years of Milling - The Town Mill, Lyme Regis', by Martin Watts. Published by The Town Mill Trust 2005. ISBN 0-9551576-1-7.
The book draws heavily on the definitive Archaeology and History book for specific facts and dates, but also includes sections on how the mill works. The book has 35 pages in A5 softback format. It contains about 7,000 words and has been profusely illustrated with current and archival photos, drawings and maps. The book is available for purchase from the Town Mill Shop at £3.95 a copy, or by post from the Manager at the Town Mill, Lyme Regis, DT7 3PU (plus £1 p&p for UK/Europe; £1.75 p&p for Rest of World).
20 March 2006
Project Progress - Oral History CD and Booklet
The Oral History CD and Booklet provides a fascinating insight into how local people remember the Town Mill in the early part of the twentieth century. It has been titled:
'Cheaper to re-roof than demolish', edited by Bridget Wilkins. Published by The Town Mill Trust, 2005. ISBN 0-9551576-2-5.
The title reflects one of the early arguments put forward during the initial efforts to save the derelict mill from its planned demolition in 1991. The carefully edited CD is supported by an explanatory booklet. The booklet contains ten short sections, reflecting the way separate topics are covered on the CD. Photos, both current and archival, are prominent, combined with short biographies of interviewees, an introduction, a capsule history of the Mill and listing of tracks and photos with short verbatim selections from the CD.
The softback booklet is about A5 size, with 34 pages. The CD and booklet is available for purchase from the Town Mill Shop at £X.95 a copy, or by post from the Manager at the Town Mill, Lyme Regis, DT7 3PU (plus £X p&p for UK/Europe; £X.75 p&p for Rest of World).
20 March 2006
Project Progress - History/Education Exhibit
The History/Education Exhibit (HEX) was designed to take advantage of the information revealed by the archaeological and documentary study of the Town Mill, by providing a permanent display for the general public and for educational purposes.
The HEX has been given a permanent location in a front room on the ground floor of the old Miller’s House at the mill. The main focus of the exhibit is on the social and economic role of mills in general and of the Town Mill in the life of Lyme Regis in particular. The major part of the exhibit is designed around ten display boards. The display boards are portable, so they can be used in other parts of the mill or in outside locations as required for educational or presentational purposes. In addition, the artefacts from the archaeological dig are now back in the mill and these form part of the exhibition.
The History/Education Exhibit will be opened formally to the public later in 2006.
20 March 2006
Project Progress - Archive Materials
History Book Data
The copies of original papers on which the books are based have been handed over to the Mill by the Development Team and are kept in a lockable steel file cabinet at the Town Mill. These copies of original papers will be of interest to scholars and other researchers in the future and they will be made available on request. They also provide an interesting example of scholastic progression from basic archival records, through documentary compilation, to books and an exhibition of the data.
Contemporary Records
We have completed the sorting and organizing of contemporary records which will have archival value in the future, and these are stored in a lockable steel filing cabinet at the Town Mill. They, too, are available to researchers on request.
Oral History Records
The mini-discs on which the Oral History interviews were recorded and their accompanying archival scripts have been catalogued and are stored in the Lyme Regis Museum with other oral history archives already held by the museum.
20 March 2006
Project Progress - Volunteer Participation
As with all other activities at the Town Mill, mill volunteers have played an essential part in the development of the History Project. Some have become archive document readers, academic assistants and collectors of oral history. Other volunteers have been involved in data analysis, copy editing, document and photograph collation and proof reading and setting up the History/Educational Exhibit.
In July 2005, the Town Mill History Project Leader wrote: “I continue to be in awe at the amount of time, effort and energy put in by the volunteers. The often expressed idea that people volunteer to fill empty spaces in their lives may have some truth, but is certainly belied by our experience. Our volunteers have very full lives into which they miraculously squeeze time out for this project. The number of volunteers involved in the project stands at 30, and they have contributed a total of 863 hours so far.”
By the end of this project in 2006, 36 volunteers had taken part, as well as 30 interviewees for the oral history part of the project. It is estimated that the volunteers provided 1,700 volunteer hours in support of the Town Mill History Project.
15 September 2004
Project News - Bob Fowler's Visit to the Town Mill
 We have been very fortunate, with the aid of his family, to locate Bob Fowler, the son of Oswald Fowler, the last miller to work at the Town Mill before it closed in the 1920’s. Bob was born in the Mill in 1920. Bob, who now lives in Cornwall, was interviewed recently by Suzanne Case for the Mill Oral History Team. At that time he kindly accepted our invitation to visit the Town Mill with his family.
 Bob and his son, with his family, came to the Town Mill in August 2004, where for the first time in 80 years, Bob was able to hear the sound of the millstones grinding wheat in the mill. We were able to photograph him holding a freshly-ground bag of flour. He recalled that as a three-year old he fell from a first -floor window of the mill house whilst attempting to wash a little girl's long blonde hair. He also remembered his mother lifting him out of the leat (the mill stream) after he had dropped the brown string on his wooden sailing boat.
Bob's father, Oswald, worked at the mill when it was owned by Wallis and Co, coal merchants in Lyme Regis. His parents left the mill in 1924 and moved to Axminster. Bob remembers taking the train back to Lyme, running down the hill to the sea and then making the long uphill trudge back to the station after a day at the beach. The Town Mill ceased operating as a mill in 1926 and began its long decline into dereliction.
20 September 2004
Project Progress - LHI Workshop Liaison
Two members of the Oral History Team, Suzanne Case and Bob Eliot met Barbara Farquharson at the LHI Workshop in May 2004 at taunton. Barbara is involved in the LHI-funded Branscombe Community History Project – Where Memory Meets History – and has been working on this oral history project in the devon village for the last ten years. She was very helpful in giving us ideas for promoting our History Project in the community and developing ways of informing local people of what we are doing. This will all be of great help for the launch and after and was a very useful outcome of the LHI Workshop.
30 November 2003
Project Progress - Workshop 1 - Archaeology of the Mill
As part of the History Project, the aim of the series of four workshops is to foster awareness of the processes involved in the gathering, interpretation and presentation of historical and archaeological information.
The first all-day workshop - Archaeology of the Town Mill - was held at the mill on 27 September 2003. The course was fully subscribed and the attendees received a detailed analysis, with practical examples, of the archaeology of the mill from Alan Graham, one of the Project Development Team members.
30 November 2003
Project Progress - Workshop 2 - Researching Historical Records
The second workshop in the series - Researching Historical Records - took place at the dorset Records Office in dorchester on 14 October 2003. Presented by Jo Draper and Dr Judy Ford, it provided an opportunity to explore some of the many hundreds of documents that survive with regard to the Town Mill. The workshop focussed in particular on the years 1702-3, when the miller defaulted on his rent and the Borough distrained on his furniture.
30 November 2003
Project Progress - Workshop 3 - The Mill History and Function
Workshop 3 - The Mill, History & Function - was held in the Town Mill on 7 November 2003. Presented by Martin Watts, millwright, the workshop provided a detailed historical interpretation of the development of the mill machinery and the function of the mill. The workshop included practical demonstrations of the milling processes as well as detailed examinations of the various parts of the mill machinery.
30 November 2003
Project Progress - Workshop 4 - Displaying Historical Records
Workshop 4 - Displaying Historical Records - was held in the Lyme Regis Museum on 20 November 2003. Arranged by Jo Draper, the workshop was fully subscribed. The workshop illustrated the various techniques and procedures used in presenting historical information to best effect. Existing displays in the Museum were used as practical examples to illustrate the theory.
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