With their elegant turning sails or distinctive waterwheels, it’s not surprising that windmills and watermills appear so frequently in paintings and photographs, posters and postcards. These instantly recognisable buildings feature in some of Britain’s most popular works of art: in a BBC poll, John Constable’s The Hay Wain, featuring Flatford Mill in Suffolk, was voted the nation’s second best-loved painting.
This year, National Mills Weekend will focus on the way that mills have been recorded in pictorial form with the theme ‘Mills in Time’. SPAB’s Mills Section is encouraging everyone - whether as owner, volunteer, neighbour or visitor – to share images of participating mills past and present. These can be recent photographs or artworks (including embroideries, collages, films or videos), older paintings or drawings and even old maps, postcards or posters.
With so many mills across the UK facing uncertain futures, it’s more important than ever to celebrate our milling heritage. Windmills are some of the UK’s favourite structures, yet with local authorities under financial pressure, many publicly-owned mills face being sold off – meaning the public may no longer be able to visit them and see their historic machinery in action.
SPAB’s own water mill, Fladbury Mill, Worcestershire and windmill in Leicestershire, Kibworth Harcourt Post Mill, will be open during the weekend. The mill at Kibworth was removed from the Heritage at Risk Register in 2022 after the SPAB completed a major year-long repair project, and it is now operational for the first time since the 1930s. It is only open to the public on select days of the year, so this is a unique opportunity to visit, pre-booking essential.
Other participating mills are welcoming members of the public and hosting a range of events, including guided tours, milling and baking demonstrations, Morris dancing, amateur radio stalls, classic vehicle displays and family activities.
Visitors, volunteers, millers, millwrights and mill owners can get involved over the weekend by using the hashtag #NationalMillsWeekend and tagging us on social media @spabmills.
Please share your pictures with us on Facebook #NationalMillsWeekend or Instagram @spabmills throughout the month of May and during the weekend 10-11 May.
1. Contributed
Millstones at Heron Corn Mill, Cumbria Photo: Submitted
2. Contributed
Upminster Windmill, London Photo: Submitted
3. Contributed
Stanley Mills, Perth Photo: Submitted
4. Contributed
Kibworth Harcourt Postmill, Leicestershire Photo: Submitted