Hi everybody! I had a very eventful week last week. In fact, so much so that I couldn’t even collect everything together for the blog! Nevertheless, after allowing myself to ruminate over the weekend, here are the highlights.
The most exciting thing that I did last week was present at the trustees’ meeting. It was an amazing opportunity for me to meet the people I always hear a lot about at the Archive, but who may not necessarily have a chance to visit very often. I was able to learn more about the preservation and recording process in general, as well as get a clearer idea about AtoM’s role in the bigger picture of providing better access to information. It was also nice to be able show AtoM off to those who may have been unfamiliar with its new format, and demonstrate how much easier it is to use compared to the old catalogue.
There was also a wealth of fascinating stories to choose from this week. One of them was about a clever con used by millers in the past when they measured out grain for their customers. It went by ‘the miller’s thumb’, and it involved the miller holding his grain measure with his thumb inside it so that the customer received slightly less grain. When I first read this article, it made me laugh out loud! I wondered how much the miller could possibly benefit by conning his customers out of a thumb’s worth of grain, but I was clearly misreading the situation. The article stipulated that “Millers with particularly large thumbs benefited accordingly, and grew to be wealthy and influential men.” When multiplied over time and the number of people in the community, a thumb’s worth of grain from everyone presumably added up to a substantial store of covertly-obtained grain for the miller!
I was also pleased to be able to read more about the social status of the miller in the community. According to the article, “It was the miller’s right to grind corn for the entire community, and he jealously guarded monopoly on this privilege.” Although I believe economic and class boundaries are a lot more blurred today, I think it is amazing to see the connection between economic activity and social status reflected this far back into history.
Speaking of current patterns stretching back a long way, I was delighted to see the way in which mills were able to play a part in the production of healthy flour. I read an article from 1940 that described the discovery made by Robert Boothby of vitamin-flour, made by grinding in the wheat germ with the flour. Considering the dominance whole-grain flour has today in our quest to be healthier, it was riveting to see the marriage of quality produce with methods of mass production. Being a fan of the taste of whole-grain bread myself, it is comforting to know that mills producing flour in the traditional way will be able to use this as a selling point to make their produce more competitive in the face of highly processed white flour.
Another reason I was happy to note the trend towards the preference for more traditionally-produced flour was for the chance it gives mills to fulfil their original purpose. I read an alarming article about how quickly original mill structures are being lost because of conversion, and it made me look at the conversion stories I had already read in a different light. The article, containing statements from our very own Mildred Cookson, explained how mill conversions might keep the outer structure of a mill, but the removal of machinery and other interior parts ultimately resulted in the loss of the mill itself.
I was able to talk to Mildred about this issue, and she elaborated that sometimes mills are not meant to be converted, and that altering the structure could bring a host of problems to homeowners in the future. Although I understand that conversion may sometimes be the only way to preserve a mill’s structure, and I admit to finding the conversion stories very charming, I can now look at them more critically, and perhaps understand the potential loss of something that ought to be preserved more appropriately.
I also came across a very inspirational story about a woman named Emma Weeks, who ran Upper Mill in Calbourne on her own for a long time after her husband’s death. Considering she had to take on the traditionally male role of the miller in 1903, when the feminist movement was nothing like it is today, it is amazing to think the burden of her having to run the family business and raise nine children under the age of 12 was made only more difficult by the patriarchal umbrella she must have been living under. Her story is made even more admirable when we learn that she was able to keep the mill in the family and run it successfully until her sons were ready to take over. In times when our own difficulties might seem insurmountable, it is stories like Mrs. Weeks’ that may give us the courage and inspiration to tackle our own obstacles.
It is also exciting to see AtoM grow as more and more people begin to work on it. There are more collections being added by different volunteers, and as far as the Press Cuttings Collection goes, I have been working hard to keep up the wealth of information available online, and I am happy to say that there are now over 1200 items accessible to you all! Thank you so much for all your positive feedback so far, and please do keep coming back for more updates.