Become a Friend
Please help us to continue to look after and make freely available these important and vunerable objects that tell us so much about our vanishing heritage.
Find out about becoming a friend
Contact us by email: friends@millsarchivetrust.org
Please make a donation:
every pound counts!
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Help us to Save the Memories
By becoming a Friend, you can participate in many areas of interest as well as playing a vital part in securing the Archive’s future.
You will help to preserve our milling heritage for present and future generations. You will ensure that, even though most of our mills have disappeared, their stories and those of the people involved in them continue to be told.
By helping to maintain records of milling history, you will be helping our Archive to flourish and make some friends along the way. In return, we offer you an extensive range of benefits.
Benefits of Membership
Internet Shop
Our Internet shop offers books and other material that have been donated to the Mills Archive to raise funds. You can search the site, make purchases and create a wants list. There is also a special section of “suitable presents”. In the future we will also offer large mounted prints and postcards of some of the better images in the Mills Archive catalogue.
To make purchases you will need to register on the site, giving your name, address and a valid email address and telephone number. You select your own user name and password. We prefer payments to be made via Paypal, the most popular and simple method for you to pay by credit card. They offer a secure confidential service and we do not see your card details.
As a Friend, you will hear at least two weeks before the general public of additions to the shop. In addition you will automatically receive a 10% discount on all purchases above £30 placed on our shop.
To be able to claim the discount you will need to join the Friends and wait until we email you confirming that the server now recognises your change in status.
Visit the shop and see for yourself!
Friends Events
Each year, starting in 2008 we will send you two invitations to our exclusive exhibition and garden party, to be held in the grounds of Watlington House. This will give you the opportunity of meeting other Friends, the volunteers and trustees and get a feel for the work of the Archive.
The annual exhibition will be on a different theme each time and make maximum use of the depth and breadth of the records held at the Mills Archive. The achievements and future plans for the Archive will be displayed and discussed during the day.
Announcements and details of events will be announced in Mill Memories and posted on the Friends’ Notice Board.
Trading Post
The Friends’ Trading Post enables Friends to offer their own material for sale or exchange. The service is free and vendors can list 10 items at a time.
Notice Board
The Friends' Notice Board is freely available to Friends to display announcements of meetings, events, queries and any other matters that they wish to display to the general public
Mill Memories
The first edition of the Friends’ Newsletter, Mill Memories was mailed to Friends in August 2007. The newsletter will appear twice a year as an A5 booklet of about 16 pages. For those who prefer, it is also downloadable from this site. For the last issue click here.
Topics to be covered include:
- Practical advice for collectors
- News from the Archive
- Family history (millers and millwrights)
- Interesting items in the collections
- Special offers and Friends’ events
- Ideas on how to get the best out of Friends’ membership
Free Images
A request facility on the Mills Archive website allows Friends to request up to 10 images per year to be emailed to them free of charge. The images are 4 times the size of those freely available on the website and are large enough to make good quality A5 prints.
Friends need to agree that the images are for research and private study only. Unused allocations may be taken up in later years.
New Benefits
The Friends are working on a series of projects, many of which will result in new facilities for the Friends to enjoy. Such new benefits will be announced here and in Mill Memories.