Images and documents on windmills and watermills in various regions of the UK, Europe and the USA. Includes material on the sugar mills of Barbados. Some parts of the collection have been given individual catalogue entries; the remainder is listed in the attached PDF.

20 x "Engineer's Pocket Diary" made by Letts and branded "George Wailes & Co Ltd, General Engineers and Tool Merchants", dating from 1924 to 1944 with only two years missing from the Series (1935 and 1938). The diaries record Rex Wailes' professional and personal engagements during this period, including a note on 16 June 1924 recording the day upon which he started working at George Wailes & Co's offices at 386 Euston Road, London N.W.1 and noting the outbreak of WWII whilst on a trip to the US in September 1939. The final Engineer's Diary (branded "Eclipse Steel Tools (Sheffield)") is from 1950.
The Series includes two address books: one is from 1929 and is inscribed, "To Mr Rex from Elsie with best wishes for Christmas 1929". The second is a repurposed "Kalamazoo Loose Leaf Account Book" manufactured by Morland & Impey and dated 29 September 1917, a note in pencil advising, "keep in cheque drawer". Many entries date from between 1948 and 1950 and feature several names familiar to English milling history and photography.

A government-supplied Shorthand Note Book dated 1966 and 1967 containing notes from visits to a variety of industrial buildings and works thoughout the UK, including breweries, refineries, founderies, brickyards, docks, pumping stations, tanneries and potteries. The contents are itemized on the front and back covers. Mills visited are listed at 'Place access points' below. There are several unindexed Staffordshire mills.

A Reporters Notebook labelled 'Bath Nov 1967, Group 9 Reading Feb 1968, Kent & Staffs 1968', the contents being itemised on the front and back covers.
The 'Bath' section of the notebook begins with 43 pages of notes which appear to have been taken at a conference on industrial archaeology and possible means of preserving its heritage, including discussion of open-air museums. Notes are taken from talks by: Angus Buchanan - 'The Status of Industrial Archaeology; 'The Techniques of Industrial Archaeology, Part I and II' - Michael Rix and Frank Atkinson, respectively; and a paper given by Kenneth Hudson, giving particular reference to the approach adopted by museums in Scandinavia.
The 'Reading' section is marked 'Group 9, CBA' and features notes on lectures given at a further symposium on: the farm estate at Buscott Park (John Grayson) - at one time considered to be the most industrialised in the country; the Bucklebury Foundry ([Mc]Combe); and S. & E. Collier's gravel and brick-works [in Reading] (Ken Major).
The remainder of the notebook records visits to various industrial buildings and works in Kent (including a waterworks, two breweries and a wheelwrights) and numerous sites in Staffordshire, including several concerned with the china and earthenware manufacturing industry and surrounding canal network. Mills visited are listed at 'Place access points' below. Unindexed watermills were visited at: Park Mill, High Offley, Eccleshall; Wetley Rocks; and Cookshill, Caverswall, as was an unidentified mill called Logwood [Logwodd] Mill about which, Wailes notes, a film was made by the BBC .

A partially completed, unlabelled Reporters Notebook containing just 4 pages of notes on the Suffolk windmills listed at 'Place access points' below, as well as an unindexed mill at Onehouse. The notes refer to 'R.Martin's ledger 1878-75' [from which these notes may have been compiled] and includes a list of 31 windmills at which Robert Martin worked during this period.

A government-supplied Shorthand Notebook dated May to August 1967, containing notes from visits to a variety of industrial buildings and works throughout the UK but particularly in Somerset, Westmorland and Wales. Sites visited include breweries, foundries, rope-walks, collieries, quarries and slate, brick and granite-works. The contents are itemized on the front cover. Mills visited are listed at 'Place access points' below. Unindexed mills at Bovey Tracey, Pontlliw (referencing Penallt millstones) and Felindre, Swansea were also visited, as was the millstone quarry at Penallt, Monmouthshire.

Papers, cuttings and blueprints. Includes items, notes and correspondence by E Lancaster Burne.

A repurposed Seandar diary for 1925 measuring 9.5 cm x 15 cm recording an 8 day tour of windmills, most of which located in Cambridgeshire. Planning notes for the trip list mills to be visited each day (as well as recommended inns in which to dine/stay).
Notes are made for the mills listed in 'Place access points' below, occasionally accompanied with dimensions and drawings. Mills which have been demolished are also recorded. A list of those mills not visited is given at the back.
Unindexed mills visited include Polton Mill, Shepreth End post mill, a tower mill at Bradley and the remains of tower mills at Chesterton, Boxworth and March.
Mills at Histon, Waterbeach, Yelling, Fen Drayton, Somersham, Warboys, Susards Farm, Madingley and St John's Highway are marked 'non-est'.

A repurposed Lett's diary for 1936 measuring 7.5 cm x 11.5 cm, containing measurements, notes, calculations and drawings on a variety of engineering and milling matters including the mills listed at 'Place access points' below.

Reference is made to a number of sea or tide meals including unidentified ones at Denham, Wadebridge and St Austell, Cornwall and also to 'Butshead Tide Mill' [Budshead?] at St Budeaux. There are also 8 pages of notes under the headings 'Beech' and 'Stock' detailing the equipment/set-up within two unidentified mills. A further unidentified mill mentioned is 'Little Bentley Mill'.

Further notes on tide mills record that, 'porpoises came up at Barrow Hill Tide Mill, Abridge [Heybridge?], Maldon Essex'. A record is also made of '7 Tide Mills on North coast of Norfolk in the Burnhams'.

3 identical 'Kirby Series' Reporters Books, each 160 pages, containing Wailes' research and manuscript for 'The Windmills of Suffolk'.

A repurposed Army field message book (without its cover) labelled, 'Chinnor & (contains all sketches & rough notes of) Llandeusant Mill, Anglesey, Saughall'. The contents include: a narrative description of the post mill at Chinnor, describing its post as, 'the smallest I have ever seen', notes also being made about 'Great Hazeley Mill' (7 pages); detailed notes, drawing and measurements on 'Saughall mill' following an inspection on 4 March 1933 (20 pages); intricate drawings, measurements and notes about Llanddeusant water mill (33 pages).
The notebook also contains detailed notes relating to some sort of printing or photographic process and a pinned memo to 'call at W.H. for fiddle' [a possible reference to Enid Wailes' violin].

3 pages of A4 paper, folded around 16 pages of notes taken from two smaller notebooks. Notes taken on mills in Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Wales and Yorkshire, with more detailed notes on a windmill at 'Brill, Bucks' which is also labelled 'Wilford's mill'.

A small notebook measuring approx. 7 cm x 11 cm containing notes on the mills listed at 'Place access points' below, as well as a list of mills located in Rutland.

Assorted brief 'aide memoire' and more detailed notes on a variety of milling matters including: notes taken from books/papers and maps (e.g. 'Dynamics of Windmills' - J.A. Griffiths, the 'English Encyclopedia', 1802, Merian's 'View of London', 1638 and 'The Miller, 1900 and 1916); lists of milling journals, articles, reports and academic papers (including electricity generation); more detailed notes and drawings on the mills listed at 'Place access points' below; a June 1926 typed packing and kit list for a trip to Suffolk and expenses incurred; mileage and logbooks for a trip in June 1928 and again for Wailes' Easter trip to Anglesey in 1929; notes taken from a visit to the Sussex Archives Collection including an account of the relocation of an entire Brighton windmill in 1797; a list of Lancashire mills in working order; and an anecdote about an interaction between a miller and the King of Prussia.