The Helen M. Wilson windmill collection

The collection comprises 1 box and 1 ring binder of postcards, photographs and a number of miscellaneous items relating to the history and operation of windmills, arranged in 9 series. Series 1 comprises postcards pertaining to Kent (110 items), series 2 of postcards pertaining to Sussex (51 items), and series 3 of postcards depicting windmills in other counties in England (71 items). Series 4 comprises photographs pertaining to Kent (44 items), series 5 of photographs pertaining to Sussex (72 items), and series 6 of photographs depicting windmills in other counties of England (71 items). Series 7 comprises photographs and postcards depicting windmills abroad (9 items) and series 8 of photographs and postcards of Union Mill, Cranbrook, Kent (40 items).

The final series comprises miscellaneous items, including photographs and negatives showing mills in England and the Netherlands, the Russell family, and model windmills built by Mr Tarrant. Additionally, there are a number of advertisements and a sales catalogue for mill furnishings, 2 newspaper cuttings (including a review of Rex Wailes ‘The English Windmill’ 1954), a pamphlet issued by the Society of the Protection of Ancient Buildings relating to the preservation of Outwood Mills, Surrey [undated] and an etching of a windmill on Oulton Broads,Suffolk, taken from Pall Mall Magazine, as well as a pencil sketch of the post mill at Biddenden, Kent, by Philip Russell, uncle to Helen Wilson.

There is, additionally, a copy typescript, ‘The Wittersham Post Mills, Kent, their Owners and Millers’ by J. S. P. Buckland (2004) which has been shelved with the finding aid in our reading room at Wroughton.