Millers and Millwrights

[youngtug]

Andrew Meikle & John Rennie. And William Fairbairn a little later who wrote a Treatise on mills and millwork; https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=5zkDAAAAQAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA4

[youngtug]

Of interest maybe; https://voxeu.org/article/human-capital-millwrights-and-industrialisation-18th-century-england

and; http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ppp/

             

[Rena]

Lots of the major engineers, civil and mechanical trained has millwrights.

I would guess they would have started in large C19 power-mills, rather than the water- or wind-powered C18 outfits which James Brindley would have known.

There are still some of us alive who knew that factories in our town were powered by the old fashioned soot covered wind/water mills sited along a few of the town's industrial roads, whether they still had sails or not.   

Funny thing is that as children my brothers and I never got excited about those mills, but we did whoop with joy when on a family outing and we'd see Skidby mill standing atop Skidby Hill, obviously working because the wind was turning the structures.

[Andrew Tarr]

There are still some of us alive who knew that factories in our town were powered by the old fashioned soot covered wind/water mills sited along a few of the town's industrial roads, whether they still had sails or not.   

Funny thing is that as children my brothers and I never got excited about those mills, but we did whoop with joy when on a family outing and we'd see Skidby mill standing atop Skidby Hill, obviously working because the wind was turning the structures.

I doubt that many people alive today (I am over 80) will be able to recall many industrial mills powered by wind, tho some may have still been driven by water.  As you say the mills were soot-covered, it's more than likely they were coal-powered, because both wind and water could fail from time to time.

[Rena]

"wright" a person who constructs/builds things such as a wheelwright; shipwright; millwright. even "playwright" 

I was intrigued when I settled in this part of Cheshire to find that a local garage was owned by a Wainwright, a variety of Cartwright I suppose.

You're correct, a Hay Wain was a specific wooden cart pulled by a horse (and then later on by an old fashioned tractor), originally used in the days when crops were harvested by farmhands using scythes and sickles

[Skoosh]

James Watt from Greenock served his time as an instrument-maker mid 1700s, he set up shop in Glasgow working for the University. He was not a burgess therefore not member of any of the trades guilds so a row ensued. The University claimed immunity from the Trades House influence so Watt continued working on University property on improving the steam engine.

Skoosh.   

[Rena]

Don't know about Wales but in Scotland a mill was owned by the laird who leased his mill to  a tacksman, a miller in this case. The estate tenants (the sucken) were thirled to that mill & could use no other. The tenants also had to provide so many days free labour (thirlage) to the miller for cutting peats for the kiln, maintaining the fabric of the mill & water supply, new stones etc. The miller also had the power to break the tenants hand-querns if he suspected they were being used, so a miller was not always a popular man but very much his own man. The percentage (multures) charged by the miller for grinding the corn varied from estate to estate, plus a little (sequels) for his assistant. Meal was a substitute for cash which was always in short supply. He paid his rent to the laird with the multures he charged the tenants & the surplus he sold at market for cash. A good miller did much of the millwright work himself & had to dress the stones regularly. The mill-croft supplied the table & a miller had to have a horse to get the meal to market so a side-line as a haulier fits in. "Fat as a millers pig!" was a true-ism! 

Skoosh.

It was more or less the same in the British territory of the Kingdom of Hanover on the European mainland, given to King James of Scotland as a dowry payment when he gave permission for his granddaughter Sophie to marry.  (which is why we have many places in the UK that carry the name "Brunswick")

I have an ancestor Franz Flamme who was the miller of Liebenberg and I found a letter put online by the archivist that showed the locals were extremely annoyed that the cost of milling their crops by the new mill cost far more than being milled in the old mill.  The maternal side of the family were the Ehlers who worked in the flax fields (Flachstockheim) and again the archivist had put descriptions online of  a young woman's dress caught in the cogs of the wheels being dragged and a young man tried to drag her free - both were crushed and died. 

Please do not ask me to give any Saxon urls because the layout of them have changed so much plus the contents have also changed.

[youngtug]

wagon-builder," Old English wægn-wyrhta;

[Viktoria]

Yes the “ Wright” pertains to the making or repairing of something.
I think the usual term for someone who grinds corn in a corn mill is simply Miller.
Wain Wright
Wheel”
Cart “
Ship “etc.
The millstones would from time to time have their grooves re ground, another specialised job.
The textile mills had a great many specialised jobs ,so much machinery, some of which due to night shifts etc never stopped but once a year for inspection  and maintenance/ repair.
This was done at “ Wakes week” when all employees in production of thread or cloth would get a holiday (,at first not paid!) because the machinery and boilers etc would be literally “at a standstill“.
Eee by gum, life wor’ard!
Went to Ellen Road late last year as the great engine was in full power .
The mill has long gone but the engine remains ,all those people, mainly men ,just standing watching this shining brass and steel monster smoothly running
as it always did, controlling the lives of so many people .
If I remember correctly there were seven floors of machinery all driven by this one engine.
So smooth and not really noisy at all.

Working the first Sunday of the month .
Viktoria.