HOF Supports New Apprenticeships for Millwrights

Steven Baker/Historic England

The Hamish Ogston Foundation is helping to save working mills in the North of England by funding a traineeship for millwrights, without whose repair and maintenance skills the mills would literally grind to a halt.

The funding will initially cover a placement at Warwick Bridge Corn Mill in Cumberland, dating back to the twelfth century, and the late eighteenth century Gayle Mill in the Yorkshire Dales, the oldest structurally unaltered cotton mill in existence and still in use as a water-powered sawmill.

The traineeship was the subject of an article and linked editorial in The Daily Telegraph on 8 February. The Telegraph noted that millwrights skilled at operating mainly timber machinery had now all but vanished from the north – there was thought to be only one left - but that at least twenty millwrights were needed to keep the mills in good working order. The current necessity for millwrights to travel long distances meant that historic mills which were otherwise economically viable had been forced to close for weeks at a time while awaiting experts to undertake repairs. An added complication was that each mill was unique and first-hand knowledge of its peculiarities was necessary for speedy and effective repairs; millwrights travelling from other regions were often unfamiliar with the bespoke designs of northern mills.

The risk now is that mills might have to close completely, causing job losses and a loss of industrial heritage. It is this negative knock-on effect that the Foundation is seeking to address through its heritage skills funding programme. The investment in millwright training is fundamentally about sustainability: resuscitating heritage skills, keeping historic buildings in the use for which they were built, providing a lifeline for buildings powered by renewables and ultimately helping to shape a sound and vital economy for the north of England. 

Visit hamishogstonfoundation.org/heritage/building-heritage-skills for more information on our heritage apprenticeship initiatives.