COMMITTEE REPORT AGM 14 MAY 2008
This year’s report starts with a sad note. As many of you know, last year Roger was appointed Chairman in place of Bob who was shortly moving to Lymington. Unfortunately Roger was taken seriously ill during the Christmas holidays and we have since heard he has cancer and is having to undergo chemotherapy. I am sure we all wish him a full and speedy recovery.
Since we heard about Roger’s illness Martin Withers, our vice Chairman, I and the rest of the committee have done our best to keep the Mill functioning, and trying to fill the gap left by Bob.
The year has seemed to me to have had a repeating three month theme to it: “the sails will be completed in three months time.” This message was received from many believable sources and I am sorry to say even our Newsletter has had the odd attack of it. I sincerely hope it is coming to an end and Vincent Pargitter will indeed fit the missing sails towards the end of June. Perhaps I should add this year.
The first highlight of the year was Bob and Sheila’s farewell party. It was a wonderful team effort, and appreciated by everyone. We are very sorry we could not invite more people, but the Mill is not that big and there was little free space.
Our second highlight occurred shortly after, when Mrs Weeks, who had learnt of the Mill almost by accident whilst visiting her daughter in Grays presented us with the Indenture of 1839 which she had found in a box of her father’s. They are descendents of James Nokes who built the Mill. Mrs Weeks wanted it displayed in the Mill so visitors can see it, and we have put it in a sealed frame that will be kept in the Mill only during the summer months.
Open Days are our most important function, both at weekends and the mid week openings for schools and other organisations, and without our tireless guides and stewards we could not function. Unfortunately our numbers are down this year, as Frank Morley and Derek Goodwin have had to retire; Bob and Sheila have moved away; and at the moment Roger and Anne are unable to help, so we are effectively down 6 people on last year. During 2007 we opened on more than 30 occasions and had over 2,000 visitors in spite of the rather bad wet weather. We welcomed the Mayor and her guests on several occasions when she brought visitors to the Windmill and the words of appreciation we get for showing all our visitors this unique asset to the Borough are very welcome.
Another, almost traditional by now, event at the Mill is the Christmas Sale. With Jo’s organisation and Mrs Gill Roome’s beautiful handmade cards it is a sure method of fund raising. Our thanks to you both.
Trevor arranged an outing to 4 Sussex Mills on Saturday 8th September, which was much appreciated.
On the 20th April I received the following message from the Comments page of our Web site. Subject: Today’s visit. What a fantastic piece of local history, fantastic tour by guides who clearly have a passion for the preservation of this wonderful mill. Regards, Richard Williams.
Then more recently I received: As a volunteer who worked with Hector Stone 1950/52 to halt the structural deterioration and carry out essential restoration- we actually got the sales turning and ground corn - I am delighted that preservation of this great mill is well in hand. May the good work continue. Hugh Cawdron.
In addition to opening the Mill we had stands at both Planet Havering and the Havering Show, and also helped promote the Windmill at the Essex Tourism Association stand at Lakeside. We often give out leaflets at the Farmers’ Market on the first Thursday in the month giving details of our Open Days. Anything that can give the Mill publicity we do our best to cover. A message on my answerphone followed by an interview by emails, then a visit by a photographer on a Tuesday morning, gave us a very nice spread in Living Essex, which a group of visitors told me was why that had visited us. Contact with Schools is very important to us and we have mailed a follow up letter for the Teachers’ pack to all Primary and Junior schools in Havering which amounted to 54 letters.
Both Paul and Trevor have been on the SPAB, Mills Section, Maintenance Course, which increases our knowledge base for maintaining the mill properly.
Most of our publicity, which is done mainly by email, is co-ordinated by Martin. We try to get posters on display in shops, but it is very time consuming and we do what we can.
Another source of publicity is our Newsletter which I produce. I always welcome contributions from everyone with a windmill theme, but watermills would also be welcome. Illustrating pictures add to their appeal. An interesting Mill or two you saw on holiday for example. We have been running a three part series by Frank Morley on the origins and developments of Milling, and as a sort of encore he has added an article about the transport of grain, which is waiting on my desk for the July issue. I am very aware of the cost of printing even with laser printers, and someone who could act as advertising manager and get us say two half A5 pages at £100 each would more than cover our costs.
We, the Friends of Upminster Windmill have recently agreed the Management Agreement with the Windmill Preservation Trust and we hope that the 35-year lease is about to be signed, and look forward to working with the Trust in the big project of restoring the Windmill.
We would like to thank everyone who makes our Open Days possible and run relatively smoothly, with a special thank you to those who have had to retire. I must also give a big thank you to Brian Hayden who looks after our sales in a quiet and efficient way. These are a valuable income and help to remind visitors of the Mill. Brian is always willing to consider improving our range of items. Also special thanks to Trevor who somehow manages to fit us into the rota, to our mechanical teams who do repairs and maintenance to the Mill, and to Martin Perret, our Webmaster. I must also thank everyone’s wives, partners and families for letting us spend so much time working for the Mill. My wife sometimes says to me. “You going there again, can’t someone else do it?” To which I reply. “I am someone else’s someone else. If I don’t do it, it won’t be done. ” Please if you could help out at the Mill even one Saturday or Sunday a month, we are open the 1st and 3rd weekend from April to the first weekend in October, see me or Trevor afterwards. As I have already said we also would welcome someone to distribute posters and leaflets, and, slightly more specialist, someone who could produce press releases.
Our final thanks go to you, the Friends, for your support and encouragement in keeping this historic building and local asset in the public eye.
John Winn
Secretary