Sussex Mills Group A.G.M., 23rd March 2012
At The Barn, West Blatchington Windmill, Holmes Avenue, Hove.
Peter Hill expressed a welcome to one and all, and his pleasure at seeing such a good turnout.
1. Attendance
David Meares, Peter Hill, Brian Pike, John Blackwell, Bob Bonnett, Justin Brice, Peter Casebow, Michael Chapman, Ron Gordon, John Harvey, Philip Hicks, Maureen Hicks, Joan Hill, Peter Holtham, David Jones, Robin Jones, Nick Kelly, Peter Mobbs, Ron Martin, Barbara Molog, Dave Picton, Hazel Picton, Simon Potter, Bob Potts, Tim Ralph, Wing Commander Sir Freddie Sowery and Lady Anne Sowery, Lawrence Stevens, Ken Upton.
2. Apologies.
Peter James, James Tasker, Dr Mew,
3. Minutes of last AGM.
Minutes approved and signed.
4. Matters Arising:
There were no matters arising.
5. Chairman’s report
I want to keep this as brief as possible as there are other more important matters to deal with this evening. However I would just like to say that once again it has been a very successful year for the Group and thanks to the hard work by the volunteers, maintenance and restoration have continued non-stop ensuring that we have some very fine mills for the public to enjoy.
Some three to four decades ago, small groups of enthusiasts got together to do something about their local mill before it fell to the ground. For the most part they were independent of each other until a certain Frank Gregory gradually brought them together and along with Ron Martin and others of the Sussex Industrial Archaeological Society decided to form the Group to which we now all belong. When we started we were in our mid thirties to forties and now some 35 to 40 years on, we are all still prepared to put in innumerable hours of volunteer labour, to restore and maintain our mills which I think is no mean feat and I feel that we can be extremely proud of what we have achieved. There is no need for me to itemize what has been done in the past twelve months as this has been well recorded in our quarterly Newsletter (more about which later).
However, as I am sure you are all well aware, this is my last time in this seat as your Chairman and what I would like to do is to say a very big ‘thank you’ to all of you who have supported me and who have contributed to the tremendous success of the Group. The strength and success of any society is dependant entirely upon the individual members and what they are prepared to put in to it and one has only to look around at the superb selection of mills, both wind and water, that we have in the county to know that we are very successful and I sincerely hope that this will carry on for many years to come. Many times I have stated how proud I have been to represent you and I hope that my successor will feel likewise.
6. Secretary’s Report
Brian expressed his thanks to the committee and his sincere thanks to Peter, the backbone of the group over many years. He also voiced his thanks to Robin and David for their contributions and support.
Brian was in receipt of an email from Emma Sheridan-Smith (SPAB Mills Group Administrator) hoping that Sussex Mills Group can offer help to organise the Mills Group autumn meeting November 2013. Can we offer venues for one or two mills and a venue for a meeting (50 to 70 people), with meal. This will be raised at the next committee meeting
7. Elections
a. Election of Chairman
Peter Hill noted that as indicated last year, after 15 years at the helm he has decided to stand down to allow “new blood” to take over. This has caused some consternation amongst the Group however we do have a nominee and that is Philip Hicks. He then asked if there were any other nominations. There being none, Peter proposed Philip as our new Chairman. The motion was seconded by Bob Potts and confirmed by general acclamation.
b. Election of Vice Chairman
The Group has not had a Vice Chairman before but Peter Hill said he would be happy to take on the position in order that he could work alongside Philip and guide him through the take over. The meeting was very happy to support this idea which was proposed by David Meares and acclaimed by all.
Bob Bonnett then addressed the meeting with reflections on all that Peter has done for us as chairman of this group over his entire period in charge. With contributions from milling members from all over the county, Bob had purchased an appropriate retirement gift for Peter. Bob also expressed the group’s sincere thanks to Joan for her support of Peter and her kindness in looking after the group's culinary needs during the meetings. With approval from the meeting, Bob gave Joan a gift to show our appreciation.
At this point Philip took charge of the meeting and expressed his personal thanks to Peter for all his support and guidance both at these meetings and at the mills under his charge.
Philip confirmed that he will be the Sussex Mills Group point of contact at future SIAS meetings.
c. Election of Secretary
Philip stated that he would like to propose that Brian Pike continues as General Secretary and that David Meares continues as Minutes Secretary. He went on to offer his sincere thanks for all the work they put in to keep things ticking over and to record what is going on. This motion was seconded by John Harvey
d. Election of the Committee
Due to ongoing health problems, David French has reluctantly decided to stand down. We have greatly appreciated his and his wife Gill’s input to the group and we wish them well for the future.
All other current members are willing to stand again and these are:
R. Bonnett, P. Casebow, M. Chapman, D. Cox, J, Harvey, P. James, S. Potter, R. Potts, T. Ralph and L. Stevens. Additionally, Justin Brice was also willing to stand as a member.
The Chairman formally proposed the re-election of the above listed people en-bloc and David Meares seconded the motion. This was confirmed by a show of hands.
Subsequent to the meeting both James Tasker and Maureen Hicks were co-opted onto the committee.
8. Any Other Business.
Peter Hill addressed the meeting as follows:- “You will all be aware by now that after more than ten years, Robin Jones has resigned as Editor of our Newsletter. He has done an excellent job, which has not been easy at times. It has been a time consuming and demanding job but he carried on through thick & thin with the result that we now have one of the best mills newsletter around. But like myself he feels it is now time to move on and let someone else take over. To find his replacement has been far from easy but at last we have acquired the services of a mill enthusiast by the name of Justin Brice and I will ask him to introduce himself to you. However before that, on behalf of the Group I would like to present Robin with a small token of our appreciation.”
Justin Brice mentioned he had been a member for the last two years, had always enjoyed the Newsletter and did not want it to cease being available. Despite his full diary of commitments, he will be able to make time to apply his graphical artistic skills to presenting whatever information the members send him. But he will not be in a position to author articles himself. Justin's contact details are given in the April Newsletter, as are the deadlines for future issues of the Newsletter.
National Mills Weekend will be 12th & 13th May when as always a variety of attractions will be staged. Simon Potter asked for more details of mills activities so that he can add them to the Sussex Mills Group web site.
David Meares advised the meeting that he and Bob Potts have been making arrangements for Millers from the Lurgashall Watermill at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum to visit a number of Sussex Mills. 23rd May is the proposed date, and the proposed mills are Coultershaw Beam Pump, Brewhurst Watermill, Jill Windmill and High Salvington Windmill. David and Bob have been in touch with each of these sites and are finalising details with them.
Sir Freddie expressed his appreciation for all the good work done by Sussex Mills Group. He feels that we are one of the best and most productive of the mills groups, and as such are an example for others to strive towards.
Simon Potter mentioned the mill parts which had been made available by the Weald and Downland Museum. They had originated from Nyetimber Windmill and Terwick Watermill some 30 years ago and had been in storage ever since. Through the efforts of David Meares, these had been recovered, are now at Jill Mill and are available to other mills in Sussex if wanted. David Meares will be making a list of the available parts and will communicate this to the committee as soon as possible.
John Harvey noted that the Michelham Priory setup has been restructured and he was pleased to record that the site is already open for the year.
A question from the floor raised the issue of the ageing profile of the membership. Philip reflected that this is common with a lot of societies. Pete Casebow compared the situation at High Salvington where their open meeting attracted about 30 new volunteers. Peter Hill observed that the difference between when he started and now was that previously many mills needed a lot of restoration whereas now the mills just need maintenance and caretakers. It was agreed that all mills should work hard (or continue to do so) to attract younger members, perhaps by a constant drip feed of suggestions (with leaflets) to their site visitors.
Date of next Sussex Mills Group meeting Friday 11th May 2012.
9. Closure of meeting
There being no further business the meeting closed at 20:16.
After refreshments kindly provided by Joan Hill, with additional biscuits (using Jill Mill flour) from David Meares, Tony Pratt, from the Wey and Arun Canal, kindly addressed the meeting and explained the work of their group.