The Frank Gregory Online Project
Supported by grant aid from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, the Mills Archive's most recent project involved the digitisation and cataloguing of 40,000 items from Frank's collection, which he left to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton on his death in 1998.
Frank Gregory's collection comprises large numbers of postcards, photographs, lantern slides and glass plate negatives, 35mm slides, measured drawings and field sketches, correspondence and ephemera, all relating to our heritage of traditional windmills and watermills in the UK and worldwide. Frank's lifelong passion for mills has resulted in a unique legacy of information. Many of the photographic and written records that Frank made and the materials he collected relate to mills that have since been destroyed, increasing the historical value of these records.
The mammoth task of organising and identifying thousands of unidentified images is being undertaken by the Archive's skilled volunteer team based in Reading and an expert panel formed by members of the Sussex Mills Group. A full biography of Frank has been prepared by Mills Archive volunteer Elizabeth Trout. Excerpts from this appear below; to read the full version, click here.
A lifelong interest
Frank's interest in mills began as a boy when, at an early age, he accompanied his father on car journeys around Sussex. Born and bred in Brighton, Frank developed a reputation as an avid photographer, researcher and collector of material relating to every type of mill. He became interested in the subject early enough in life to talk to the last generations of active Sussex millers and Sussex millwrights while this valuable seam of first-hand knowledge could still be mined. His enthusiasm for the repair of mills was infectious and directly contributed to the preservation of several Sussex examples such as Park Mill at Bateman's, Nutley post mill, Polegate tower mill and Shipley smock mill.
Frank was a practical man and although writing was not his forte he gave regular talks and slide shows to many local societies and organisations, often as a means of fund-raising for the restoration of a particular mill. Frank was an accomplished artist. In his twilight years, he was persuaded to create a book of his pen and ink sketches of Sussex watermills that he had first drawn as a young man in the 1930’s.
World War II and Frank's Teaching Career
Frank was 22 when war was declared and spent the war years at Aldershot working on logistics and troop movements. After the war, he trained as a woodwork teacher at Shoreditch and his first post was at a school in West Croydon. Frank travelled to Croydon every day by train from his home in Harrington Road, exploring all the different routes possible to get there. However, the Beeching cuts put an end to that. Eventually, after his daughter was born, Frank got a job at Moulsecoomb Secondary School, where he worked until he retired in 1977.
Mills Visits and Industrial Archaeology
Frank’s schooldays, war career and teaching posts were incidental to his life. He lived for evenings, weekends and holidays when he could be out and about walking, cycling, exploring and visiting mills both at home and abroad. He cycled all over the UK on mill visits or joined the Sussex Pathfinders on weekend rambles.
Frank and his sister Eileen were founder members of the Sussex Pathfinders, a rambling club set up for young people. Frank became Secretary in 1946 and increased the membership to over 100. He eventually became Treasurer as well, holding the post for more than 30 years. As a young man, Frank took part in several Holiday Fellowship trips, a company specialising in walking holidays that still operates to this day.
Early in his life, Frank joined the Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society and the Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society (SIAS). He took part in various archaeological digs on the Sussex Downs - including several excavations of windmill sites. This keen interest in archaeology drew him into mill restoration of as a way of preserving industrial heritage. After joining SPAB (the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings) Wind & Watermill Section in 1948, Frank carried out several site inspections on behalf of the Section over several years, putting his encyclopaedic knowledge of mills and milling in the South of England to good use.
A uniquely skilled individual
He took an estimated 10,000 photographs and converted a Kodak 620 Bellows Camera into a copying frame, looking straight down onto a wooden baseboard. Some of his photographs of windmills and watermills are the very last images of mills before their collapse or demolition. Throughout his travels, he collected about 40,000 postcards, although most are not of mills.
Frank’s technical skills enabled him to make scale models of mills, for example Polegate, and demonstration models of mill workings. Many of these models are on display at West Blatchington Windmill, and other examples remain in the collection. Apart from his watermill sketches, Frank produced basic technical drawings as a means of recording measurements quickly and accurately.
Frank's last years
In recognition for his outstanding contribution to the cause of mill preservation in England, Frank was honoured with a special presentation at the SPAB Wind and Watermill Section's Spring Meeting in March 1979. Several years later, not long before his death, Frank’s friends gave him a surprise party for his 80th birthday. He died on 7 June 1998.
|
