To celebrate Mills in 2026 we are producing a compilation of individual mills' histories, and we would like your help. The SPAB Mills Section wants to create a new and comprehensive picture of mills of all types throughout the UK and Ireland.
Call for Submissions
We are inviting owners, volunteers, millwrights or anyone interested in the history of a mill or a linked group of mills, to write about how they evolved. We would like to understand a mills’ origins and how the structure and uses have changed over its lifetime. This can be a post mill, smock or tower mill, a watermill or tide mill, or an industrial mill. The mill can be located in the UK, Ireland or Europe.
Mills can be existing, derelict or already lost.
The chosen entrants will receive a copy of the published booklet.
The published booklet will be available at SPAB Mills Section events. A digital version of selected submissions will also be available.
The deadline for submissions is Friday 1 May 2026.
All entries to be submitted via email to: nmwsubmissions@spab.org.uk
Submission criteria
Entries may be edited, and selected submissions will be incorporated into a SPAB Mills Section publication in 2026. Entrants will need to grant copy and reproduction rights to SPAB in print or online.
- Text: no more than 2,000 words, written in English and in Word document format only
- Images: up to four photos or drawings
- Members of SPAB staff, volunteers or their families are not eligible to enter
All submissions must be the writer's own work, and photographs to be accompanied by the date and name of the photographer and their permission. Or, if it is a historic photo, permission of the copyright holder. Drawings to be similarly annotated.
Image: Whitechurch Silk Mill © Nigel Spender