Collection: Mill Green Museum and Working Mill

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The Museum Service was not founded on one major collection but has developed its collection in the following ways:

  • Donations (make up the majority of our collections)
  • Archaeological Depositions
  • Purchases (occasional)
  • Bequest (occasional)

  The collections also relate to our two sites: Mill Green Museum and Mill and Welwyn Roman Baths.Mill Green Mill was built to grind corn grown by Hatfield’s farmers and the adjoining house, now the museum’s exhibition galleries, was the home of successive millers and their families. The Mill belonged to the Hatfield House Estate for three hundred years. It ceased to be used commercially in 1911. In 1973, the Hatfield and District Archaeological Society took over the tenancy of the Mill House and laid the foundations of the Museum by holding exhibitions each summer. In 1978 Welwyn Hatfield District Council set up the professionally staffed Welwyn Hatfield Museum Service. The Mill House opened full time as a local history museum for the area in 1979. The restoration of the Mill, undertaken by the Council in partnership with the Mill Green Water Mill Restoration Trust was completed in August 1986 and the mill now operates commercially again.

  Welwyn Roman Baths form a small part of the Dicket Mead Villa which was built in the third century AD and occupied for about 150 years before being demolished within the Roman period. It was excavated by the local, amateur Welwyn Archaeological Society in the 1960s who ensured it was preserved. Today the monument is displayed to the public in a steel vault 9 metres underneath the A1 motorway.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: Unknown

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Archaeology

  The Welwyn Hatfield borough is an area rich in archaeological remains. The present collections represent finds made locally both actively (by excavation or other fieldwork) and passively (by casual find) ranging in date from Palaeolithic to Post Medieval. It also includes archives of archaeological projects.

  A small proportion of the material is on long-term loan from Sherrardswood School.

  The Museum Service does not undertake its own fieldwork, but liaises closely with all amateur and professional archaeologists working in the borough. Material excavated in the 1970s and 1980s by HADAS (Hatfield and District Archaeological Society) and originally placed on loan to the Museum Service, was converted to a donation in 1989.

  The Museum Service holds a good collection of flint material, but little in the way of early pottery and metalwork. Some of the most significant Iron Age discoveries in Europe have been made in Welwyn and Welwyn Garden City, such as the ‘Welwyn Type’ Burials (now on display in the British Museum). Excavation by the British Museum at Essendon 1992-1994 revealed an Iron Age sacred site. The gold coins, torcs and weapons have been deposited in the British Museum. The Welwyn Hatfield Museum Service holds a good collection of Iron Age pottery, but little significant metalwork and no Iron Age coinage.

  With its proximity to St Albans (Verulamium) and London, the borough, especially Welwyn Village, has a rich Roman past. Two important Roman sites are represented in the Museum and link to one of our sites: Dicket Mead Roman Villa and the Grange Roman Cemetery. In 1996, with the approval of the Community & Leisure Services Committee, Welwyn Hatfield Museum Service purchased the Potters Bar Roman coin hoard.

  The Museum collections are very weak in all Saxon material. The Museum Service holds a number of individual items from the Medieval period but has little from a well dated Medieval excavation. No Medieval coinage has been collected. The Museum Service holds a good representation of post medieval material resulting from the excavations of HADAS. The Museum holds a small collection of foreign material including Egyptian items in the Harrison bequest (a bequest from a former WGC resident) and a number of items from HADAS including foreign coins.

  The Museum Service collection also includes human remains from excavations consisting of 8 complete skeletons, including one infant burial, and a cremation all of Romano-British origin. In addition the collection includes individual bones and part skeletons mainly of Romano-British origin but including one skull from a 13th-18th Century site. Human remains are currently on display at Welwyn Roman Baths.

  Natural Sciences

  It was originally envisaged that the Museum Service would reflect the flora, fauna and geology of the borough, although this is no longer the case. Two collections, the Alan Bell Collection of Butterflies of the British Isles and the Roger Ferry Collection of Butterflies, Insects, Molluscs, Vertebrae and Skulls together with the Ferry/Dear Collection of Birds Eggs were bequeathed to the Museum Service in 1979 and 1983 respectively. There is also a small collection of fossils.

  Local & Social History Collections

  Our local and social history collection reflects the changing nature of the borough and therefore largely consists of agricultural artefacts prior to 1920 and items relating to its associated crafts and trades, retailing, brewing and inn-keeping and the railway.

  The establishment of a Garden City in purpose-bought fields near Welwyn in 1920 heralded major change. In the early 1930s the de Havilland Aircraft Factory moved to Hatfield, a crucial event in the history of the town. Both Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City were designated New Towns in 1948.

  The social composition and industrial base of the borough have therefore changed dramatically over time. Agriculture has declined in importance due to the loss of land to housing, factories, railways, roads, and motorways. The two main developments of the past 30 years have been the closure of British Aerospace’s Hatfield site (1993/94) and the vast expansion of the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield. In Welwyn Garden City several large employers have also closed, including ICI, Rank Xerox, and SmithKline Beecham. Hatfield town centre is due for complete redevelopment.

  We have good representative collections of these industries across our collections which can be further broken down into the following areas:

  Agriculture, Crafts & Trades

  The collections consist of building tools, agricultural hand tools, horse- drawn equipment, barn machinery and water-powered milling tools and equipment. In 1988 a late nineteenth century side flue oven from Chuck’s Bakery, Welham Green was purchased for the collection with assistance of the Hertfordshire Heritage Fund and has been dismantled and placed in our storage. The Museum Service also holds material (primarily archival and photographic) relating to the great houses and estates of the borough.

  Industry & Retailing (including Inn-keeping)

  Building on the Industry Year initiative of 1986, progress has been made in acquiring material representing both existing and past industries of the borough. There is a comprehensive collection of British Aerospace (and its aircraft industry predecessors) journals. The Museum Service holds a small number of shop fitments and a large packaging and bottle collection. Recent developments in retailing are represented largely through ephemera and textiles.

  Domestic & Community Life

  The collections include kitchen fittings and cooking and laundry equipment, bathroom fittings and bedroom furniture dating from 1870 to 1960; recreational material, including children’s games dating from 1910 to 1950, a small First World War collection including fragments from the Cuffley Schutte-Lanz airship (known as the Cuffley Zeppelin) and related archival material and a larger selection of objects showing life on the Home Front 1939 to 1945. There are a small number of local tokens, medallions and badges.

  Photographs & Film

  The Museum Service has an extensive photographic collection of views of all parts of the borough. There are a handful of nineteenth century examples but most date to post 1900.

  Costume & Textiles

  The Museum Service has a collection of approximately 300 items made, used or worn locally. The dress collection includes work wear from local factories and shops and uniform from local schools. There is a small, but important, collection of Cresta Silks fabric samples and examples of local weaving produced by Mary Kemp (died 1935) and Rasma Budins.

  Fine & Applied Art

  The present collection includes two bronzes by the sculptor David Evans; a small collection of Arts and Crafts tiles and British Studio pottery, five posters advertising Welwyn Garden City by Charles Paine c. 1920s, a number of works by members of the Soper family and a small collection of local topographical works. A major acquisition was made in 1994 with the purchase of 150 cartoons and caricatures by Cyril Hards (1911-1991).

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: Unknown

  Licence: CC BY-NC