Women in Milling Timeline
The Mills Archive Trust and the UK Flour Millers have joined forces to explore and celebrate the many and varied contributions women have made to the milling industry.
In our timeline we learn about trailblazers such the formidable Margery Kempe who launched her own brewing and milling empire in medieval Norfolk; and of the many thousands of women whose largely unsung contribution kept Britain from going hungry during the two World Wars, alongside the social and economic reality for women of the time.
2500 BC
A small, sculpted model of a female servant from Ancient Egypt. She is shown kneeling at a grooved stone surface, upon which she grinds a stone back and forth, crushing the grain (“Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years”, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, 1994 p204)
1090 AD
The Domesday Book – listed 5,624 watermills
Women in Milling Timeline
1348 Black Death
1567
The Goodmans took five millers – including a woman, Margaret Bavand – to court, accusing them of grinding corn taken out of the city to the detriment of Dee mills. Margaret was the only miller to give a defence, which was unsuccessful. She continued in spite of the ruling until she was forced to cease milling in 1570
Women in Milling Timeline
1642 - 51 English Civil War
1715
Sybilla Righton Masters (1676 – 1720) was the first woman to be granted a patent by George III for milling corn
1792
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Women
1815
Implementation of the Corn Laws – tariffs on imported food and grain
1832
Great Reform Act – only men could vote
1838
People’s Charter (one man one vote)
1848
Factory Act – women and children could only work 10 hours a day in textile factories
1837
Queen Victoria comes to the throne
1846
Corn Laws repealed
Women in Milling Timeline
1853-56 Crimean War
(the first war in which women were properly organised as nurses to go out and serve the army. Both Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole served.)
1860s
Beginning of organised activity in support of votes for women; this steps up in the 1880s
1878
Henry Gustav Simon introduced a roller flour milling plant for McDougall Brothers in Manchester; beginning the roller flour mill revolution in the British flour industry
1880
Three women are awarded degrees by University of London – first degrees to be awarded to women by a British university
1878
Law bans women from working more than 56 hours per week
1891
Another milling journal, Milling, was first published in the UK
1867
Act forbids women to work more than 10 hours per day in any factory
1867
Second Reform Act – doubled the electorate enabling one third of adult men to vote, but still no women
1868
Women are first admitted to university in Britain but are awarded ‘proficiency certificates’ not degrees
1869
John Stuart Mill publishes The Subjugation of women
1870s
First roller mill originating in Hungary in the late 1870s; this new process involved passing the grain between sets of rotating metal rollers or “rolls”
1880
(16/10) Mary Ann Yates Corkling created the Bread Reform League in England
1890s
First flour milling examinations, overseen by City & Guilds
1873
Milling journal The Miller was first published in the UK and The Northwestern Miller first published in the USA
1878
The National Association of British and Irish Millers (nabim) was formed for ‘mutual advancement and protection’ in the light of the ‘great changes which are now in progress in the manufacture of flour, and in the machinery used for that purpose’.
1888
Women are allowed to vote in county and borough elections
1913
Death of suffragette Emily Davidson when she ran in front of the king’s horse at the Epsom Derby
1891
British entomologist, Eleanor Omerod successfully discovered the means to control the mill moth. Her body of work on injurious insects and farm pests was vast and recognised the world over and included an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1900 – the first woman to receive such an honour. In 2017 the University of Edinburgh named their research cloud computing service “Eleanor” after her.
Women in Milling Timeline
1914-18 World War I
1914
c.2 million women replaced men at their jobs – working on the land, in transport, hospitals, industry and engineering as well as taking on clerical roles.
1916
Ivy Hawkins begins milling with her father Henry at Redbournbury watermill in Hertfordshire
1928
Equal Franchise Act: All women over 21 are allowed same voting rights as men
1936
Mrs H. Dickinson of Thunderbridge takes over the family mill after her husband’s death; working alone, she ground a ton of corn a day.
1916
Factory Inspector’s report on women in the workplace: ‘It is permissible to wonder whether some of the surprise and admiration freely expressed in many quarters over new proofs of women’s physical capacity and endurance, is not in part attributable to lack of knowledge or appreciation of the very heavy and strenuous nature of much of normal pre-war work for women, domestic and industrial.’
1918
Representation of the People Act: Women over 30 allowed to vote if they meet property qualifications
1919
Certain professions are opened to women: they can be solicitors, barristers, vets and chartered accountants; they are also allowed to be magistrates and members of juries
1932
Ivy Hawkins and her mother run the mill at Redbournbury, after Ivy’s father dies
1939
(June) Pamphlet produced by the Transport & General Workers Union lists jobs permitted for women in mills and associated wages: ‘Work in the sack shop, including sack sewing machines’, ‘Packing small bags under sixty pounds in weight’, ‘Sweeping’, ‘Cleaning (machinery excepted)’, and ‘Messroom attendance’.
Women in Milling Timeline
1939-45 World War II
1939
Women’s Land Army (founded during WW1) was revived; at its peak there were 80,000 members replacing male agricultural workers who had been conscripted.
1944
“Reinstatement of Civil Employment Act, 1944” – the introduction of this Act meant that employees had the right to the pre-war job they had before fighting in the War. This had an impact on those women who had taken on some of those jobs during the War, and now faced pressure to leave
1944
Julia Hawkins dies and her daughter Ivy takes over the running of Redbournbury Mill on her own
1970
An Equal Pay Act is passed in Britain
1975
The Sex Discrimination Act makes it illegal to discriminate against women in employment, education and training
1952
Elizabeth II accedes the throne
1973
In Britain women are allowed to join the stock exchange for the first time
1941
National Service Act legalised the conscription of women for war work, including in munitions factories, aircraft & tank factories, shipbuilding yards, or they could join the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force or the Women’s Royal Navy Service (WRENS).
1942
Britain’s wartime leaders mandated use of 85% extracted flour (85% of the grain must be kept when milled and the bran and germ couldn’t be entirely disposed of). This was very similar to the wholemeal loaf advocated by Mary Ann Yates Corkling in the Bread Reform League, more than 30 years earlier
1943
By mid-1943, almost 90% of single women and 80% of married women were employed in essential war work, as builders, engineers, mechanics, pilots, drivers, boat crew and in communications, air defence, transport, the fire service, fishing industry, agriculture and intelligence. Pay was approx. two thirds of that of men.
1943
Pre-WW2 the daily British diet comprised 20% bread; by 1943, this percentage had increased to 33% as a result of interrupted supplies of grain, rationing etc. This meant that bread was providing the nation with 20% of its calories and protein.
1976
Clare Marriage founds Doves Farm Foods; she is still CEO today
1980
Mildred Cookson is appointed corn miller at the Mapledurham Watermill, Berkshire, where she remains until 2010. Mildred is a founding trustee of the Mills Archive Trust. She is also a current trustee of the SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) and Chairman of the SPAB Mills Section
1985
Ivy Hawkins leaves Redbournbury Mill, where she has been milling from a young age before becoming the sole miller, aged 89, before passing away shortly after
1976
Josephine Robinson appointed General Manager at Carr’s Mill in Silloth, it is widely believed that she was the first female manager in a British roller mill.
Women in Milling Timeline
2001-2022
2001
Sherry Grace become the first woman to win the nabim/UK Flour Millers gold medal for research to help advance the milling industry. Her dissertation was on fumigation.
2003
nabim/UK Flour Millers take over from City & Guilds and run the flour milling training courses and examinations.
2020
Clarks Mill, Wantage, run by Emily Munsey, saw flour production rise four-fold during the pandemic
2021
99.8% of British households buy bread and flour is used in about a third of all foods produced
2021
nabim rebrands as the UK Flour Millers
2022
Mildred Cookson returns to Mapledurham as miller
2002
The Mills Archive Trust is founded by Mildred and Ron Cookson
2006
First session of the Advanced Milling Diploma run, offering industry specific training beyond the distance learning course
2014
Eva Janning from Rank Hovis was the first woman to complete the Advanced Milling Diploma
2015
Average consumption of flour in the UK is 61g per person per week; that of bread is 543g per person per week.
2017
There are 32 member companies of the UK Flour Millers and 53 operating mills
2020
Covid-19 strikes; first lockdown begins 23 March; baking becomes the nation’s favourite hobby during lockdown; pre-packed flour sales reach new heights for both roller and traditional millers
2021
Sue Freestone, Office Manager at Allinson Flour Mill received an MBE from the Queen in recognition of her contribution to the industry particularly in respect of services during Covid-19
