Hello everyone Thanks to Angela and others for advice about the free newspaper trials. Using this I picked up an ad. in the "Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle' 6th December 1812 "To Millers Two men of good character, without incumbrance, the one as Grinder, the other as Flour Dresser, may find constant employment, on application to Mr Spearing, Shide Mill, Isle of Wight" I have been to the "Mill Trail" site and found that there were two mills at Shide "Upper" and "Lower". One of the mills survives as a residence. Not sure which of the two would have been the one where James Stares Spearing conducted his business. There were obviously quite a few mills on the Island. Can SKS advise if possible where on the social scale a miller would be. Was there an official "apprenticeship" for Miller, Malster and Brewer as Spearing later described himself? In 1812 he would have been in his early thirties- how long would he have trained for the job? Would he have been likely to have lived "on site" in attached premises or at some distance ? How many people would be employed in such an enterprise on an ongoing basis? What others besides the Grinder and Flour Dresser? Any thoughts or direction to helpful resources would be appreciated Lorraine

Just reading this message from Lorraine and it reminded me of a discussion a few weeks back.? Wasn't someone attempting to decipher a census entry for "flour dresser?" Now we know what that was thanks to Lorraines sharp eye in the ads. Karen -----Original Message----- From: Ken & Lorraine Neate <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, 11 May 2008 1:45 am Subject: [IoW] IOW Millers and Mills Hello everyone Thanks to Angela and others for advice about the free newspaper trials. Using this I picked up an ad. in the "Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle' 6th December 1812 "To Millers Two men of good character, without incumbrance, the one as Grinder, the other as Flour Dresser, may find constant employment, on application to Mr Spearing, Shide Mill, Isle of Wight" I have been to the "Mill Trail" site and found that there were two mills at Shide "Upper" and "Lower". One of the mills survives as a residence. Not sure which of the two would have been the one where James Stares Spearing conducted his business. There were obviously quite a few mills on the Island. Can SKS advise if possible where on the social scale a miller would be. Was there an official "apprenticeship" for Miller, Malster and Brewer as Spearing later described himself? In 1812 he would have been in his early thirties- how long would he have trained for the job? Would he have been likely to have lived "on site" in attached premises or at some distance ? How many people would be employed in such an enterprise on an ongoing basis? What others besides the Grinder and Flour Dresser? Any thoughts or direction to helpful resources would be appreciated Lorraine ************************************** You can contact the Isle of Wight List Administrator by emailing: [email protected] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message