Bromham's historic watermill

Bromham Mill, situated on the River Great Ouse three miles west of Bedford, just off the A428, and the eighteenth-century post mill at Stevington, are the two most iconic and important industrial heritage landmark sites in north Bedfordshire. Both were saved for posterity by the former Bedfordshire County Council and are now in the care of Bedford Borough Council.

Thanks to fundraising by the Friends of Bromham Mill, a new set of historical interpretation boards have been installed around the watermill’s interior. These well-illustrated and informative panels guide visitors around the site, explaining its history and how the mill worked when it operated commercially up to 1971.

Milling has taken place at Bromham since Saxon times, as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The present buildings date from the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries but based on seventeenth century foundations. They contain milling machinery and a waterwheel in working order. The last commercial operation was under the Quenby family, from 1905, by which time – thanks to the development of more efficient, industrially-powered roller mills throughout the country – milling, using  water power was restricted to the production of animal feeds. 

The mill is open to the public, free, each weekend from April to the end of October on Saturday and Sundays, plus Bank Holiday Mondays, 10am to 4pm, and is served by the Mill Café offering fresh coffee, cakes, light lunches and afternoon teas. Situated as it is next to a delightful meadow, ideal for picnics, and also an island nature reserve, the Mill is well worth a visit. There is a changing programme of art and craft exhibitions and workshops as well as children’s events. There are a range of walks and cycle routes in the area, including a circular walk taking in the unique Stevington Windmill just a few miles away.

The interpretation boards have been developed by Amanda Keen, of the Friends of Bromham Mill (seen on the right with Dave Hodgson, Mayor of Bedford, at the mill's re-opening in April 2014), with technical and historical advice, respectively, by Adrian Fett and Stuart Antrobus. In addition, prospective visitors with smartphones can download 10 audio files, prior to their visit, which will provide an audio tour around the mill.

Stuart Antrobus

For more on the history of Bromham Mill and other mills in Bedfordshire, see the illustrated book: Hugh Howes The Windmills and Watermills of Bedfordshire – past, present and future (Book Castle Publishing, 2009), or a brief history online from Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service. 

For a map, audio tour to be downloaded, walks and cycle routes and dates of events such as Apple Day (Sunday 19 October 2014) see the Friends of Bromham Mill

Carmela Semeraro (1949-2013)

Carmela Semeraro, Bedfordshire’s leading oral historian and the Oral History Society regional network representative for East England, died of cancer, aged 64, on 18 November 2013. Born on 30 August 1949 in Puglia, the area at the south-eastern tip of Italy, she moved to England at the end of the 1960s, married an Englishman, and set about educating herself. After an Access course at Bedford College, she gained a History & English Literature BA degree at De Montfort University, Bedford (now the University of Bedfordshire), while raising her family, and followed this with an MA in Women’s History at Royal Holloway College, University of London. She taught adult education Italian evening classes throughout her life.

Her interest in and support of elderly, first-generation Italian immigrants in Bedford led to her conducting a reminiscence project (1994-99) with them and her first oral history recordings. This material was later translated and edited by her to be published as a bi-lingual account (Italian/English), called Hidden Voices: Voci Nascoste: Memories of First Generation Italians in Bedford (Bedford Community Arts, 1999). This popular, well-illustrated history was underpinned by her academic research which resulted in her MA dissertation, Immigrants from Southern Italy to Bedford in the 1950s: A Gender Study of Continuity and Change from an Agrarian to an Industrial Society (1996). In 2003, she was awarded Bedford Borough Mayor’s Award, Citizen of the Year for Community Service, for her work with the Club Prima Generazione Italiani, which she set up in 1997 and led for some 16 years (until 2013).

Although having lived almost all her adult life in Bedfordshire, her Italian accent marked her off, potentially, to some native English people, as something of an ‘outsider’, despite her deep understanding of English ways. However, this was more than compensated for by her warm personality and she made friends wherever she went. When she later conducted hundreds of life-history interviews she soon overcame any suspicions and interviewees quickly relaxed, talking freely about their personal experiences.

Over the years she interviewed an enormously wide range of people from all levels of society and diverse occupations. From January 2001 to July 2005 she completed over 270 interviews with men and women who had lived or worked in the Marston Vale area of mid-Bedfordshire, for a Heritage Lottery- funded [HLF] project entitled “Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives”. From March 2008 to March 2010 she interviewed scores of Leighton Buzzard residents who had worked in the local sand industry in a project entitled “Sands of Time” for the Greensand Trust, again, an HLF-funded piece of research. In recent years Carmela has been Community Historian for The Higgins Museum, Bedford, recording over 100 interviews with members of the public across the diverse, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural local population, as part of an HLF-funded outreach programme between September 2008 and October 2013. Audio interview extracts now enrich the recently-created local history displays at The Higgins.

Carmela leaves behind a son, Paolo and a daughter, Angela (and an infant grandson, Romeo) and countless numbers of people who benefited from her friendship, kindness and inspiration. For historians of Bedfordshire she has left behind a very large body of recorded, transcribed and summarised personal narratives into which we and future generations will be able to tap for insights into life in Bedfordshire throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first century.

Written by Stuart Antrobus, who was both a friend and a colleague and summarised almost all the interviews conducted by Carmela. These interviews are accessible at Bedford Central Library and/or at Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service (BLARS), Bedford. See also the taster online sites, for “Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives” and “Sands of Time”.

James Dyer

Dr James Dyer, who died in October 2013, was a teacher, archaeologist, historian, author, life-long resident of Luton -  and BHRS member.  One of his fellow Lutonians writes of him:

"Dr James Dyer's contribution to the field of archaeology and local history has been suitably acknowledged at a national, as well as local, level.  His enthusiasm took root while he was still a student at Luton Grammar School.  James knew what he wanted to do with his life and he had the initiative to find ways to fulfil these aims.

Taking a journey across Bedfordshire with James was interesting to say the least.  He would be saying:  `you see that building over there` or `you see that mound or that track between the trees`. All would have a story attached to them that James had studied.

James' enthusiasm was passed on to many of his students.  He spent his first month's salary as a teacher on buying books for his class and that same determination to help wherever he was able never left him.  There are so many stories to be told of times when James saw the potential in young people and helped them to climb the ladder to important and differing academic roles.

This generosity of spirit was one of his greatest gifts.  Working on a joint project could have its difficulties but the one which I undertook with him was altogether positive and I was pleased to be able to call him my friend."

He was a member of BHRS Council and I shall always remember one meeting when he went straight to the heart of an issue, that had been under discussion for some time, and instantly changed its course, for the better.  I only knew him for a few years but that included a long correspondence on the effect of the terrain around Luton, which is filed safely away for future re-visiting. He was as generous with his knowledge to me as to long-term friends.