| Collection | Muggeridge Collections of Mill Maps |
| Description | Photos of hour glass/stands, fonts, ruins, churches and church porches.
Hour Glass and Stand in the church-Cowden, Kent, 22 June 1906/Hour Glass and Stand in the church-Hurst, Berkshire/6 August 1906/Early Norman Font-Thursley, Surrey, date about 1080, 18 Oct 1905/Norman Font-East Meon, Hampshire, 22 November 1906/Norman Font-Shere, Surrey, date about 1150, 7 March 1906/Norman Font-East Meon, Hampshire, 22 November 1906, date about 1150/Norman Font-Thames Ditton, Surrey, date about 1100, 9 Aug 1905/Font-Barfreston, Kent, Sep 1913/Norman Font-Compton, Surrey, date about 1125, 25 Oct 1905/Norman Font--Alfold, Surrey, date about 1100, 16 May 1906/Old Stone Font-in churchyard, Betersfield, Hampshire, 1 June 1905/Early English Font-Witley, Surrey, date about 1200, 8 Nov 1905/Oak Font-Chabham, Surrey/Norman Font-Winchester Cathedral, by a friend, 1906/Ruins, Newark Abbey, near Woking, Surrey/St. Catherines Chapel-near Guildford, Surrey, South Side, Built 1317, 25 Feb 1906/Newark Abbey, Woking, Surrey, 17 Jan 1904/Thames Ditton Church-Surrey, 7 Aug 1905/Shepperton Church, Middlesex, 24 Feb 1904/Cobham Church-Surrey, 23 Aug 1905/Witley Church-Surrey, 24 Sep 1905/Pyrford Church-Surrey, 15 Nov 1903/Old Houses and Church Steps-Untley, Surrey, 8 Nov 1905/Old Woking Church-Surrey, March 1905/Peper Harow Church-Godalming, Surrey, 24 Jan 1906, on Lord Middleton's estate Peper Harow Park/Horsell Church-Surrey, 26 Dec 1903/The Old Church-Esher, Surrey, 11 Sep 1904/Alfold Church-Surrey, 10 Jan 1906/Church-Urseborough, Surrey, 25 July 1906/Porch-Alford Church, Surrey, 10 Jan 1906/Elstree Church-Herts, 1 July 1905/Chobham Church-Surrey, 23 June 1903/Church Porch-Chobham, Surrey, 21 Oct 1903/Chobham Church-Surrey, South West, 1902/Chobham Church, Surrey, South Side, 21 Feb 1906/Old Chained Bible-Walton-on-the-Hill Church, chain originally came from Salisbury Cathedral, 26 Dec 1905/All that remains of the old church-Ewell, Surrey, 16 April 1906/Church-Walton, Surrey, 24 Feb 1904/Ash Church-near Aldershot, Surrey, 22 March 1905/Chingford Old Church-Essex, 29June 1905/West Dean-near Seaford, Sussex, Sep 1922/Brenton-Dartmoor, South Devon, Nov 1930/Brenton-Dartmoor, South Devon, Nov 1930/Old Church-Binfield, Berks, 25 March 1910. |
| Admin history | Donald Muggeridge was born in Kent and inherited his father William’s enthusiasm for windmills. When Donald first became interested in mills, there were still more than 200 windmills at work in England. Having been involved in his father’s expeditions to photograph mills, Donald began his own photographic collection from the 1930s. In 1933, Donald met Syd Simmons, a fellow enthusiast, with whom he set off to track down and photograph mills across the country. They also shared information and duplicated photographs taken by one another on separate expeditions.
Donald and his later wife Vera, whom he met in 1936, spent their spare time cycling about the countryside together looking for windmills, watermills, columbariums and direction posts; in fact anything that was part of 'bygone' England. Vera was particularly interested in the furniture of old churches.
Donald succeeded in taking several interior shots, particularly in Essex, Kent and Suffolk, before the advent of the flash bulb. This could only be done by using magnesium ribbon or flash gun, or by relying on natural daylight, an exposure time of about 20 minutes and a small aperture for better definition.
During the war, Donald volunteered and was sent to the Cavalry Barracks in Canterbury but continued his trips in search of mills while he was off-duty. In May 1940, he was on the Dunkirk beaches, but returned without injury to marry Vera in Surrey. Donald returned to Kent in 1943 for officer training, but managed to visit mills within a ten mile radius on foot. While part of the armoured division making its way from Normandy to Berlin, he even managed to take about 400 photos of mills in Belgium, Holland and Germany and returned home in 1946.
Donald, Vera and their son Derek settled in Surrey after the war, but decided to emigrate to Canada in 1956. After losing his job due to a change of government, Donald and his family moved again to California, where both Vera and Donald worked until retirement. Derek became a successful aerospace engineer and is now Associate Vice President of Research and Dean of the Faculty of Science at Okanagan University College in Canada.
Despite living in North America, Donald returned to Britain in 1958, taking pictures of mills in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. In 1961 he continued his research in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Buckinghamshire. At Chinnor in Oxfordshire he took another four pictures of the mill he had been snapping since 1932, making a total of 28 photographs of this mill alone over a period of nearly 30 years.
Donald later made available the research into mills of Surrey and Essex which he had been hoping to publish prior to the Second World War. These notes and photographs became a significant contribution to Windmills of Surrey and Inner London by Kenneth G. Farries and Martin T. Mason (Charles Skilton, 1966) and to Farries's five volume unique treatise Essex Windmills, Millers & Millwrights (Charles Skilton, 1981-8). More recently Trevor L. Stainwright drew on Donald's collection of photographs for his Windmills of Northamptonshire & the Soke of Peterborough (WD Wharton, 1991).
Donald has gradually transferred his negatives to the Templeman Library. Prints have been made of the English and Welsh counties from Anglesey to Yorkshire. Donald is a regular correspondent with the Templeman Library, and takes an active part in the work and promotion of the Muggeridge collections. |