Bolden Mill (1897) by James MillerBrown South (1856-1908), Shields Museum & Art Gallery
Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour on paper
James Miller Brown (1856-1908) Boldon Mill, 1897 Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour on paper West Mill at West Boldon was built in 1834. In 1893 a terrific gale, perhaps the Great Storm of November that year, spun the sails so fast that when the brake was applied the resulting friction and heat caused a fire that destroyed the sails and caused considerable other damage. Other mills are known to have caught fire in this manner. Today the mill is a Grade II listed building and has been converted and incorporated into a house.
Brown used the mill as a central feature in this delicate watercolour. In the foreground he showed a labourer ploughing a field on the sloping hillside at west Boldon on a late-summer afternoon. In the distance stands the distinctive spire of the parish church of St Nicholas. Before the houses were built across this area, the mill and the church were both landmarks on the open hillside.