Manx Section - International Molinological Index

The International Molinological Index, IMI, was an attempt in the 1960s to produce a worldwide list of Mills (both water powered and windmills) - it seems, at least in the Manx section, to have widened to include water driven mine wheels often used for pumping and ore processing on Island. The numbering would appear to be rather random both in name and location.

The Manx section was allocated to the Manx Museum to maintain and to update - Dr L. S. Garrad, now deceased, was the named individual - she had taken an interest in Industrial Archaeology and a small working group was established who produced the well researched and valuable reference "Industrial Archaeology of the Isle of Man", IAIoM, in 1972 as well as some smaller pamphlets.

The latest date I can find for the IMI was 1 September 1977 - a copy is held in the Curator's room at the Manx Museum as well as at the Mills Archive in Reading (and probably elsewhere) - this contains some 75 entries - the format of each entry is of form #num/name/grid ref (4fig ref within numbered 100km squares that for the IoM + UK correspond to OS grid squares IMI #24 = OS SC and #25 that of OS NX - there is only one entry, 25/001 for Lhen Mill as OS square NX covers only the northern tip of the Island which apart from the Lhen mill is devoid of waterpowered mills - it would appear that windmills, being few in number, were not considered

These IMI references were used in the 1972 IAIoM but though some of the entries were not mentioned in that book there were many others allocated above #74 but which numbers are not found in the printed copies. Some Mills are mentioned in other references that do not appear to have made it into this extended IMI - also the first 25 Manx entries were allocated, though not named, as place holders for waterpowered mine wheels which were at that time being researched by the Mines Research Group; those numbered 1-12 were allocated by Anders Jespersen in his 1954 publication "The Lady Isabella Waterwheel of the Great Laxey Mining Company, IoM" to the water wheels in the catchment area that provided the water for the great wheel..

Those in italic are from a MS (M.M. MD 707) list from the archive of Larch Garrad which would appear to derive from a list produced by D. Jones in the mid 1960s of all mills recorded on the 1868 6" O/S maps with her or other's (often Tom Brew's) comments as to their then state (included here in "..") - it would seem that the public IMI included only those that were well documented or for which some physical remains were present. Three articles reprinted from Minneapolis Northwestern Miller in 1899 give possibly the earliest printed overview of the then contemporary Manx mills & milling.

There is an interesting report by David J Jones in 1964 which though intended as suggestions for preservation of some of the then still remaining mills, also gives some information on the state of the remaining water corn mills in the early 1960s.

The following table is my current working list with some notes added as I research the topic

[man roll] indicates that mill was probably on a site mentioned in the early Manorial Roll
Larch Garrad's papers (now held though not fully sorted) by Manx Museum also include some working notes on the Mine Wheels - these have been added - some may correspond to the few numbered between 24/001 and 24/011
[dest] = known to be destroyed - many more mills are now lost or in some cases converted to domestic dwellings

References

[IAIoM]T.A.Bawden, L.S. Garrad, et al The Industrial Archaeology of the Isle of Man Newton Abbot: David & Charles 1972 (ISBN 0-7153-5440-X
[Jones66] Jones, D H Manx Water Mills Journal Manx Museum VII p11 1966
[Jones 69] Jones, D H The Water-Powered Cornmills of England, Wales, and the Isle of Man, A Preliminary Account of their Development - Chap 27 (pp302/354 of Transactions of the Second Symposium on Molinology, Denmark 1969