by Bud Warren
On October 25th and 26th tide mill enthusiasts were delighted with a well-rounded, two-day program about New England and European tide mills. The conference title was TIDE MILLS GALORE: From the Piscataqua to the Merrimack. Seventeen speakers shared findings of their research about early mills and current explorations to harness tidal energy. Participants enjoyed a low-tide field trip to view sites of seventeenth century mills and the chance to walk among the rocks of a tide mill dam in Kittery, Maine.
Friday was all about mills of the Piscataqua River region and gave time for informal presentations by local savants. Deb Knowlton set the stage by describing cultural and family aspects of milling in early New England. Deane Rykerson, Fred Perry and John Viele focused on Kittery’s Spruce Creek and Chauncey Creek mills. John led the group out on the ruins of the Thompson’s tide mill dam. New Hampshire’s Winnicutt River mill was explained by Nathan Hazen, and Craig Musselman shared the seven or eight mills in Rye, N.H. Jim Cerny described New Castle Island’s two tide mills and led a look-and-see session at one site.
Saturday was set aside for the experts. Erin Bell and Martin Wosnik, from the Engineering Department of the University of New Hampshire explained how the new bridge between New Hampshire and Maine is being used to study sustainability and tidal energy, while Lauren Smith from the University of Maine’s Department of Engineering talked about her work in France and in New Hampshire to explore harnessing tidal power. Earl Taylor of the Dorchester (Mass.) Historical Society laid out the story of Boston’s early tide mills.
There were international visitors, too. Damian Goodburn, an archaeologist with the Museum of London Archaeology, described his work on carpentry techniques used in Anglo Saxon era tide mills, and Ewan Sonnic, from Brittany, shared the results of his worldwide inventory of over 1,400 tide mills.
After lunch on Saturday Jesse Cofelice reported about her work on the Seabrook, N.H., Greele Mill, and Tim Richards described his efforts to document a tide mill in Truro, Mass. Bud Warren’s final presentation shared TIDE MILL INSTITUE’S decade-long effort to preserve the important Peveril Meigs tide mill research collection.
TMI is working to gather the visuals and reports of each conference presentation and to make them available to members. Link to 2019 conference program handout.
Some conference photos
Jim Cerny points out features of the Bell/Ritson tide mill site in New Castle, N.H. (John Goff photo). 
Bud Warren narrates during the Friday afternoon bus tour of tide mill sites in Kittery, Portsmouth and New Castle (John Goff photo). 
Lauren Ross explains her study to determine optimal siting locations for a tidal energy project (Kerr Canning photo). 
Bud Warren tells the story of acquiring the Peveril Meigs collection of tide mill research materials (Kerr Canning photo). 
Damian Goodburn, archaeologist at the Museum of London Archaeology, describes some early English tide mills (Kerr Canning photo). 
Ewan Sonnic, researcher at National Higher School of Architecture of Brittany and presenter at the conference, inspects a tide mill site in New Castle (Kerr Canning photo). 
Kerr Canning photographs a mill stone fragment at the Thompson’s Pond tide mill dam in Kittery (Ron Klodenski photo). 
Ben Merry demonstrates the working saw mill model he recently restored (John Goff photo).
Thank you for the conference report. I greatly enjoyed the event.
Richard
I would like to have met Kerr Canning, but other commitments made it impossible to attend.
Rob Miller, for the Canadian Chapter of SPOOM
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.
Didn’t go this year; but aren’t we ready to restore working tide mills that generate and distribute energy to the tenants of restored mills? None of the politicians who show up have sponsored ‘start-up’ legislation or resolutions for the State Energy office to the best of my knowledge.