Latest News

 

Brooking Collection looks for new home

If you have the time, please take a minute to sign the petition:
0 rate vat for recycled, secondhand and antique goods

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/2544

 

St James Priory, Bristol's oldest building, repair project completed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-14266820

 

2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

Please follow the above link if you would like to donate to the Japanese Red Cross 

 

  

 

 

  

Latest film work

Current projects include Naked Ape and the film, Iron Lady, with Meryl Streep playing Margaret Thatcher.  An interesting article on the British film industry with which we tend to agree: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/mar/25/film-industry-cbi-economy-rebalance



The latest films where you can catch a glimpse of Robert Mills stock include the black comedy, Burke and Hare, the story of the infamous 19th century grave robbers who find a lucrative business opportunity in providing cadavers to an Edinburgh medical school. More obvious props provided include a Victorian backfitting provided for the tavern scenes. You can also see a beautiful run of gothic linenfold panelling (since gone to the States) in Madonna's new film, W.E., which tells the story of Wallis Simpson and the parallel life of Wally Winthrop (no release date as yet).

 

Claire Danthois at Robert Mills Architectural Antiques
September to October


Bristol artist Claire Danthois is at the forefront of the sustainable design movement and expresses her personal belief in environmental responsibility through the creation of provocative, functional sculptures built exclusively from reclaimed materials. Danthois’ philosophy is rooted in the belief that the former lives of found objects provide a rich context and an intrinsic beauty that enhances her work.

Following a successful viewing on the 16th September, Claire's work will be on display until the 28th October with some items staying longer.

Danthois began her foray into the arts at Filton College in Bristol, where she received high marks in Art & Design courses, later graduating from Plymouth University in 2007 with a degree in 3D Design Making. Finding inspiration in human anatomy and the natural world, Claire began working with metals during her time at Plymouth shaping furniture into organic forms using steel rods. This experience fueled Claire’s further exploration in building three-dimensional forms, ultimately resulting in her reclaimed timber series titled "Once Discarded". Danthois first gained recognition in 2007 for the "Once Discarded" collection; the "Once a Door" chair in particular was awarded first place in British newspaper The Guardian’s "Top 10 Eco Furniture" article and METRO Home magazine named it one of "Finest Recycled" designs of the year.

"When using reclaimed materials I feel as though I am also reclaiming a small part of the soul or spirit of the original object and that this adds meaning to the work," said Danthois. "In a world in which disposability has become commonplace, it’s comforting to know that items of value may be created from objects that others may feel have outlived their usefulness."

Claire’s works have been displayed primarily in London, at the Eco Design Fair, New Designers Fair and The Islington Contemporary Art Fair, to name a few. In late 2007, Claire’s award-wining piece, "Once a Door", was exhibited at the Utterubbish SIT UP [re]Design in Singapore. A recent project was a collaboration with Newton Vineyard entitled "Re-Inspired Elements: A Tasting Installation." A limited edition series of five wine tasting bars, "Re-Inspired Elements" (one of which is currently installed here in Bristol ) reflects the parties’ shared philosophy of an artistic interaction with nature. This will be on display in Bristol until it goes to its new home in October.

In partnership with Robert Mills Architectural Antiques, Claire is currently producing custom commissions of her award-winning "Once a Door" chairs. In the coming year Claire aims to create a series of other pieces of furniture as part of her "Once Discarded" concept. Claire Danthois currently resides and works in Bristol, where she hopes to ultimately design and build her own sustainable home.

An exhibition of some of Claire's work runs at the showrooms of Robert Mills September to October.

 

 

 

 

Robert Mills Ltd has teamed up with Mylands to become the predominant supplier of Mylands products in Bristol and the South West. Please see section ZZ. Our Mylands products are also available to buy online; please click here for our online Mylands store. This will take you away from our main site.

 

Robert Mills latest film work

If you're planning on going to see the new Robin Hood film, starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, be sure to look out for some of our pieces. 

 

The film, in cinemas now, used a couple of our Victorian bibles, and gothic quatrefoils.

  


Other films we've been invloved with recently are Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (out earlier this year), and St Trinians 2 (out last year). Nanny McPhee features some of our holophane light fittings in a shop scene and St Trinians hired out six pairs of large stained glass windows. Another film to look out for is Burke and Hare, due to be released later this year, a black comedy about two 19th century grave robbers. See if you can spot our mirrored backfitting!

We also recently hired out an arched Grisaille window, below, to the Bristol Old Vic. It was used in their production of Juliet and her Romeo.

 

 

 

Tenovus Cafe reopens in Bristol

Robert Mills Architectural Antiques was the main supplier of café furniture for Tea With Us on Whiteladies Road in Bristol, which was reopened on Thursday 10th December after a re-fit by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen .  Previously known as Coffee Plus, the café is the first such venture of the cancer charity Tenovus.

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, patron of Tenovus, supplied the wall paper and lighting from his own range of interior décor and completely redesigned the downstairs room.  The furniture on the main floor was all sourced from Robert Mills, with 150 year old English Oak pews from Wales, antique tables from the Victorian era to the 1930s and chairs from the 1890s, 1920s and 1950s.  The scheme gives a shabby chic feeling of relaxed traditional coffee house within a luxurious burlesque canvas of colours and ornament.

Tenovus aims to prevent, treat and help find a cure for cancer. It offers support, advice and treatment for cancer patients and their families.  Tenovus funded scientists were the first to develop the use of Tamoxifen, now the world's most successful breast cancer drug. The charity has an international reputation for quality and excellence at the forefront of cancer research and cancer care

“I am delighted to help this very worthy cause, and invite everyone to sample their delicious selection of fresh baked locally sourced cakes and fair-trade teas and coffees. The relaxing lounge area downstairs, with Wi-Fi access is an added bonus,” said Laurence.

http://www.tenovus.org.uk/
 

 

Banksy vs Bristol Museum

Almost a quarter-of-a-million people have filed through Banksy's Bristol homecoming exhibition since it opened in June, drawing visitors from across the UK and the world.

Held in Bristol's City Museum & Art Gallery, this exclusive show features his famous stencil street art along with installations, animatronics, sculptures and an impressive sensory display. 

The exhibition was planned in secret, with only a handful of museum staff and event organisers kept in the loop, and features over 70 pieces of new and previously unseen art. 

Banksy v Bristol Museum is on at the City Museum and Art Gallery until 31 August 2009. It is open seven days a week and entry is free. If you're planning to visit Bristol for the Banksy exhibition, why not drop in at the Robert Mills warehouse, as many others are doing?  We're only 10 minutes away by car. While in Bristol there are many other attractions to keep you busy: check out Visit Bristol's website for a long list of things to do.

 

Escape to the Country
More good publicity for the reclamation industry on national television. 

In November last year we had the Escape to the Country film crew and presenter, Jules Hudson, filming in our Bristol premises.  Our chairman, Colin Scull (pictured), was on hand to offer expert advice. 

The programme was aired at 5.15 on Wednesday 3rd June.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gothic throne on ITV


As part of ITV's West Country at Westminster programme, Simon Clemison is using our Gothic throne, stock number WA100285.

 

 

 

We took our throne down to the centre of Bristol ready for filming.

 


Simon Clemison

Presenter Simon Clemison was finding people to take part in his West Country to Westminster programme to answer the question 'If you were Prime Minister, what would you do?'

You can catch the programme which is part of the Late Debate at 11.35pm on Thursday 23rd April. 

 

 

 

 

 



Robert Mills Ltd has teamed up with Mylands to become the predominant supplier of Mylands products in Bristol and the South West. Please see section ZZ. Our Mylands products are also available to buy online; please click here for our online Mylands store. This will take you away from our main site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Mills Ltd on Grand Designs

Did you see Robert Mills Limited on Channel 4’s spin off show “Grand Designs Trade Secrets” on More 4 on Wednesday 6th?

 

Grand Designs visited Robert Mills late last year to film the trade secrets show that ran alongside last nights “Medieval Gothic style” Grand Designs. Our Chairman Colin Scull was interviewed as the UK’s expert on Victorian Gothic revival style.  The show explored how to achieve the look on any budget.

One of the stars of the show (a pitch pine Gothic ventilator) is now part of a Period Living competition, please click on the link below to have a chance of winning the piece.  

http://www.periodliving.co.uk/Competitions.aspx?Action=844869760&ID=95dc948b-953c-49c7-b6be-ff1abfb7b665

If you missed either Grand Designs or Trade Secrets there is another chance to catch both shows at 21:00 on More 4 on Monday 11th February

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Mills items to be used in Lark Rise to Candleford

Last year Robert Mills Ltd was involved in supplying props to a variety of films and television dramas.

The next to be released is the BBC adaptation of Flora Thompson’s novel Lark Rise to Candleford, starring Julia Sawalha and Dawn French, which will air on Sunday 13th January.

We hired pub dividers to the new Working Title film Hippie Hippie Shake, starring Sienna Miller, released this January. Watch out for them in the Kings Head pub scene.

 

Other productions include BBC Three’s one-off drama, Being Human, due for release in November this year, Made of Honor, a film for which we supplied a carved oak chancel screen, and Broken, which used one of our stained glass entryways and will be part of the 2008 Sundance film festival.

 

As ever, we continue to work with Bristol based Casualty, our latest piece hired to them being a plaster statue of St Patrick!

 

 

Grand Designs: Trade Secrets.

Film company, Talkback Thames, came to the warehouse on Tuesday 9th October to film for Channel 4 and More 4’s Grand Designs: Trade Secrets, the spin off from the popular architecture series, Grand Designs. Trade Secrets explores the main topics featured within Grand Designs and analyses them in greater detail.

This particular Grand Designs episode was following one Robert Mills customer’s progress with a gothic project in Herefordshire. For the follow-up show the producer wanted to investigate what and where people might be able to source original items to create their own gothic style project. Seeing Robert Mills Ltd as the market leader in gothic architectural salvage and antiques they were very keen to visit us. The series will be aired early in the new year. We’ll keep you updated when we have the schedule.

 

Colin Scull and the Talkback Thames film crew shooting Grand Designs Trade Secrets

 

Robert Mills Ltd at the CREATE Centre anniversary event

The CREATE Centre in Bristol recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Ecohome. CREATE is a vibrant environment centre which hosts a range of events and exhibitions and features an Ecohome - a purpose-built show house full of ideas for sustainable living and building. CREATE is also home to several organisations working in the field of sustainable development, as well as Bristol City Council’s sustainability teams.

                                              

                                                                The CREATE Centre and Ecohome

The event showcased several local businesses that work within the eco-friendly environment.  Robert Mills Ltd was asked to join the exhibition to show examples of its re-use of original items and to demonstrate restoration techniques.

At the CREATE centre Robert Mills Ltd was also making people aware of the Re-use vs. Recycle argument.

Re-Use vs Recycle

The concept of recycling has always been a good one.  However, now the word ‘recycling’ is being used to describe actions that are not necessarily good.  Consider the following.

The action of crushing bricks and using them as hardcore is being described as recycling. When these bricks are crushed their ‘embodied’ energy is irretrievably lost.  The embodied energy of an item is, in simple terms, the total energy that can be attributed to bringing that item to its existing state. It therefore includes the energy consumed in winning raw materials, processing them and manufacturing composite items as well as transporting materials between and within these processes. In addition it includes appropriate proportions of the energy consumed in manufacturing the machinery and vehicles involved in these processes together with the construction and maintenance of the associated buildings and roads.* A more beneficial concept of recycling the bricks would be to save the bricks and re-use them as bricks. 

Similarly, sending old doors to be pulped or turned into chipboard for cheap disposable furniture is described as ‘recycling’.  A better concept of recycling the doors would be to re-use them as doors.  Currently 2,000,000 doors are put into landfill every year in the UK. (If these doors were laid end to end, they would stretch from Bristol to the Suez Canal in Egypt.)

While recycling these doors can be a good way to save some energy and resources, we would always prefer to re-use the doors.  Re-using old doors, pews, chairs & other furniture has almost a zero environmental impact, and supports the people and skills used to restore these wooden items.  An added advantage is that old methods of construction & quality, seasoned wood will inevitably be better than anything bought new.  As stated in a recent article in US publication Architecture Week, "Not only does unbuilding (and the reuse of building materials) save resources but it can also yield higher-quality materials than are available today. Much of the salvaged lumber available through deconstruction is from the decades of old-growth harvesting — so the wood is higher in density and has fewer defects — which represents a resource largely unavailable today."*2

Examples of information we were displaying at the CREATE centre

Before                                                                            After

                   

We recently reclaimed this Victorian door and two side windows. The glass was badly broken and the wood was in need of restoration.

        

Our glass restorer, David Maggs (BA Hons Glasgow School of Art), restored all the glass with original reclaimed/recycled glass and we also restored and refinished all the woodwork. The door and windows are now on their way to a customer.

We all need to reduce our impact on the environment. Rather than buying cheap furniture, made from recycled materials (which may last 3 years or just a house move), why not spend that little bit more on a good quality reclaimed piece that will last a lifetime and look even better in years to come.

For further information on the CREATE centre, visit their website at www.bristol.gov.uk/create

 

* Source: University of Brighton Environmental Lifecycle of Buildings Research Unit (ELBRU)

http://www.brighton.ac.uk/environment/research/sustainability/elbru/embodied_energy.htm

*2 Source: Architecture Week

http://www.architectureweek.com/2007/0711/environment_2-2.html

 

Robert Mills Ltd Pew Rescue Team Charity Fire Walk Event 

Continuing its tradition of pew-centric support of local charities (after last abseiling down a cliff with a church pew for Imperial Cancer ), in April Robert Mills Ltd was helping the world renowned Penny Brohn (formerly Bristol) Cancer Care raise funds and awareness by carrying a pine pew over hot cinders. Penny Brohn is one of the leading centres in complimentary therapy and support work for cancer care. The fire walking event took place at the Full Moon Pub, Stokes Croft (coincidentally a Robert Mills customer). Chairman, Colin Scull, and Operations Manager, Paul Nash, bared their feet for the event. No one minded as it was for such a good cause.

Overall the evening was a great success and lots of money was raised. We would like to thank everybody who helped and donated money.
Anyone wanting to donate money, please make cheques payable to:
Penny Brohn Cancer Care and send care of Robert Mills Ltd.