Meet the millwright Did you know that Essex County Council (ECC) is the only council in England to employ a Millwright? Here we meet ECC’s Millwright, James Owden, who explains what his job role entails.
Have you always worked as a Millwright? Prior to joining Essex County Council (ECC) I was selfemployed and was working in the building trade. I joined ECC in 2009 and worked as a part-time assistant to Graham Robinson, the Millwright at the time, and when he retired in 2014, I took on the role and became the Millwright.
How do you become a Millwright? To become a Millwright, you usually have to become an assistant to a Millwright first in order to learn the trade. Sadly, there are no actual training courses available to become a Millwright and so there are no formal qualifications. Generally, it really is a case of learning on the job which is not to dissimilar to how it worked in years gone by as a Millwright would have taken on an apprentice who would have worked alongside them for up to seven years. After that they had the necessary skills and knowledge to become a Millwright and were free to take on their own apprentice.
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