The millwright is the oldest engineering trade being the forerunner of the modern mechanical engineer. historically many famous engineers and companies started out as millwrights and many machines were created and developed by them. Water mills have existed since the roman period in the uk and wind mills since the C12, millwrights have been looking after them ever since.

William Cubitt 1785-1861.
William was born in 1785 at Dilham in North Norfolk, where his father was a miller. The family later moved to Southrepps, then to Bacton Wood Mill, near North Walsham. In 1800 William was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker and joiner, later working for a manufacturer of agricultural machinery.He invented and in 1807 patented what became the standard design for self-regulating windmill sails, then set up in business at Horning as a millwright. In 1812 he entered into a contract with Ransome & Son, the principal ironfounding firm in Ipwich, to develop their general engineering business. This he did successfully, in particular designing and installing various iron bridges and supervising the first Ipswich gasworks. He invented the prison treadwheel, installing the first one in Bury St Edmunds Gaol in 1819, followed by ones at Cold Bath Fields (London), Swaffham, Worcester, Liverpool and elsewhere. Cubitt's first waterway project was the Norwich & Lowestoft Navigation, then he engineered the straightening of the northern part of the Oxford Canal. He became Telford's successor on what is now known as the Shropshire Union Canal and on the Ulster Canal. His largest waterway scheme was the improvement of the River Servern, including building four locks and weirs. For his work as Chairman of the Building Committee and, in effect, consultant engineer for the building of the Crystal Palace, Cubitt received his knighthood. Institution of Civil Engineers. William Cubitt died in 1861 and is buried in West Norwood Cemetery.

Sir William Fairbairn 1789 - 1874
Engineer. Born in Kelso (Scottish Borders), the son of a farmer, Fairbairn left the land for England to become an apprentice mill-wright. He set up a business to manufacture mill machinery in Manchester before moving to London, where he opened a shipyard and became a pioneer of the use of iron in the construction of ships. He built the first iron-hulled steamship the Lord Dundas. When assisting Robert Stephenson in the construction of his Conway and the Menai Strait bridges in North Wales, Fairbairn developed the idea of using tubular steel as a construction material. This was both stronger and lighter than solid steel. He set up an iron-works in Manchester which produced boilers for steam engines and locomotives. He was knighted in 1869.

Andrew Meikle 1719 - 1811
Agricultural Engineer. According to his tombstone, Meikle was 'descended from a line of ingenious mechanics' and his father had invented a winnowing machine (1710), although this had not been well received at a time when mechanical contraptions were regarded with great suspicion. Meikle was the inventor of the threshing machine (1789), which proved rather more successful. He worked as a millwright at Houston Mill, on the family estate of John Rennie (1761 - 1821) at Phantassie, East Lothian. Rennie collaborated with Meikle installing his machinery in other mills. Meikle died at the age of 92 and is buried in the churchyard of Preston Kirk, East Linton.