Frogmore Paper Mill is a working paper mill situated in

Apsley, Hertfordshire Apsley was a 19th-century mill village in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is a historic industrial site situated in a valley of the Chiltern Hills. It is positioned below the confluence of two permanent rivers, the Gade and Bulbour ...

, near

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a new ...

. The mill is on an island in the

River Gade The River Gade is a river running almost entirely through Hertfordshire. It rises from a spring in the chalk of the Chiltern Hills at Dagnall, Buckinghamshire and flows through Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley, then along the west side of Watfo ...

, which forms part of the

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter ...

. It is the oldest mechanical paper mill in the world.

History

There are no surviving records documenting when a mill was first built on the current site, but it is recorded as being a corn mill in 1086 in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

. In 1289, the mill was used for

fulling Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...

; removing oil and other impurities from woolen cloth. It returned to milling grain, then became a fulling mill once more, then finally it become a paper mill by 1774. The world's first mechanised paper machine was installed at Frogmore Mill in 1803 funded by Sealy and

Henry Fourdrinier Henry Fourdrinier (11 February 1766 – 3 September 1854) was a British paper-making entrepreneur. He was born in 1766, the son of paper maker and stationer Henry Fourdrinier, and grandson of the engraver Paul Fourdrinier, 1698–1758, sometimes ...

and engineered by

Bryan Donkin Bryan Donkin FRS FRAS (22 March 1768 – 27 February 1855) developed the first paper making machine and created the world's first commercial canning factory. These were the basis for large industries that continue to flourish today. Bryan D ...

, based upon a design by Nicolas-Louis Robert. This machine allowed continuous automated production of paper rolls. Unfortunately the £60,000 costs of developing the paper machines meant that the Fourdrinier brothers were bankrupted by 1810. For most of the 19th century, the mill was owned by the Grand Junction Canal predecessor of the Grand Union Canal. In 1851, the chemical production of paper from wood (now known as soda pulp), used in newspapers, began at the mill. From 1853 to 1887 the mill was linked to Two Waters Mill, also near Hemel Hempstead. In 1890, the British Paper Company was founded and took over operations at the mill; it fully purchased the premises in 1929. In 2000 the British Paper Company ceased operations and the Apsley Paper Trail was opened to the public. In 2008 a visitor centre was built with financial support from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. The visitor centre was badly damaged in a fire in January 2022.

Operations

The mill is run by The Apsley Paper Trail, a charitable organisation, and operated as a visitor, education and community use centre. Eleven full-time staff are employed at the mill. It has been used for various theatrical productions, including the rock musical ''

Rent Rent may refer to: Economics *Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property *Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production *Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...

''.

References

Citations Sources * * *

External links

* {{official website, www.frogmorepapermill.org.uk
The British Paper Company's Frogmore Mill
– Papers in

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

Watermills in Hertfordshire