THE EARLY HISTORY OF PAPER-MAKING IN NORFOLK

David Stoker

Since the publication of Dr. Alfred Shorter's Paper mills and paper makers in England 1495-1800¹ a good deal more information relating to Norfolk has come to light. Norfolk has never had a really important paper-making industry and the trade has never exerted any lasting influence on the economy of a particular part of the county. Nevertheless there were several mills in operation in the county at the beginning of the nineteenth century which originated many years before; the early histories of these provide some noteworthy examples of the early conditions of paper-manufacture.

With the exception of two short-lived mills in the south of Cambridgeshire in the 1550s and 1664 there was no paper made in East Anglia until the last quarter of the seventeenth century, when at least one, and quite possibly two or more mills were established in Norfolk. The timing of the introduction of this trade to the area was the result of several factors giving a boost to the English papermaking industry and an incentive to those setting up new mills; the English industry having previously been extremely small compared to that on the continent. Firstly the increase in the price of imported papers brought about by the war and civil strife in France gave encouragement to home producers. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 also caused widespread immigration of Huguenot refugees, many of them paper-makers, and thus provided the English industry with an influx of highly skilled labour. Two other factors combined to increase the demand for paper in the locality of Norwich, particularly in the eighteenth century when several new mills were founded. The lapse of the 'licensing acts' in 1695 meant that printing was able to spread to the provinces, being established in Norwich in 1701 by Francis Burges. Almost immediately Burges began to publish a weekly newspaper, and within seven years there were three newspapers plus a large number of other publications being produced in the City. The demand for white paper suitable for printing must have increased considerably in the area at this time.

Paper and board were not only required by the book trade but were also used in large quantities by the woollen industry for pressing, finishing, packing and wrapping purposes. Shorter has shown the connection between the location of the paper-making industry and the more important woollen and cloth making districts, of which Norfolk was one of the foremost throughout the eighteenth century.² Without doubt the growth of the worsted industry in Norwich between 1710 and 1790 gave considerable impetus to local papermaking. Steam power was not introduced to the manufacture of paper until the early years of the nineteenth century, water wheels having produced the source of power before this time. Large quantities of water were also required during the manufacturing process. Taken together these factors ensured that all eighteenth century mills were sited where there was a 'good head of water'. That is on the banks of rivers with water pure enough to be used and with currents which were fast enough to operate the machinery in the mill. There were several mills strung along the river Wensum above Norwich but this is the only area in Norfolk where there was anything like a concentration of mills, others were sited as far apart as Castle Rising in the north-west, Sheringham in the north, Oxnead in the east Thetford in the south-west and just over the border with Suffolk at Bungay in the south-east.

CASTLE RISING

The earliest reference to paper-making in Norfolk appears to be in a deed in the archive of the Howard family of Castle Rising, the document is dated 11th May 1695 and refers to a fulling mill converted to a paper-mill.³ In 1707 there is a reference to 'Herbedge for ground at ye paper Mill',⁴ and a third early reference in another deed from the Howard archive.⁵ This states that from 20th November 1713 John Holdsworth of Castle Rising, paper-maker, rented 'all the paper mill situate lying and being in Castle Rising with all gardens, waters, streams of water passages, ways and appurtenances' for £14 10s. per annum.

The mill was at work until 1722, when the paper-maker had a serious dispute with the neighbouring corn-miller on the estate. The Norwich Gazette for 21st July of this year reported 'yesterday were committed to the Castel one Jeremy Holmes of Castlerising and Richard Gibson his servant, both millers for firing a Paper-mill in the said Borough'. Apparently the cause of the dispute was that the paper-mill had been used for grinding corn. No more details were given and the fate of the millers is unknown, except that five years later the paper-mill was still in ruins and Holmes was no longer the corn-miller. In 1727 Thomas Stirke of Perio Paper Mill in the parish of Southwick Northamptonshire leased both Holmes' corn mill and the adjoining ruined paper-mill together with all rights and privileges for an annual rent of £21.⁶

Stirke rebuilt the paper-mill by 1727⁷ but once again it enjoyed a very short productive life; by 1746 it was once more in need of rebuilding. John Parrott, the paper-maker, leased in this year 'the house and piece of land where a fulling mill formerly stood' together with two small pieces of land, for twenty-one years at an annual rent of £3. By the same articles the estate agreed to pay up to £300 to 'erect and make the said mill a fit and proper Paper mill', for which Parrott agreed to pay an additional rent of £8 a year for each £100 spent by the estate. There was an extra obligation that Parrott should keep the premises in good repair, whilst the estate would provide timber towards the materials needed for this repair. The full £300 was spent in the years 1749 and 1750.

This arrangement between Parrott and the Howard estate worked quite well until 1756 when a disagreement developed between the paper-maker and Richard Fawsett, the steward on the estate; this came to a head in 1760. Fawsett's account of the affair (which may only be half of the full story) is recorded in a letter to his master.⁸ Apparently the dispute began in 1756 when Parrott tried to claim reimbursement of some workmen's bills as well as for timber used for the repair of the mill, these claims being refused. The miller then requested a new lease extending the period of operation of the first agreement, but when this was drawn up he refused to sign unless the conditions were altered to make the estate responsible for the supply of all materials needed for the repair of the mill. This request was also rejected. From this date Parrott is said to have become an awkward tenant falling into arrears with his rent and letting the mill fall into disrepair. Fawsett blamed the change in the man on an illness of 1756 which had left him 'ill affected in the head'. Parrott's son, 'a sober and industrious young man', is reputed to have complained to the steward that the Mill 'was so much out of repair that they could not do half the work they might', and that the family would be ruined. At the same time he claimed that if his father would only let him manage the business he could maintain the family and save money. Once again the result of this dispute is not recorded, although Fawsett continued to be employed as the steward to the estate for several years.

Castle Rising mill must have been repaired, for twenty five years later it was once again in need of attention, for modernisation and extension. The papermaker at this time, John Lewis, wrote to Richard Howard, the owner of the estate, three times suggesting extensions to the mill and the renewal of his lease.⁹ One letter of 1786, one of 1787 and a third undated document of the same period give detailed improvements and offer to pay a rent of 5% of the capital cost on top of the existing rent of £27 a year. At about the same time Richard Howard was making his own enquiries into the condition of paper-manufacturing in the country, and had written to his friend Lewis Bagot, then Bishop of Norwich, on the subject. The Bishop's reply to this letter is dated 18th December 1785 which together with another letter enclosed, throws some light on the paper-mili at Thetford and another in the vicinity of Norwich.'¹⁰ Bagot mentions that the expense extraordinary of preparing a mill to make the finest paper was about one hundred pounds. Apparently the Castle Rising mill had not been making the finest grades, and Richard Howard was forming plans that it should.

There is no other lease concerning John Lewis in the Howard papers, but it is nevertheless quite likely that his scheme was adopted. Shorter notes that Lewis insured the mill against fire in 1788, and Lewis's name appears in Norwich polls as a paper-maker at Castle Rising from 1776 until 1806. Lewis's son John Edward became a Freeman of Norwich as a paper-maker in 1805 and his vote is therefore recorded along with his father's in 1806. The family remained at the mill until at least 1830 when James and William Lewis are described as the proprietors.¹¹ ' By 1836 the mill was being worked by Richard Munn & Co. also of the Thetford paper-mill, who continued there until after 1845.¹² After this date Castle Rising mill appears to have closed and is not recorded in the Norfolk directories of 1854 or later.

TAVERHAM

Taverham paper-mill, which was later to become the most important mill in the county, probably started life in the closing years of the seventeenth century. The earliest reference to the mill is in a small booklet by Francis Burges, published by way of the justification of his introduction of the craft of printing to Norwich in 1701. Answering the criticism that paper was more expensive in Norwich than in London, Burges stated that 'paper tit for printing' could be obtained from 'Tabram' cheaply.'¹³ In all probability the paper-maker to whom Burges was referring was William Paultlock who was there until 1711 when his death was announced in the Norwich Gazette of 25th August. The advertisement containing this announcement shows that Paultlock also worked a corn-mill; all persons indebted to him were required to pay their debts to his executor, 'or else they will be sued'.

The succeeding ownership of the mill remains a mystery until 1758 when John Hamerton & Co. the paper-manufacturer at that time is recorded as having an apprentice named John Golden.'¹⁴ Hamerton insured the mill in 1768 and shortly afterwards took a man named John Anstead as his partner in the operation of both the Taverham and the Lyng paper-mills.¹⁵ The partnership expired in 1783 and the two men parted on friendly terms, Hamerton taking the Lyng mill, and Anstead that at Taverham.¹⁶ A paper-maker named Isaac Brown from Taverham is also known to have died in 1776, he appears to have been illiterate (his will being signed only with a cross); he was perhaps one of the journeymen.¹⁷

Anstead continued as the proprietor of the mill until 1786, when his furniture, stock and trade (including dairying and brewing utensils, horses, cows wagons carts and ploughs) were advertised to be sold in the Norfolk Chronicle for the 29th April. The next owner of the mill is not known, but it is marked on a map of Norfolk published by Faden in 1797.

The mill attained its fame and importance in the early years of the nineteenth century when it was taken over by a partnership of two Norwich businessmen Francis Noverre and John Gilbert, and the famous Norwich printer Richard Mackenzie Bacon. The three partners invested large sums in the modernisation, and on 1st July 1807 Taverham was one of the first paper-mills in the country to be supplied with the newly patented Fourdrinier paper-making machines.'¹⁸ In this case the machine cost more than £1,000 and served four vats. It worked on the basis of producing a continuous roll of paper on a belt of wire moulds, rather than the old hand-method of producing individual sheets. It was only during the drying process that early machine-made paper was cut into sheets.

Despite the large sums of money invested in Taverham mill the whole project was a disaster and the partnership was dissolved in 1812. The exact reason for the failure is not clear but may have been caused by teething troubles with the early design of the machine.

In 1830 the mill was run by Robert Hawkes & Co., and from around 1836 by the company of Day and Robberds who also operated the mill at Lyng.'¹⁹ In 1845 the manufacturers were Messrs. Blyth and Milbourn,²⁰ being taken over the following year by Delane Magnay & Co. who also operated the nearby Bawburgh paper-mill. From 1846 until the late 1880s the mill was at its zenith, using eleven steam engines as well as three water-wheels and employing an army of over one hundred workers. Paper was made for the 'Times' newspaper and for the 'Oxford English Dictionary'. From 1890 the mills were again under new ownership, this time by J. H. Walter & Co. who operated until 1899 but were unable to make either mill pay and closed them down.²¹

OXNEAD

There was a paper-mill at Oxnead several years before 1716; in that year one of the early paper-makers, William Seaman, died. It is not known whether or not Seaman was the first occupant, or if this mill pre-dates either of those already mentioned. An inventory of the goods of Seaman survives in the Norwich Archdeaconry series, but this had been badly damaged, and that section reading 'in the mill' has been almost totally destroyed.²² The only lines legible being; 'All the paper - - - work House wad - - - . . .£12 00 00.' and 'All the paper s - - - zing in the loft . . .£9 00 00.' It appears that the mill passed to Seaman's son because Shorter notes that in 1717 William Seamen of Oxnead, paper-maker, took an apprentice named James Dey.

It is not clear who owned the mill until 1748, when John Pollings the papermaker buried his daughter, and 1762 when he died.²³ If Pollings was the master, he must have retired in 1758 when Oxnead mills were advertised to be let in the Norwich Mercury of 9th December. The terms of the advertisement throw some light on how the mill obtained its raw materials and transported the finished product.

'Oxnead Mills, are now to be Let for any Term of Years not exceeding Fifty, (the Tenant to do all Repairs and have Liberty to Assign) being an old established and well accustomed Paperwork, commodiously situate on a constant regular stream. Nine miles from Norwich, five from Northwalsham, three from Aylsham, and four from Coltishall, to which last Place, Junk and Materials may be brought up by Water from Yarmouth, and Manufactured Goods carried down at the very least Expense; and from whence they may also be conveyed by Navigable Rivers to Norwich, Beccles, Bungay and several Places of Note . . .'

Transportation costs of both goods and raw materials were an important consideration to anyone contemplating opening a manufacturing business in the countryside at this time.

The next references to paper-making at Oxnead are in 1779 when the mill was insured by Joseph and Daniel Ames, and William Parkinson, a partnership who also operated the mill at Hellesdon.²⁴ In 1802 a man named John Threadwell is listed on a Norwich poll as a paper-maker at Oxnead, and around 1822 the mill was converted to the manufacture of 'duffield blankets'.²⁵

STOKE HOLY CROSS

Like the mill at Oxnead the earliest reference to a paper-mill at Stoke is at the time of the death of one of the paper-makers. The mill was therefore founded before 1727 when Abraham Caught the occupant died. As the mill was not mentioned by Francis Burges in 1701 it can be reasonably assumed that it was founded after this date. There is a very full inventory in the Norwich Consistory Court series listing Caught's affects, and his will is also extant.²⁶

The inventory shows that Caught did not rely solely on the manufacture of paper for his livelihood, he owned several animals, crops and farming equipment. His stock is listed as paper of brownsorts' valued at five pounds and paper of white sorts' valued at six. Also mentioned are scales, weights, moulds and felts, together with 'three tunn of paper stuff'. The 'stuff' being the rags after washing and perhaps rotting; prior to suspension in water. The three tons were valued at twelve pounds.

The sum total of Caught's inventory is £208 1605, quite a respectable sum in 1727, but before one is tempted to conclude that he made a lot of money from his business, there is attached to the inventory 'An account of what money Mr. Caught stoed indebted when he died Aug 27th 1727'. This second document lists debts totalling £191 07 03 1/2 leaving a surplus of less than £20. Most of the debts were of the kind that might be left by any man, servants wages, repair work to the house, and various other small bills; but some of the items are of interest to Caught's work. Five pounds six shillings was owed 'to the king for excise' and twenty eight pounds seven shillings 'to Mr. Woodger for interest on the mortgage' (probably on the mill). Two further items show what Caught paid for the rags he needed as raw materials, 'To Mr. Wilch of Yarmouth for four tunn 4 Hund and 1 Quarter of Paper stuff' £16 17 00., and 'Pd Mr. Marsh for paper stuff' £9 16 00.

It is also apparent that at the time of his death Caught had quite a large sum of money tied up in equipment, in finished paper awaiting delivery, in raw materials, and most of all in debts due to him (presumably for paper already supplied) which alone amounted to nearly fifty pounds. The problem of providing enough capital to invest and keep making paper whilst still awaiting the receipts from earlier manufactures must have caused serious financial worries to any man setting up in such a business as the manufacture of paper. Perhaps many of the early mill owners or tenants kept a precarious balance, like Caught, between the monies owing to them and their own debts, often being close to bankruptcy. This may be the reason why Caught (and William Paultlock at Taverham mill) continued with another trade at the same time.

By 1744 the mill was in the possession of Villers Brooksby a surgeon and paper-maker.²⁷ The Norwich Mercury for Saturday 26th May 1744 reported;

On Thursday a fire broke out at Stoke Paper-Mill-House in the Day time and burnt it to the ground with part of the Mill. The damage is computed at several hundred pounds. But what is most shocking, a great many things, which were rescued from the merciless flames and carried into the adjacent meadows were in great part of them stolen and carried away by persons unknown.

The report of the fire in the Norwich Gazette added that an engine worth one hundred pounds had been burnt down. The following week (June 2nd) Brooksby advertised in the Norwich Mercury that he would be rebuilding the mill and appealed for help from certain local gentry.

The rebuilding took place and the mill was again equipped with one of the early 'Hollander' beating engines to separate the cellulose fibres in the rags. In 1747 the mill was advertised in the Norwich Mercury of 24th October to be let. The mill soon began to produce paper again and an advertisement in the Norwich Mercury 29th April 1748 claimed that William Larger who had lately worked at the paper-mill had broken into and robbed the house of John Cooper, citizen of that town. Possibly the master at this time was the Mr. Denny whose death is reported in the same paper on April 4th 1767.

The next proprietor appears to have been Henry Cook who is first noticed by Shorter in 1772. It was the slightly bizarre antics of this man that brought the mill once again into the public eye four years later; these can be best described in Cook's own words from an advertisement in the Norfolk Chronicle for March 9th 1776.

Henry Cook of Stoke Holy Cross, near the city of Norwich Papermaker, through great Assiduity, Application, and Expence, hath invented and brought to Perfection, a Composition for the purpose of covering Houses and other Buildings, much lighter and neater than either Lead, Slate, or Tiles and more durable than either of the latter. It is neither liable to be affected by Fire, nor penetrable by Water; for the sole making and vending of which, his majesty hath granted him his Royal Letters Patent. He hath also met with such Approbation and Encouragement from many Noblemen and Gentlemen in divers Part of the Kingdom as hath induced him, to lay aside his former business and adapt his Mill &c. to the carrying on this useful and ornamental Manufactory as extensively as the very promising Prospect he hath, may require. But on the 25th January last his mill and its adjoining Premises by means unknown took fire and were entirely consumed: Hence some individual Persons, with a View to Injure the said Henry Cook, hath propagated Insinuations to the prejudice of his said Manufacture, pretending that it was impossible by any Means, to quench the fire, by reason of the inflammable nature of his composition, wherewith the Buildings were said to be covered; whereas, the said Henry Cook solemnly assures the Public, that no Part of the said Buildings were covered with the said composition, but were built of brick, and covered with pantiles, excepting a small Lean to lately erected, the spars and rafters of which were entirely consumed, whilst the covering remained unhurt . . .' (There follows a list of names of local worthies vouching for the truth of Cook's statement.).²⁸

Cook was possibly being a little premature in his statement for the Letters Patent are in fact dated 16th March 1779 and were not inrolled until the 15th June of that year. His invention consisted of a mixture of a wide variety of materials including litharge, red lead, chalk, stone, black flint, brick dust. sand and ground glass. However he obviously made use of some of the functions of the old paper mill for at one stage in the process there was added 'old junk, rope or hemp reduced to a pulp, and all worked together in water by a watermill'.

Cook rebuilt the mill and it was again advertised to be sold or let (Cook being on the premises) in the Norfolk Chronicle 19th September 1778. Shortly afterwards it is noted by Shorter that Ralph Buck insured the mill. He had been a linen draper in Norwich, but continued to make paper until his death six years later (reported in the Norfolk Chronicle 24th October 1784). Buck was succeeded first by his widow Mary, and then in 1789 by his son Robert.²⁹ The mill was advertised to be sold next in 1790 with a lease expiring in 1799. The advertisement in the Norfolk Chronicle for 20th February mentions drying houses, sizing houses, paper engines and presses and other instruments. There was still paper being made at the mill in 1801, five paper-makers being enumerated in the census of that year; however shortly afterwards the firm of Jeremiah Colman took over the premises and used it for crushing mustard seed. The mill is now a restaurant.

There is an interesting story reported by Helen Colman in 1905, about the last paper-maker at Stoke, but unfortunately she gives no dates. It seems that a man named Edward Ames used the mill as a flour mill towards the end of the eighteenth century. Unfortunately he lost a child by drowning and was so upset that he resolved to close it. After a time he once again opened the mill for the manufacture of paper, not realising that the same was subject to a Duty. A visit of inspection from the Revenue Office so much annoyed Ames that he once again determined to close it.³⁰ It was at this time that the Colman family took over.

THETFORD

The earliest reference to a paper-mill at Thetford is in 1753 when the papermaker, William Holmes insured his goods and stock. Shorter also notes that in 1756 he took an apprentice named John Hinson. The next and most informative references come, surprisingly, from the Howard family archive of Castle Rising.

In 1785 when Richard Howard was considering the future of the mill at Castle Rising (above) he asked his friend Lewis Bagot to find any information about the condition of the paper trade and the operation of other mills. Bishop Bagot in turn wrote to an acquaintance, H. Manning in Thetford, who therefore visited the local mill in the same year; his reply to Bagot is of great interest to the history of the Thetford mill and of early paper-making in general.³¹ Manning was struck most of all by the lack of information that he could obtain, 'The proprietor of our mills is at present in London, where he will make some stay, and on applying to the head work-men and millwrights employ'd by Him, I found a degree of shyness and jealousy that prevented much communication, and render'd the certainty of the little I could acquire by no means equal to my wishes.' From the information that he could obtain it appeared that the purity of the water, although a desirable asset, was not thought to be the overriding consideration in the siting of a mill. Pure water was not essential 'as they have methods of remedying any defects in the water by leaving it to settle in cisterns, and then by refining it by means of woollen strainers; or otherwise by supplying the machine, or "washing engines" where the linnen rags are very carefully and repeatedly cleans'd previous to being used for white paper, from wells or springs near the premises'. (Other contemporary paper-makers did not share this opinion; in Bagot's reply to Richard Howard this statement is contradicted by a mill owner near Norwich who claimed that 'the purity of the water is of considerable consequence'.)³²

It was the opinion of the workmen at Thetford that the main consideration for the site of any mill was that there should be a 'a good head of water' where the stream would always be strong enough to work the machinery and not subject to flooding or drought. The amount of machinery and the number of vats that could be employed was the main factor determining the mill rent. Manning was given to understand (although he dared not vouch for the authenticity of the statement) that the mill rent averaged between fifty and seventy pounds a year for each vat. There were four vats constantly employed at Thetford manufacturing different grades of paper. Manning was unable to obtain further information but offered to try again for the Bishop when the owner returned from his stay in London.

Bagot, when replying to Howard, (see above) stated that Thetford was 'the only place in this part of the world where white paper is made'; however it seems most unlikely that this was the case, although many of the Norfolk mills may have been engaged only in the manufacture of brown and other wrapping papers. John Pendred's directory of the book trade in 1785 lists mills at Thetford and Stoke Holy Cross both of which presumably were making white paper.³³

Although Thetford mill is not marked on Faden's map of Norfolk in 1797, Shorter notes that Holmes went into partnership with R. Pawson around 1791, and Pawson continued at the mill until at least 1802. Norfolk directories between 1845 and 1858 show that paper was being made at 'Bishop's mill' Thetford by Richard Munn & Co. who also operated the mills at Kings Lynn and Castle Rising. In the 1865 directory the proprietors were given as the firm of Mackay & Watson.

LYNG

Shorter notes that John Hamerton the paper-maker at Lyng took an apprentice named John Carter in 1764. Hamerton is known also at Taverham from 1758, and he was in partnership with John Anstead there, and at Lyng, from around 1770. By 1778 Lyng mill was described as 'a paper mill in which is carried a considerable manufacture and in which a great number of hands are employed throughout the year'.³⁴ In the same year Parson Woodforde visited the mill and bought one half of a quire of writing paper for five shillings. He was shown the machinery by Hamerton and thought it 'indeed very curious'.³⁵

Unfortunately within eight months the mill had been burnt to the ground, the Norwich Mercury of 3rd October reported that a fire on the previous Sunday, had within a few hours destroyed the mills, the adjoining offices and tall the stock contained in them. Throughout the eighteenth century paper-mills were particularly prone to fire, largely due to the combustible nature of the rotting rags. By 1781 the mills were nearly rebuilt³⁶ and in 1783 the partnership between Hamerton and Anstead expired and the former once again took over the sole control of the business at Lyng. An advertisement in the Norfolk Chronicle for 1st February 1783 lists the whole range of types and sizes of paper available from the mills.

John Hamerton died in 1800 and his successor, Thomas Hamerton, was declared bankrupt only four years later; the mill then passed to John Abbot Dusautoy from Romsey, Hampshire.³⁷ Dusautoy is of particular interest because soon after moving to Lyng he published a book. The paper-maker's ready reckoner; or, calculations to shew the prime cost of any ream of paper was printed at Romsey in 1805 'for, and sold by the author at Lyng paper-mills. . .' This work was not produced for the general public but compiled from the experience of the author to assist other paper-makers 'to save time and prevent others selling at random, often at or even under Prime cost to their own evident injury and that of the trade in general'. The author's experience did not come cheaply for he charged five guineas for a small octavo pamphlet of thirty four pages, a price which would seem excessively high even today. However the copy of this work in the Colman & Rye Libraries in Norwich bears witness to the undoubted usefulness of the publication, for in places it is covered with an owner's calculations, and has also been well thumbed. (This copy is signed by the author and may perhaps have been used by him?). From the tables it is apparent what considerations needed to be taken into account when pricing different grades of paper.

One of the most important elements in the calculation of the price of finished paper was the wastage, the difference between the weight of rags and the weight of paper that was produced. Rags were bought by weight and priced according to their quality, the finished paper being sold according to the weight per ream. It was therefore essential to take into account the wastage when calculating the cost of rags that had been used to make a given weight of paper. This could vary between one pound in four and one pound in eight depending on the quality of the rag used. Rag which wasted at one-in-four was valued between ll/2d and 51/4d per pound, one-in-six at between 31/4d and 7d, one-in-seven and one-in-eight at between 5l/4d and 9d. One ream of finished paper might weigh anything between five pounds and twenty three pounds depending on its quality.

Dusautoy lists also the following expenses for the paper-maker but does not specify how much each contributed, giving only one table for their determination. These are rent, taxes, insurance, repairs, wages, interest, fuel, candles, stable expenses, travelling, utensils (moulds, felts, planes, boards and levers) bad debts, oil, lard, soap, flannel, packing paper, various kinds of stationery and finally the duty.

The last table is one to calculate the wages of the journeymen paper-makers on either a fixed weekly wage or by piece work. This tables assumes a six day week and that the wages would vary from between twelve and thirty shillings for that work. On piece-work payment would vary between ll/4d and 3d for each 'post' of paper produced (that is for a pile of sheets of paper, interleaved with felts, ready for pressing and drying, the number of sheets varying with the size of the paper). The range of payment would be caused by the fact that there were three different jobs involved; the vatman who made the sheet, the coucher who removed it from the mould, and the layer who pressed and drained the water. The vatman would be paid more than his colleagues as his job required considerably more skill. The table also shows that a team of men working on piece-work would have to produce twenty posts each day to earn as much as men on a fixed rate (taking the average figures from each scale). Possibly this was therefore the quantity of work produced by a team of men at Lyng in one day? (It would have taken the average journeyman five weeks before he had earned the five guineas which Mr. Dusautoy asked for his book.)

It is not clear how long Dusautoy remained at Lyng, it is possible that he was in partnership with James Rump (later of Swanton Morley mill) as the watermark 'Dusautoy and Rump 1807' is fairly common. The mill is next noticed in 1829 when Robert Hudson the paper-maker appeared before the Court of Exchequer in Norwich on 28th October; he was found guilty of producing paper at Lyng not bearing an Excise mark and therefore attempting to avoid duty.³⁸ In 1832 the mill was destroyed during machine-breaking riots, but was later rebuilt and owned by the firm of Robberds and Money until the mid 1860s.³⁹

HELLESDON

Shorter notes that Joseph Ames and Sons of Hellesdon (and also of the Oxnead paper-mill) took an apprentice named Richard Gibson in 1778. Joseph and Daniel Ames and William Parkinson, millers, paper and oil makers, cutters of wood and flock, and fullers, insured the water wheels in the mill in 1779. He also notes that Joseph Ames died in 1784 and the remaining partnership finished in 1804. After this date there appears to have been a long gap before the mill was once again used for the manufacture of paper. In the mid 1850s and 1860s Norfolk directories show that paper was once again made at the mill by the firm of W. Delane & Co. who were also connected with the mill at Taverham.

SWANTON MORLEY

In 1783 Ralph Buck of Stoke Holy Cross mill and Robert Macglashan of Norwich insured a paper-mill at Swanton Morley (Shorter). Buck died the following year and Mackglashan joined in partnership with John Edwards. Unfortunately they were very soon bankrupt and their stock was advertised in the Norfolk Chronicle of 28th April 1788 as to be peremptorily sold by auction. At this time Swanton mill seems to have produced mainly glazed paper for the use of hotpressers to the wool trade. This is shown by the fact that a fire was reported in the glazing mill at the paper-mill in 1784,⁴⁰ and the vast majority of the paper advertised in 1788 was Hotpress paper. After the bankruptcy of Mackglashan and Edwards, Swanton mill was taken over by a partnership between William Tooke Robberds, a Norwich bookseller, and Joshua Furness a paper-maker. Robberds advertised to this effect in 1790,⁴¹ whilst Shorter notes that Furness was at the mill in 1791 and he illustrates the watermark 'Furness & Robberds' as used in 1798. This firm continued into the nineteenth century, later with the addition of a third partner George Furness. The partnership was finally dissolved in 1809, an announcement being made in the London Gazette for the 18th November.

The next known paper-maker at Swanton was James Rump, who was earlier in partnership with Dusautoy at Lyng. He is listed as the proprietor of the mill in the 1830 and 1836 Norfolk directories, but neither he nor the mill are mentioned in 1845. Fortunately there is a great deal of information available on the size and siting of this mill, in the form of two plans, both of which were drawn up in the 1830s. The first of these shows the mill in relation to the river Wensum and the ownership of surrounding lands.⁴² The second is on a much larger scale and shows the ground plan of the mill.⁴³ The plans make it clear that the mill was the property of Edward Lombe Esq., but Rump owned nearby buildings and land, and was undoubtedly the tenant there.

Swanton mill can be very briefly described as a building of about 150ft by 40ft sited on a dam across the Wensum. In addition to this main building there was an attached drying house on the east bank of the river, and an attached building called 'the Sall' on the west bank. This appears to have had a furnace. The mill itself was divided into a bleach house, a sizing house, a white mill, and largest of all a brown mill. There were two water-wheels, the larger serving an 'engine house' situated in the brown mill, and the smaller serving a separate small engine in the white mill. There are also several unmarked and separate buildings that may well have been warehouse and office accommodation.

OTHER MILLS

This account has dealt only with those mills founded in the eighteenth century or earlier; there were other mills at Elsing (founded 1809), Kings Lynn (c. 18541858), Bawburgh (c. 1858-1899), three mills in Norwich (c. 1845-1904), and possibly one other at Bintry. Without doubt there is still a wealth of information on these mills, and those mentioned above that still remains to be discovered or collected .

December. 1973

1. Published by the Paper Publications Society, Hilversum, 1957. Some information given by Shorter has been used to link new material, but is not necessarily cited in the footnotes

2. Alfred Shorter Papermaking in the British Isles, (1971), 63.

3. Norfolk Record Office, Howard (Castle Rising) HOW 542/3.

4. Shorter (1957), 217

5. N.R.O., HOW 542/3.

6. N.R.O., HOW 542/5.

7. N R O HOW 199

8. N.R.O., HOW 745

9. N.R.O., HOW 766/1, 766/2, 766/3.

10.. N.R.O., HOW 748/1, 748/2.

11. Pigot & Co. National commercial directory ( 1830),534

12. WilliamWhite History, gazetteer and directory of Norfolk (1845),591.

13. British Library, Harleian MS 5910.11. fol. 151.

14. Shorter (1957), 218.

15. Shorter (1957), 218.

16. Norfolk Chronicle 1.2.1783.

17. N.R.O. Norwich Consistory Court Wills, 112 Smith 1776.

18. D. C. Coleman The British paper industry ( 1958), 197.

19. William White History gazetteer and directory of Norfolk ( 1836), 554.

20. White (1845), 786.

21. George Stephen Norfolk bibliography, (1921), 17.

22. N.R.O. Norwich Archdeaconry Inventories, 1715-16, parcel 12, fol. 104.

23. Shorter (1957), 217.

24. Shorter (1957), 218.

25. White (1836), 534.

26. N.R.O. Norwich Consistory Court Wills 154 Kirke 1727, and Inventories INV 80 A4.

27. Brooksby frequently advertised his services as a surgeon in the Norwich Gazette 1743.

28. The fire in question was reported Norwich Mercury 27.1.1776.

29. Robert Buck became a freeman of Norwich as a 'paperm[aker] ' 28.3.1789.

30. Helen Colman Jeremiah James Colman (1905), 16.

31. N.R.O., HOW 748/2.

32. N.R.O., HOW 748/1.

33. John Pendred The London and country printers, booksellers and stationers vade mecum. (1785).

34. M. Armstrong The History and antiquities of the county of Norfolk (1781), Vol. 3, (Eynsford Hundred).

35. James Woodforde The diary of a country parson (1926) Vol. 1, 220.

36. Armstrong, Vol. 3, 61.

37. Shorter (1957) gives further information on the early career of Dusautoy.

38. Charles Mackie Norfolk annals (1901), Vol. 1, 284.

39. Michael Sayer Lyng (1970), 4.

40. Public Advertiser 31.8.1784.

41. E. Goodwyn Selections from Norwich newspapers 1760-1790 (1972), 57.

42. N.R.O., N.R.S. 4182.

43. N.R.O., N.R.S. 4183. See Plate 1.