Frogmore Paper Mill
of Apsley, Hertfordshire
See also Frogmore Paper Mill and Visitor Centre
Frogmore Mill is thought to have been in existence at the time of the Domesday Book (1086) as a corn mill
Later changed to fulling cloth then to papermaking in 1774.
It was known as Mill No 401 in the excise list.
1803 After experimenting for three years on the Didot design of machine to make paper in a continuous manner, John Gamble and Bryan Donkin installed the machine at Frogmore Mill, Hertfordshire, acquired by the Fourdriniers (Henry and Sealy) as the site for their new paper-making entreprise.
1809 John Dickinson arranged financing to buy Apsley mill and the nearby Nash Mill in 1811 where he installed and developed machines of his design which were producing some of the best and most consistent paper in the country.
1810 The Fourdriniers went bankrupt.
1817 Like Two Waters Mill, Apsley was bought by the Grand Junction Canal Co
By 1817 it had been leased by William Nash who died in 1824. It was then run by his wife until about 1830.
1851 Hugh Burgess and Charles Watt made paper from wood by a chemical process, now known as soda pulp, for a newspaper trial.
Esparto grass was prepared at Two Waters and Frogmore Mills to supply the Dickinson Company mills further downstream, (Apsley, Nash, Home Park, Croxley) when the company reorganised for the greater efficiency of each mill. Thereafter, each mill had a specific role within the production process, thus avoiding duplication.
1877-88 John Dickinson and Company leased Frogmore Mill and Two Waters Mill to prepare esparto half stuff for their other mills, for a period of 10 years after which trials of pulp production from a variety of vegetable fibres including bamboo, esparto and wood were explored at Frogmore.
1890 Sanguinetti started the British Paper Co for recycling used paper, which continued until May 2000, when the Apsley Paper Trail charity took on the site to preserve the legacy.
1971 Listed as the British Paper Co.[1]