Reply To: Aylesford Paper Mills – Early view of East Mill

Regarding the photos:

My understanding is that initially no 1 and no 2 made newsprint (as had Albert Reed’s earlier mill at Tovil), the beaterfloor part nearest the river (as seen in the photos of construction) was known in my day to old hands as the ‘white beaterfloor’ and one plan and photos show breakers for pulp, and then jordans for refining driven by belts from the mainshaft below. The kraft beater floor was initially the other side (west) of the power house – the mainshaft drive extended both ways. Both beaterfloors were rebuilt at intervals – there was no indication of the mainshaft under the white beaterfloor in my time, hydrapulpers had been installed (one remained, the other I assume taken out when Staper was constructed). I think the chests here were Z1 and Z2.

However at some point they also made kraft papers – probably because they were too small and slow for newsprint, especially after 9 and 13 were built. I remember reading a report on a fibre mass balance carried out on 1 when making black kraft.

The construction photos show bird screens on both 1 and 2 stock approach, by the 70s only no 12 had bird screens, all the other machines had pressure screens. This suggests no 2 wet end and breast box were rebuilt further south to lengthen the wire part when it was rebuilt for waste based furnishes, as the breast box was quite close to the machine chest.

The tunnel under the machine house (seen in some photos under construction), between the two machines, had a hole in the end wall about 2′-3′ square that you could wriggle through to access the turbine house basement and a steam pipe tunnel through to the area by the de-aerator and wet pits.

When 2 was rebuilt no 1 was taken out, part of its dryer pit was used for the new vacuum pumps, a new silo and fan pump were installed where 1’s breast box / wet end was, and the cyclone cleaners in the end of the old drive annexe, the rest of 1’s annexe was used mainly for electrical switch rooms for no 2. The new starch tanks for no 2 were placed in part of 1’s dry end basement. No 2 had a size press roughly where the original reel-up was, a new after dryer section and the old supercalender was swung through 90 degrees to become the machine calender frame. The end wall was opened up for a hoist to pass through to take machine reels to the new reeler, outside in the old salle. Additionally solvo pulpers were installed under the size press and reel up (there was a nasty accident when a crew member feeding broke down into the reel up solvo got his shoulders jammed between the floor and the building reel, he survived but had prominent skin graft scars). This area was later comprehensively guarded.