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

I’ve now added some photos that I found on google maps, these had been added a few years ago with a tag of a mill employee –  I take it there were found when the mill was closing down.

The photos fantastically show the build of Nos 1 & 2 Machines which were originally Walmsley Machines.  No 1 was taken out in the mid 1970’s but No2 was making paper in its 1975 rebuild configuration with open gears and brass bearing on the 1-3 pre-dryers until the late 1990s when she was finally shut.

The Boiler house shows the Lancaster shell boilers, and their makers name from Dudley.  They were twin fire tube and as I mentioned above 2 remained as condensate ‘Hot Wells’ for many years.

The Beaters were used in the original Kraft Mill, and you can see in that photo the parts of No 1 Gantry that carried a crane that lifted bales of pulp off barges direct into the beaters.   There would be 4 gantries in total by the end of the kraft use.