Aylesford Paper Mills – Early view of East Mill

Hello Michael Presneill.

You ask about 1 & 2 after 1971.

I had summer vac jobs from 1973 onwards until joining full time in 1975. The first summer I worked in Key Terrain offices but often met my father (in APM west) at dinnertime for a walk around the mill. 1 & 2 were both shut at that time, still with the supercalender and reeler in the machine house. 3 was already running fluting, with its reeler out in the old salle.

74 and 75 I worked in the centre dept, and 2 was being rebuilt I think in 75. In summer 76 I worked variously on no 3 and no 6 reeler and did a stint with another student helping on the starch plant (Staper was down and we were using bagged starch), during that time the conveyor belts to take reels from 3 and 2 reelers was being installed and no 2 reeler commissioned as we went over from no3 to do a trial run once. Summer 77 I was in the tech dept mainly west mill but occasionally went to east mill – travelling by train, if it was wet I’d go in 6 loading dock through the salle and up through either 2 or 3 m/c house through the beater floor (it was often flooded under no 6 wet end), over the pipe bridge and through west mill to get into the tech dept roof entrance, 2 was making fluting then. Later, 6 and 8 closed, 2 became the liner machine (125, 150 and 200 gsm single ply) and 3 stayed on fluting.

I have in front of me the commemorative mug: ‘Aylesford Paper Mills Record Output 2600 Tons w/e 17th Oct 1983 East Mill’ . We all got one in east mill (I was in EM tech dept then after the mill was split into 2 cost centres), that 2600 Tons was off 2 & 3 machines only. One reason we got the output up was by substituting bagged cationic starch in 2’s wet end allowing the sizepress to be bypassed and so increased the dryer capacity, we could get 2 up to 10 tph on the right grade (150gsm was the best balance of drainage and dryer limitations I recall), as long as the Island could keep up!

Happy Days! (Well in retrospect mainly).

Hello again

The photos I have are uploaded on

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/151499-aylesford-paper-mills-rail-traffic/&tab=comments#comment-3832456

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Artless Bodger. Reason: wrong link

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.

Hi Paul,,

Not a problem with the time frame. I’ve got to the end of my life to research this stuff so any contribution you can make is most welcome. If anything pop’s into your head re this thread please share it with me please.

Stay safe.

Mike P.