Chris Bennett

Pictures of Notice board at Mill and the demolition of the Waste and Pulp Prep Area of the mill.
Courtesy of Peter Preston.
Does anyone know the significance of the bee on the notice board?

Thanks for your input Taff.

I was involve with a major starch trial at the mill in the 1990s. It was very ambitious, trying to replace the size press with reacted wet-end starch. Would have been great if it worked.

We were defeated by the poor general runnability of the machine.  I could not believe the accepted lost-time when we were setting up the trial – as I remember it we were told that the average output equated to 14 tns/hr but the reel-up output was more like 18 tns/hr; the difference being lost-time.

The top-wire drainage was really sensitive and when we got close to the machine I could see why. Our introduction of large amounts of polymer impacted the drainage and that was it sheet down. Most machines would have coped. Machine crews were great very patient.

It would be interesting to hear more of your experiences Taff.

Thanks for your input.

I have not been certain about the location myself. Had to separate the two South Shields Mills:

Phillips Paper Trade 1923: Hendon Paper Works Co., Ltd., Hendon Mill (8),
Hendon, Sunderland (E). N.R.S., Sunderland. T.A., “Hendon, Sunderland.” T.N., 192. Four Paper Machines, one 92 ins. two 90 ins., one 86 ins. T.S. and E.S. Writings, Envelope, Printings, Music, Cartridges, etc.; also Tinted Writings, Plain and D.E.; all qualities in either M.F. or S.C.

Also Ford Paper Works, Ltd., Hylton (83), nr. Sunderland (E). N.R.S., Hylton. T.A., ” Ford, Hylton.” T.N., 135. Four machines, 100 ins., 90 ins., 72 ins. and 60 ins. E.S. Writings, Printings, Fine News, Music and Cartridges.

The 8 and 83 in brackets refer to the Mill Excise Number.

For locations: Hendon http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw016392 Gives Grid Ref NZ 411551

Ford http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw016427  Gives Grid Ref NZ 361574 I think it could have been to the east at NZ370579

Have now found http://www.twsitelines.info/SMR/2776 which gives location as NZ35965734 so pretty well as the britainfromabove.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by Chris Bennett.

Jeffrey Nettlestead has provided the following information on Wolvercote:
In 1956, I was taken on as an Apprentice Commercial Artist by Millspaugh Ltd., an engineering Company in Sheffield. (The term ‘Graphic Designer’ was not then in common use).
One of Millspaugh’s major activities was the design, manufacture and installation of Papermaking equipment. When I joined the Publicity Dept., another apprentice was the Company’s photographer and had already been there for 2-3 years. As his junior, I helped carry and set up his equipment on photographic missions and gradually learned aspects of the art of industrial photography, to the point that, when he was conscripted for National Service around 1957, I became the unofficial photographer in addition to my position as commercial artist.
Despite my youth and limited experience, particularly in cinematography, it therefore fell to me, either in 1957 or possibly early 1958, to fulfil the Company’s requirement that a cine record be made of recently installed new plant at a Mill in Oxfordshire.
I am not absolutely certain but nevertheless fairly confident that my subsequent film recording was made at the Wolvercote Mill.
It was a 16mm black & white film with no soundtrack. To the best of my recollection, after editing, it ran for about 40 mins, and covered the whole process from suspended wet fibres through to reels of finished paper.
Regrettably, I have no idea whether it still exists.
Although it is highly unlikely that the cine recording I made is still in existence, I thought that, (assuming you are not already aware), you might be interested to know that Sheffield Archives lists a record of the minutes of directors meetings at Millspaugh Ltd., 1956-58. It seems to me that there is a strong likelihood that those minutes will contain references to the new equipment produced and installed at Wolvercote during that period.
Following my own National Service November 1958-60, I returned to complete my apprenticeship, but was made redundant early in 1961 after Millspaugh Ltd was acquired by the Swiss Company Escher Wyss. The Publicity Department was closed down at the same time.
This brought to an end my connections with the Papermaking business.
While browsing, I further discovered that Millspaugh had more changes of ownership after I left, including Sulzer Group and Ashlow Steel, before finally closing down in1979.

Thanks Daven

The book is on-line at archive .org

https://archive.org/details/wolvercotemillst0000cart/wolvercotemillst0000cart

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by Chris Bennett. Reason: Link added
• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by Chris Bennett. Reason: Link added