Frogmore Paper Mill is in a very precarious situation and it is vital that it is saved as an important piece of Hemel Hempstead’s, Dacorum’s, Hertfordshire’s and the nation’s heritage.
Frogmore Paper Mill in Apsley is owned and run by the specially formed Apsley PaperTrail charity. The charity was formed by Peter Ingram, MBE, a well-known personality in the print and paper industries. He started working straight after school at BPC, then went on to publish the trade magazine Paper Focus, also supporting the industry and providing education resources, and ultimately leading to his work to preserve the mill.
He earned his MBE for his work for services to Paper Making Industrial Heritage by conserving and developing this vital piece of industrial heritage. Frogmore Paper Mill is a hugely important piece of Hertfordshire’s and the nation’s history, and its contribution to the world. It is the very first location in the world that paper was made by machine after 1800 years of handmade paper.
This mechanisation led to paper and thus printed material becoming affordable, leading to an explosion of literacy, education and advancement around the world. Paper has become integral to our lives in a myriad of ways and if you extend the thought, the literacy it allowed has led to our ability today to have computers and mobile phones For services to Paper Making Industrial Heritage.
It is vitally important that this mill is preserved. The Fourdrinier paper manufacturing process developed at Frogmore Paper Mill by Bryan Donkin is still today the process used by about 95% of the world’s paper mills. The Fourdrinier Brothers, London Stationers, who owned a share of the patent and drove the development, had a new engineering works built especially for Bryan Donkin in Bermondsey. They leased Frogmore Mill in Apsley, Hertfordshire, as the site of their new paper mill in 1803 where the first working papermachine, constructed by Bryan Donkin was installed later that year.
This is where it began. If Frogmore Mill is allowed to disappear, that is it, there is no other first.
It is now a leading heritage, community and visitor asset in the borough, providing education and community services alongside the preservation of the history. It is a living, working museum where visitors can see close up the magic of how paper is made by machine, as well as how it started in Frogmore Mill, leading to the huge paper, printing and stationery industries in what was known as Paper Valley in the local area, and the spread of literacy around the world.
The Apsley PaperTrail charity sold a different piece of land to Dacorum Borough Council in November 2013. They are now having difficulty in securing the final 40% payment. If this does not come through, it is very likely that the charity will collapse along with the loss of a vitally important piece of Hertfordshire’s heritage.
