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Part 3: The Lightbown Family and Darwen's Spirit of Intelligent Enterprise​​

Potters of Darwen: Their Development and Commercialisation of Wallpaper Manufacture: 1832 to 1875​

Introduction

The company started by the Potter family of Darwen in 1840 was one of the largest suppliers of machine made wallpaper for over a century. Their experience of calico printing was put to good use when they successfully adapted one of their machines and applied for a patent to protect their innovation. Their technical lead was short lived as a number of competitors quickly moved into a growing market that produced cheaper wallpaper in volume for the first time. The scene was now set for a rapid expansion of both styles and production levels that made both Potters and Darwen the centre for machine wallpaper printing.

The extensive details provided in Sugden and Entwisle's definitive book, Potters of Darwen 1839 to 1939, provides a year by year account of Potters progress up to 1939, its findings has been used extensively in this article. Rather than examine the minutia of its content, I shall confine my narrative to the main developments up to about 1875.[1] In particular to identify, the mills connected to Potters business, working conditions, the excise authority's treatment of the industry and the employees of Potters who went on to play a pivotal role in the development of the wallpaper  industry.

Wallpaper Printing by Machine and the Growth of Potters up to 1875

Both the Potter and Greenway families were involved in calico printing in Darwen, one of the earliest was Livesey Fold Mill established by James Greenway in 1776. His son James leased Dob Meadow Print Works in 1808, taking into partnership his two sons-in-law, John Potter and William Maude. Later John's son Charles Potter joined the business and by 1832 Charles and William Ross were leasing Dob Meadow from the Greenway's.  Using an adapted calico printing machine they began wallpaper printing trials in 1832. Later Charles and his brother Harold, together with calico machine foreman printer Walmsley Preston, continued developments and in 1839 Harold Potter, applied for the patent, as follows:

Patent Number 8302, Printing Calicoes and other Fabrics. Potter stated the nature of his invention to consist 'in printing calico, muslins or paper for paper-hangings, by means of what is known among calico printers as a surface machine… taking two or more distinct colours… further consists in the application and the use of engraved or cut or figured copper, or other metal rollers, for printing paper –hangings'.

In 1840 Charles Potter's brothers Harold and Edwin, trading as C H & E Potter took over Belgrave mill, Darwen for their embryonic wallpaper printing business. The mill was already shared by Edwin Potter and Edward Gregson, both having existing cotton weaving concerns. Initially the base paper for the wallpaper was supplied by Hilton's paper mill, also in Darwen. In 1844 coinciding with problems at Hilton's, the Hollins Bleach works in Darwen was converted to manufacture paper, with former Hilton's employee John Carlisle, its manager.

The Potters now structured their business around wallpaper manufacture. Family run businesses such as Potters were not duty bound to release its financial affairs, but the company did well and constantly adapted to maintain its success. John Gerald, son of Charles Potter entered the firm as partner in 1849 and on the retirement of Harold Potter four years later, the company's name was altered to C E and J G Potter. In 1857 founder Edwin Potter retired, with Walmsley Preston, Doctor Graham, an outside representative for the company and latterly in charge of the commercial department, together with the Hollins paper mill manager John Carlisle, were taken into partnership, the company was then known as C and J G Potter. 

1864 was an important year for Potters with the acquisition of William Snape's Livesey print works. Earlier in the same year Snape had induced master wallpaper designer James Huntington, to join him. Charles Potter, John Carlisle and Walmsley Preston all retired, meaning that the business was left in the hands of John Gerald Potter, William Snape and James Huntington. By 1875 Charles Philip Huntington and William Balle Huntington joined their brother James, in the management of Potters.  Charles and William had previously worked in a Paris distributorship used by Potters and it was the latter who the author has discovered was trapped in The Siege of Paris (see Postscript).

The improvement made in wallpaper printing machines in the period lies outside the scope of this article, but there were some interesting statistics about the growth in production at Potters. For example what cost 1s before 1839 was in 1865 produced for less than 1d. In 1851 it was estimated 5.5 million pieces were processed in Great Britain, but by 1865, when the company employed six hundred persons, the production from Potters alone was 7 million pieces. Not that Potters had forgotten traditional wallcovering was still in vogue, because in the mid 1860's they operated sixty five hand block printing tables.

Duty on paper

In many spheres it's the action of the government that can encourage or discourage innovation, it certainly was the case in the move from traditional hand crafted skills of hand block printing to machine printing of wallpaper. It is significant that Potters experimentation of wallpaper printing by machine followed the governmental excise authority's abolition of a punishing taxation on the stainers and their agreement to using rolls of machine made paper rather than sheets in the mid 1830's.

Others besides Potters were experimenting with wallpaper printing by machine, but it was only when the excise allowed continuous rolls of paper to be used that mechanisation could transform the industry. Prior to the introduction of machine made paper, wallpaper was manufactured by pasting together large paper sheets. At what stage rolls of wallpapers became standardised lengths is not known, but by the 19th century, wallpaper was being produced in 12 yard lengths, 22, 22½ or 30 inches wide, except in the colonies where it was eight yards.[2] According to Sugden, twelve sheets were used and the individual sheets were either 'Double demy' or 'Elephant'. In his authoritative work, The Taxation of Paper in Great Britain 1643-1861, Dagnall identifies 'elephant' was 23" by 28", but this would need more than 12 sheets.[3] However, 'double elephant', sized at 26" by 38½" and 'double demy', at 26¾“ by 40" would be suitable.  The latter gives more overlap, but as paper was priced per pound weight, the larger sheet would cost more. The stainers termed a completed 12 yard length of stained paper as a 'piece' and paper manufacturers generally used the term 'Long Elephant', to describe the base paper for wallpaper. A rule of thumb was that a 12 yard piece weighed 1lb.

The stainers were subject to two duties by the excise authorities. The first to be abolished around 1836 was known as 'stainers duty', it was rated at a punitive 1¾d per square yard, roughly equivalent to 12d per piece. The second was depended upon the uses or 'Class' of the paper concerned, it was charged by the paper weight and changed over time, it was repealed in 1861. Even though rolls of machine made paper were available from the 1820's, the excise dictated single sheets of paper to be used and had to be stamped and duty paid before pasting started, wasted paper also paid duty. This meant that rolls of machine made paper had to be cut into sheets to be sold to the stainers, only for them to join them back together. The stainers complained 'pasting very unsightly and causing great expense and trouble', eventually the authorities had a change of heart, the stainers explaining it 'had been refused until the French introduced them'.

A substantial reduction in duty brought about by abolition of the stainers duty would have been welcomed, but for Potters it was the allowance of paper to be used in rolls, that with hindsight can be seen as the major step allowing mechanisation to progress.

The Mills Connected to Potters

There were numerous cotton spinning, weaving, bleaching, dying and printing works sited on the River Darwen and its tributaries and it was at the Belgrave mill in Darwen, that Potters chose to set up their wallpaper manufacturing works.

Belgrave Mill
Potters took over Belgrave mill in 1840, it was already occupied by Edwin Potter and Edward Gregson, both of whom were involved in power loom weaving. Edwin's brothers Charles and Harold, trading as C H & E, set up as wallpaper printers in an unoccupied part of the mill. This was to be the base of the Potters wallpaper printing business for over a century. Securing a good source of paper would have been paramount for a wallpaper business and Hilton's large paper mill was located nearby.

In March 1861 Potters maximum weekly output was 150,000 pieces per week and averaged 110,000 pieces. Assuming each piece weighed 1lb, and 5% wasted paper this equates to an average of about 52 tons of paper was used per week and by 1865 Potters were producing over 20% more.

Hilton's, Darwen Old Paper Mills
Founded in the 1820's by Richard Hilton, a decade later it was producing tissues and hat lining paper. Noted as being 'the most extensive in Great Britain employing upwards of four hundred and fifty hands', at its peak it produced over thirty tons of paper per week.[4] Probably for trials of the new printing processes, in 1840 Potters bought Long Elephant in small quantities at 7d and 8½d per lb. In the early 1840's Hilton's got into financial difficulties, was resurrected, but in 1844 its owners Henry Hilton and Nathaniel Walsh, were in the bankruptcy court.[5] In 1847 the 'Darwen Paper Mills' and its equipment was up for sale.[6] It was then operated by Charles Edmondstone, but his tenure was short lived and by December 1848 he was also in the bankruptcy court and parts, if not the whole, became a cotton mill. [7]

Hollins Mill
By 1844 the Hollins Bleach works had been converted by Potters to make paper. It might seem that a better option may have been to combine a new paper mill with the paper staining works at Belgrave mill, but it may have been quicker to converting an existing mill with its own guaranteed water supply to manufacture paper. Former Hilton employee John Carlisle, became its first manager. By 1851 it was a substantial concern with twenty two beating engines at work.[8] By 1870 it had four paper making machines and a diversified output of wallpaper base, long elephants, newsprint, cartridges, enamel and surfaced coloured papers.[9] Besides the paper makers staple raw material of rags, it also used the relatively recently introduced esparto, with a workforce of 250.

In 1867 there were four paper mills operating in Darwen, they were 'employing 440 workmen and producing paper to the value of £170,000'.[10] Besides Hollins they were, Collins, founded 1861, South Belgrave, founded 1857 and Knott Mill, founded in the early 1840's it also had connections to Potters.

Knott Mill
During the 1830's Knott Mill was run by Edward Gregson for cotton weaving, probably the same man noted above as operating at Belgrave mill and it was in the early 1840's that Charles Potter and Co began making paper there.[11]  In 1845 it was leased to Manchester 'paper hanging' manufacturers T H Ibbotson and A F Langford.[12] In 1865 Thomas Grime, who having worked for Potters as cashier at Hollins Paper Mill for twelve years, 'took leave of the firm and conducted the business as a paper maker at Knott Mill'.[13] [14]

A possible timeline for the events noted above suggests that Potters bought their paper for their wallpaper printing business from Hilton's until its closure in 1843, when understandably they made a decision to open their own paper mill. Following, or just preceding Hilton's closure they engaged former employee of Hilton's, John Carlisle as their Hollins paper mill first manager. Assuming it would take eighteen month to two years to commission the new Hollins paper mill and that Knott Mill was already operating as a paper mill, Knott mill could have been used from 1843 to 1845 to supply paper to Potters, by which time Hollins was up and running. At that stage Knott mill was leased to T H Ibbotson and A F Langford in 1845 to produce base paper for its wallpaper business.[15]  

In the eight years following 1867 paper making was booming in Darwen, by 1875 nine privately owned paper mills and another four limited companies in the neighbourhood were at the planning stage.[16]  Experience in papermaking was easily transferred, for example John Carlisle's experience gained at Hilton's was transferred to Hollins and later to his own mill at Lower Primrose, Clitheroe. Likewise former Potters cashier, Thomas Grime's, move into paper mill ownership at Knott mill. There were also a good number of examples of Potters employees setting up their own successful wallpaper printing businesses.

Competitors and Former Employees

By 1875 four of the country's major suppliers of machine made wallpapers had been founded by former employees of Potters. The first developed an enviable network of dealer's warehouses, which may well have set a blueprint that Potters followed with amicable separation of another three former employees.

​Heywood, Higginbottom Smith and Co, Manchester

Heywood, Higginbottom Smith and Co, commenced paper staining around 1844, almost certainly by machine from the outset. It was partner Robert Smith, was said to have had practical experience of wallpaper manufacture, having 'been trained in Darwen'.[17] As this was early in the development of machine printing, he almost certainly was trained at Potters.

In 1859 it manufactured a substantial 3 million pieces, with a third more employees than Potters in the early 1860's, it could be argued that it was the county's largest wallpaper supplier. Insiders in the industry noted that the competition had a positive effect, suggesting 'a race of emulation between this house and Messrs. Potter, which had the result of greatly developing the trade and improving the character of the machine productions'. In 1865 besides its works in Hyde Road, Ardwick, Manchester, it had warehouses in London, Glasgow, Dublin and Huddersfield, plus a paper mill at Arden Mill, Bredbury, Cheshire. The company had its heydays in the 1860's and 1870's, but it did not have the longevity of Potters and in 1892 the company was wound-up.

Lightbown and Aspinall, Manchester

Working as cashier, Henry Lightbown joined Potters around 1840, having mathematical skills he became involved in their early development of the wallpaper printing machine. He later set up his own paper merchanting business in Manchester in 1847 in partnership with brother-in- law William Aspinall and Doctor Graham. The latter was a partner in Potters and showing a paternal attitude, he lent Lightbown money for the venture. Initially they confined their business to distributing Potters machine made papers, but in 1851 they started a hand block wallpaper printing shop at Pendleton. Harold Potter was a regular visitor to the works and the friendly relationships confirms Potters cooperation rather than competition.

In 1854 Henry Lightbown, his brother James and William Aspinall, set up a new factory at Hayfield Mills, Bredbury. They were quick to install wallpaper print machines and were soon working around the clock. Over the next thirty years the whole site was gradually covered with buildings, many containing print machines, later becoming one of the largest producers of cheap machine-printed wallpapers in Britain. From the early 1870's Henry Lightbown and his three brothers became directors and major shareholders in a number of local paper manufacturing limited companies, but not without a measure of controversy. [18]

Carlisle and Clegg, London

In 1848 Potters opened a warehouse in Islington run by employees Henry Carlisle, traveller, son of former partner in Potters John Carlisle, together with William Clegg, warehouseman. Following a very similar path to Lightbown their business also dealt with Lightbown and Aspinall, and London based Allen and Company, the partners by then having left Potters to become agents. By May 1862 they were manufacturers, noted as being 'all block-printing and piece work', but with expansion in mind in June they were moving premises 'where we shall have machinery'. This was to be the start of their successful venture into machine printing. They exhibited in the London based International Exhibition of 1862, they also won medals in exhibitions in Australia in the 1880's, becoming one of the 'big four' wallpaper suppliers of the later nineteenth century.

William Snape, Darwen

Former chief designer at Potters William Snape set up as strainer at Livesey Fold, Darwen in 1854. As noted above, in 1864 Potters bought William Snape's print works shortly after Snape had taken wallpaper designer James Huntington, as partner. Later that year John Gerald Potter, James Huntington and William Snape became partners in Potters. Livesey works was retained as a separate concern, known as the Darwen Paper Staining, continued under the general management of Potters.

Working conditions

The success of Potters was also in measure due to its employees, but in those less enlightened times the treatment by the stainers of its younger workers was nothing short of abhorrent. This was highlighted in 1862 when the Children's Employment Commission visited hand and machine paper stainers in the North West of England and London.[19] In the published report many details are given about the harsh Dickensian life of boys and girls as young of seven, working up to fourteen hours per day and ninety hours per week. First to be interviewed was J G Potter, who argued to curtail the excessive hours of employment worked by children, he had even drafted his own bill on the subject. His company was not against the idea of child labour, noting  'much of the work connected with paper staining being light and suited for those of tender years', but  Potter himself was adamant it should only be a maximum of six hours per day, provided the child dined before or after work.

Heywood, Higginbottom and Smith, were Potters major competitors and one of its partner's confirmed that 'ours and Potters are, I should say, the largest concerns in the trade', he also suggested 'children do work a great deal too long', but was happy to employ over seventy children acknowledging 'the men and boys are all healthy'. John Gerald Potter, his partner Walmsley Preston, and a number of his senior employees were even more forthcoming, noting that their youngest boy was seven years of age and no employee was over fifty. Preston acknowledged that children often worked fourteen hours a day, some worked full time, which could be of the order of ninety hours per week, while others were employed half time. A full time week was '57½ normal' hours, the remainder was overtime.

Those employed half-time were supposed to split their time between work, which could be morning or afternoon, and school. Preston stated 'We make it a condition of taking them for half-time that they should go to school in their spare time; they may go to any school they like and we pay for the schooling'. Yet the offer of schooling was not widely accepted because 'the lot of parents don't give a screw about education, they are all for the money'. He was overtly critical of the children's parents suggesting 'it is the young marriages that bring the children here so young. Parents marry when they are children themselves and send their children to work as soon as ever they can'. While the children were at work a foreman noted, 'I have to bawl at them to keep them awake, when we are at long overtime. Sometimes a flattering word, and sometimes a cross one, but not often beyond words', presumably the latter few words meant some physical violence also occurred. With such long hours its little surprise that managers noted they could not get children to go to Sunday school even when 'they are overworked in the week, for they lie abed all day to rest'.

Yet it was not always Potters who hired the children, Preston confirming it was the foremen who was responsible for employing the children, saying he was paid 'so much per 1,000 pieces and he hired the children'. Interestingly, the author's father who as a young teenager worked at a cotton weaving company in the early 1920's, was employed on similar conditions. Besides the long hours, the working conditions servicing the machine printers were horrific, particularly associated with the hot exhausts from the fire chambers used to dry the newly printed paper. They made comments such as, 'the room is very hot… above 110 degrees (or 43C). The flues for drying are terribly hot, but the boys only go in there when the paper breaks, to pull it through. This takes 3 or 4 minutes perhaps, and may happen several times a day',  while other parts are 'nearly as hot as the flues, and the boy has to be up in them a score of times and more a day to feed the fires'.  Servicing the machines was relentless throughout the day, some jobs allowed meal breaks to be taken outside the mill, but not if working on the machines, where everyone had to have food and drink alongside the machine. This was not the case for hand block printers, who were in comparative luxury being allowed breaks of up to 1½ hours.

The commission took place during the cotton famine associated with the American Civil War, which somewhat strangely impacted positively on the stainers, as it was noted they found it easier to source younger boys for employment. They acknowledged that cotton factories previously paid better  'If factories were busy now we should scarcely have a boy ', weaving on two looms paid boys of fourteen 12/- per week, Potters paid less at 11/6d. Girls who were employed as winders to hand roll the finished paper were paid much less at 5s to 7s, while number stampers only 3/-. At hand printers Scott, Cuthbertson and Whitelands, Chelsea, boys earned 4/9d.

At Lightbowns and Aspinall's they had unspecified concerns about employing girls and women, 'We have no females here; if we don't have any their morals can't be corrupted. I don't know how they manage at other houses but we thought it safer without them'. Whilst at their hand-printing supplier Ropers, the owner noted his men were 'very irregular. One I had, worked a week and drank a week alternatively for 10 weeks and then I sent him off'.  It is a regular thing with them to take the Monday as a holiday, but I don't let them work overtime to make up'.

The London trade was predominantly hand block printing, while the North West was mainly machine printing, the latter never worked beyond 2pm on Saturday, but this was not always the case in London. The larger machine printers in the North West all commented on the seasonal nature of their work, with a peak around Christmas. For block-printer and machine printer, Allan and Co, of London the peak was January and February, for Potters November to April, while Lightbown stated for four months of the year, workers 'when not employed …will just go adrift'.

A number of health related issues were identified by London's hand block printers James Toleman, they noted 'we do suffer from weak sight. Every printer over 40, I would say, does', but despite this 'the men don't wear spectacles for fear that it should be thought they were unfit for their work and so be discharged'. This view was contradicted at Holmes and Aubert, who said that 'my father is 70-odd … there's Phelps too, he is 80' and at Erwood's they suggested the eye strain was less arduous, 'not like fine needlework, or small print, where you look continuously' while 'an average worker will put his block on to the print perhaps 40 times in 8 minutes, and each time he has to fit the pin to the gauge'.  They also suggested a more likely cause 'if a block-printer's eyes suffered, it was from drink not work' and drunkenness was mentioned on nearly every one of the twenty five or so visit to stainers in London.

Another health issue related to the use of emerald green colour made from aprocos of arsenic (an arsenic derivative), and other problems were from red and white lead, turpentine and flocking materials.  A book carried by the commissioners identified the symptoms of poisoning in this industry, it noted stainers suffered loss of appetite and headaches due to the arsenic and white lead, sickness from Prussian blue colour and arsenic, made worse when mixed the turpentine. Also a fine dust while making flock borders affected respiration. It also identified eyesight was an issue, particularly as the stainers approached 50 years of age. The combination of these factors meant longevity was an issue, the commission stated 'there are a few cases of aged paper stainers. We heard of a solitary case of a man now living at the age of 55, but he has not been able to follow the employ for the last five years'

Conclusion

Potters development of machine printing of wallpaper occurred at a time of change, not only was machine printing of paper advancing apace, but the removal of stainers duty and the allowance by excise authorities of the use of continuous rolls of paper provided a huge fillip. Cheaper machine made paper and the vast increase in production levels opened a new market and prices dropped dramatically. The patent that protected machine printing allowed Potters a lead, but competition was closely behind them and for a while arguably overtook them.

The history of the styles and nature of the patterns used lie outside the scope of this article, but sufficient to say up to 1875 the closely knit Potters family continued to provide the public with new designs at affordable prices, such that by 1865 something like 2,000 new patterns per year were issued from Belgrave from a total of 6,000 patterns. So perhaps the most appropriate concluding sentence relates to the importance of the consumer.

Taken from an article in the Manchester City News and Salford Hundred Advertiser, of 3rd June, 1865, its titled Lancashire Workshops, C and J G Potters and Co. and coincided with J G Potter's standing for Parliament the following July.[20] It states:
'It is not necessary here to remind a good housewife, whatever station she may occupy, how much more of the feeling of comfort and pleasure she enjoys when she has the several apartments under her care decorated with a clean, a cheerful and a tastefully designed paperhanging', and Potters wallpaper designs fulfilled that aim in spades.[21]

Bibliography

[1] Sugden A V and Entwisle E A, Potters of Darwen 1839 to 1939 - A Century of Wallpaper Printing By Machinery, 1939

[2] The information regarding wallpaper widths kindly provided by Peter Bower

[3] Dagnall H, The Taxation of Paper in Great Britain 1643-1861, 1998, pp.26-27

[4] Bradshaw's Journal, Volume 3, 1842, p.35

[5] The London Gazette, 27 August 1844, Issue 20377, p.3001

[6] Blackburn Standard, 2 June 1847, p.1

[7] The London Gazette, 23 November 1852, Issue 21383, p.3287

[8] Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons, Volume 51, p.3

[9] Rothwell M, Industrial Heritage of Darwen, 1992, p.55

[10] Abram W A, A History of Blackburn, Town and Parish, 1877, p.492

[11] Rothwell, p.55

[12] Directory of Manchester & Salford, 1853, p.446

[13]  Preston Herald, 11 December 1886, p.11

[14] Malley M, Thomas Grime and the Knott Mill (Darwen) Paper Company Limited, Darwen. 1873 to 1882, The Quarterly, The Journal of the British Association of Paper Historians (BAPH), Forthcoming

[15] Rothwell M, p.55

[16] Manchester Evening News, 8 January 1873, p.3

[17] A V Sugden and J L Edmondson, A history of English wallpaper, 1509-1914, p.204 

[18] Malley M, Five Paper Company Foundations on the River Roddlesworth, Darwen. 1873 to 1882, The Quarterly, Forthcoming

[19]  Sugden and Entwisle, p.107

[20] Sugden and Entwisle, p.106

[21] For full article see: Malley M, Potters of Darwen, Quarterly, BAPH , Vol 118, April 2012, p.11

Mike Malley, published on Cotton Town, October 2022
Mike is a member of the British Association of Paper Historians
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​​​​Thomas Grime and The Kn​ott Mill (Darwen) Paper Company Limited​