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I previously identified a mania for founding limited liability paper manufacturing companies occurred in Lancashire in the mid 1870’s, when twenty five were incorporated in a twenty month period from
1873 to 1875 (4). These ‘mania-mills’ were not founded due to any commensurate increase in paper use, rather it was the relatively new limited company legislation that was being used and in many cases manipulated, to produce a helter-skelter of paper manufacturing company foundations, many with connections to Darwen.
1873 to 1875 (4). These ‘mania-mills’ were not founded due to any commensurate increase in paper use, rather it was the relatively new limited company legislation that was being used and in many cases manipulated, to produce a helter-skelter of paper manufacturing company foundations, many with connections to Darwen.
The prospectus for the company was published in local newspapers and it identified that Grime wished to retire (5). It also noted that the comments made by the influential Mr T.Browning , secretary of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce that ‘the profits from the firm had exceeded 25% per annum’, further suggesting that ‘the concern is an exceptionally safe and prosperous one’. By April 1875, all 6,000 shares had been sold and Grime was the largest shareholder. Even though he had previously spent about £3,500 installing new boilers, machinery and buildings, it was probably still an outdated mill reliant upon some machinery left by Potters and the new company spent an additional £9,800 in buildings and machinery (6). But it is not known if the speculative advertisement in December 1875 for a new or second hand Yankee paper machine for the mill in the Glasgow press was successful (7).
The new company published its first results for a period of twenty one weeks on July 24 1875, it showed a gross profit of £1,285, less £400 for depreciation, a legal bill of £22 and a £97 payment for the Managing Director Thomas Grime, resulting in a dividend of 15.5% or 2s 6d per share (8). Leaving the 220 shareholders optimistic for the future, but this was not to last!
There are no other references from the mill until 1880, when it is clear that in the intervening four years something had gone badly wrong, because by March 1880 about a quarter of its shares had been forfeited, losing the owners almost £4,000. Worse was to follow when in December 1880 a petition to wind-up the company came from creditor, John Whittam Bretherick, of Over Darwen, Mechanical Engineer (9). Following the failure of the company, Thomas Grime, by virtue of money owed to him on mortgage took over the business. Trading as Thomas Grime and Company he continued for another nine years. However, in March 1889, Grime aged about sixty three was again at the Blackburn bankruptcy court. In the creditor’s meeting it was noted he owed £11,942, an outstanding mortgage of £4,000, with assets of £10,150, (10). In 1890 it was confirmed that the mill was out of operation, having 60, 72 and 80 inch paper making machines, previously producing long elephants (a base paper for wallpaper), purple hands, browns and glazed casings. (11,12)
Grime’s Agreement with the Knott Mill (Darwen) Paper Company Limited
For the Knott mill incorporation we are fortunate to have a copy of the original agreement between Grime and the new company, it provides some information as to how the incorporation progressed and identifies that Grime was to be the chief beneficiary.(13)
The most obvious benefit he received was the £20,000 purchase price, £10,000 to be paid within six weeks of signing the agreement and the other £10,000 could either be paid to him later, or be loaned for a minimum period of twelve months to the new company against a mortgage secured on the property as collateral. If the company exercised this option Grime would receive a guaranteed 5% interest per annum. He was also required to remain as unpaid managing director for six months, only receiving commission equating to 25% of all dividends paid to shareholders over and above the rate of 7.5% per annum. The agreement also stipulated he could continue as managing director, but if not he would impart all his ‘secrets related to papermaking’. A clause in the sale agreement required Grime ‘not to carry-on the business of papermaker in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire for the term of five years’, but this clause was broken only three months after the incorporation, when in April 1875 he was declared as a provisional director of the Heap Bridge Paper Mill Company in Bury.(14)
Grime would also receive dividends from the 500 shares he was obliged to buy for the period whilst remaining as managing director and with the profits from the previous firm having exceeded 25% per annum the future prospect looked rosy, but this was not the case. By April 1876 he was the largest individual shareholder, but in 1880 when the shares were worthless, he was left with 150 now valueless shares, so whatever profit he made in earlier sales would have been lost.
So despite three stints at running the mill Grime and all his ‘paper making secrets’ could not secure Knott mills future, but another thread of Grimes story shows a more successful and humanistic side to the man and his relatives.
Thomas Grime and The Carlisle Family
In a previous article I identified that former and current employees of Potters and Co, paper stainers of Darwen, went on to establish their own world class wallpaper companies, in that case it was Henry Lightbown and Doctor Aspinall.(15) Thomas Grime did not produce wallpaper, but with his contacts to Potters and Co, he probably produced base paper for wallpaper for them, he also had a number of relations who made an impact in the paper industry.
I earlier noted that before incorporation the Knott mill was trading as Thomas Grime and Nephew and the nephew in question was Charles Henry Carlisle, whose father was papermaker John Carlisle, who married Grime’s sister. John’s illustrious career in the wallpaper industry began at C. H. and E. Hiltons in Darwen, ‘the most extensive (paper mill and colliery) in Great Britain employing upwards of four hundred and fifty hands’, firstly as apprentice, then manager and finally partner from 1857 to 1864, when he was appointed manager at Hollins Paper Mill.(16) The Hollin’s Bleach Works in Darwen had been taken-over for conversion to making the paper used in wallpaper production by Charles and Harold Potter in the 1840’s.
That the Grime and Carlisle families were close was graphically illustrated when Grime’s sister tragically died just after childbirth and in a completely self-sacrificing act, John Carlisle allowed Thomas Grime to adopt the baby boy, Albert Carlisle Grime. John Carlisle’s family included at least three other sons by two mothers, who also made prosperous futures. By the time of John’s death in August 1887, his will noted their employment as follows.(17) Henry Carlisle, of 3, Marquess-road, Canonbury, North London, Paper Stainer. John Webster Carlisle, of Primrose House, Clitheroe, Paper Maker. Charles Henry Carlisle, of 51, Threadneedle-street, in the city of London, Stock Broker. I shall now outline the business success enjoyed by the four brothers, starting with adoptee Albert Carlisle Grime.
Albert joined his adopted father in business as a paper merchant, trading as Thomas Grime and Son, which he later ran on his own behalf.(18) He married Miss Dray, the only daughter of the late Mr. George Dray who was an Alderman of the City of London and head of the firm of Messrs. G. W. Dray and Sons, Limited, paper makers and printers.(19) Having an underlying health issue he died in February 1898 at the young age of thirty two, leaving a widow and one child. The Dray company was founded in 1856 as a printing company with its main base in Newcastle.(20) The Drayton Paper Works opened in Sullivan Road, Fulham in 1910 and gained notoriety for manufacturing the first toilet paper in rolls in the UK, rather than the single sheets as was the norm at that time. The factory also made paper carrier bags, wrapping paper and high quality envelopes.
John Webster Carlisle worked alongside his father at the Lower Primrose Paper Mill at Clitheroe, later taking over the reins. The mill had been founded by John Carlisle in 1872 and by 1890 the mill had 90 and 112 inch machines producing Newsprint, Printing and Long Elephants, by 1903 it was only the larger machine that was running.(21)
Thomas Grime’s former partner at Knott Mill, Charles Henry Carlisle, was a partner in Thomson and Carlisle, Stocks and Share Brokers. Other than suggesting the choice of this profession may have come about from the share mania seen in and around Darwen, I am unable to add any additional details to his career.
Henry Carlisle was a paper stainer in partnership in the firm of Carlisle and Clegg, both were former natives of Darwen and both gained their experience while working at Potters (22). The company started in Islington as block-printers with warehousing, later becoming wallpaper machine printers, dealing extensively with fellow Darreners, Potters and Lightbown and Aspinall. They exhibited in the International Exhibition of 1862 and the company won medals in other exhibitions in Australia in the 1880’s. The company became one of the ‘big four’ wallpaper suppliers of the late nineteenth century. Both founding partners died in 1888.
Conclusion
Thomas Grime was the driving force behind the incorporation of Knott Mill and his timing was impeccable, because it is almost certain that had he decided to sell only one or two years later, when so many failed limited and family owned paper mills were advertised for sale, he would have found buyers less forthcoming. Yet the depth of the trade depression and the excessive competition would have exceeded even his expectations. Grime, as President of the Paper Makers Association of Lancashire Yorkshire and Midland Counties was well placed to comment. Just as Knott Mill was heading for bankruptcy in December 1879 Grime took the chair at a meeting of paper makers from ‘Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire and elsewhere’, to seek measures to help the industry as ‘a price rise in the price of paper becomes imperatively necessary’ (23). The outcome was a move to increase the selling price of papers ‘because of a general increase in materials and chemicals’, agreeing to an increase of at least 1/2d per pound for news, print and fine glazed, plus 3s per cwt for brown and shop papers. It’s no surprise that all in attendance agreed, but with cutthroat competition it could only prove futile.
Another article draws to a close commenting upon the special place Darwen had in the growth of paper making and wallpaper manufacture in the United Kingdom. Not all of its private or limited paper mills were successful, some quickly fell by the wayside, many failed and were resurrected, while others prospered. Yet my lasting memory of this article will not be the facts of papermaking, but the compassion shown by John Carlisle in allowing his brother-in-law to adopt his son, a particular poignant memory.
Sources
Sources
[1] Preston Herald, 11 December 1886, p.11
[2] Preston Herald - 25 May 1895 p2
[3] https://www.cottontown.org/Politics/Mayors/Pages/Darwen-Mayors.aspx#01
[4] Malley M, The Illusive Silver Lining: The Rise and Fall of the Lancashire Limited Paper Companies, Volume 11 of The British Association of Paper Historians Monograph, 2017
[5] Preston Herald, 02 January 1875, p.1
[6] Blackburn Standard, 23 March 1889, p.7
[7] Glasgow Herald, 09 December 1875, p.2
[8] Preston Herald, 24 January 18756, p.3
[9] The London Gazette, 14 December 1880, Issue 24913, page 6744
[10] Blackburn Times, 12 January 1889, p.8
[11]Rothwell M, Industrial Heritage of Darwen, 1992, p.55
[12] By the 19th century, Long Elephant was being produced in 12 yard lengths, 22, 22½ or 30 inches wide, which are wallpaper sizes, but originally it was a wrapping paper size. Information courtesy of Peter Bower
[13] Public Record Office (PRO) BT 31/2062/9091
[14] PRO BT 31/2100/9475
[15] Five Paper Company Foundations on the River Roddlesworth, Darwen. 1873 to 1882, with The British Association of Paper Historians
[16] Potters of Darwen, 1839-1939, Alan Victor Sugden, privately printed, 1939, p.24
[17] The London Gazette, 16 October 1888, Issue 25866, page 5668
[18] Blackburn Standard, 19 February 1898, p.6
[19] South London Press, 03 June 1893, p.3
[20] http://cosgb.blogspot.com/2012/08/drayton-paper-works.html
[21] The Paper Mill Directory of England, Scotland and Ireland for 1890 and 1914, Simpkin, Marshal, Hamilton, Kent and Company, (London)
[22] Sugden A V and Edmondson J L, A History of English Wallpaper 1509-1914 ,(London), p.216
[23] Manchester Times, 06 December 1879, p.6
By kind permission of Mike Malley, published on Cotton Town December 2022
Mike is a member of the British Association of Paper Historians
Mike is a member of the British Association of Paper Historians
Fifty Years of Paper Making at Samlesbury Paper Mill
Introduction
The cotton spinning mill located at Samlesbury Bottoms, near Blackburn was located on the River Darwen, it operated in the eighteenth century and continued to run until the mid-1870's. The 1860's and 1870's saw a huge increase in new large spinning mills in Lancashire, fitted with the latest machinery they were capable of a huge production, to the disadvantage of older mills. The last owner of the Samlesbury cotton mill prior to its conversion to paper manufacture in 1875 was Blackburn cotton manufacturer, Pickering and Abbott, whose main business was at Quay Street Mill and it was Thomas Abbott who was the linchpin in the Samlesbury mill's conversion to manufacture paper.
The arrival of the purchaser, the Samlesbury Paper Mill Company Limited, was announced in a fanfare in the local press, having respectable Blackburn and Darwen businessmen in charge, many would have believed it a safe place to invest - how wrong they were. Bankrupt within thirty months, its ninety or so shareholders, its equipment suppliers and its money lenders would quickly regret their involvement
The Records
The Defunct Company Archives held at the Public Record Office provides the following outline information on the company's short operation.(1) The Samlesbury Paper Mill Company Limited was founded with £25,000 share capital in £5 divisions. It was first registered on 30 March 1875 and wound-up 1 Oct 1877.(2)
First Directors and shareholding were:
| | | Abode | Shares at Incorporation | Shares 02 Aug 1875 | Shares 17 Aug 1876 |
| Elijah Knowles | Cotton Spinner | Over Darwen | 100 | 100 | |
| Joseph Watson | Commision Agent | Blackburn | 100 | 100 | |
| Edwin Hamer | Auctioneer | Blackburn | 100 | 100 | |
| James Ingram | Roll Coverer | Blackburn | 10 | | |
| Edward Ruston | Auctioneer | Blackburn | 50 | 50 | |
| Thomas Abbot | Cotton Spinner | Blackburn | 200 | 200 | 280 |
| Thomas James Hargreaves | Cashier | Blackburn | 100 | 100 | |
By 2 August 1875 a total of 2,992 shares had been taken-up and £2 per share had been called-up, the share capital raised was £5,628. Just over sixty of the ninety five shareholders were from Blackburn.
In the Memo of Association compiled at incorporation the directors 'resolve upon borrowing money … as they think fit either by mortgage of the whole or any part of the property of the Company, or by debentures, bonds, notes or otherwise, and may borrow … provided that the total amount of such borrowed money shall never exceed the sum of £10,000.' In a special resolution of 13 September 1876 the company increased this amount stating that '£10,000 be omitted and £20,000 substituted', more of which later.
The Helter- Skelter Of Limited Company Foundations in Lancashire and its Aftermath
I previously identified a mania for founding limited liability paper manufacturing companies occurred in Lancashire in the mid 1870's, when twenty five were incorporated in a twenty month period from
1873 to 1875. (3) These 'mania-mills' were not founded due to any commensurate increase in paper use, rather it was the relatively new limited company legislation that was being used and in many cases manipulated, to produce a helter-skelter of paper manufacturing company foundations, many with connections to Blackburn and Darwen. Of these mills around 50% were built from new, 25% were previously privately owned paper mills and the remainder were mills operating in another trade, of which four or so were cotton spinning mills.
The prospectus for the Samlesbury Paper Mill Company was published in local newspapers, it identifies that £17,500 was to be paid to the vendor and 2,000 of the 5,000 shares were reserved for 'the vendor and his friends'.(4) The vendor in question would have been former owner, Thomas Abbott. It also identified the provisional directors as:
- Thomas Abbott, (Messrs. Pickering and Abbott), cotton spinner and manufacturer, Blackburn. William Chambers, Colliery Proprietor, Blackburn.
- Giles Parkinson, Cotton Waste Dealer, Blackburn.
- John Taylor, jun. Paper Manufacturer, Darwen.
- B. Knowles. (E. and T. Knowles), Cotton Spinner and Manufacturer, Blackburn and Darwen
The purpose of the prospectus was simply a vehicle intended to attract share investors and with little legislation covering their legality, liberties were taken. For example, the Samlesbury prospectus notes five respected businessmen as provisional directors who would have been well known in the area. Yet significantly four did not take up the appointment and the first board of directors included four with little business experience. In the share mania occurring in Blackburn and Darwen, recognition of the individuals involved was crucial in selecting incorporations to fund. In particular the reassurance given to investors by having Paper Manufacturer John Taylor, as director would have been paramount, instead the board with two auctioneers, a commission agent, a roll coverer and cashier was decidedly lightweight. So it is fair to say shareholders in Samlesbury paper mill were duped.
Vendor Thomas Abbott, would have been the driving force behind the incorporation and his timing was impeccable. If his mill had been offered for sale only eighteen months to two years later, at the start of an economic depression it would not have been sold, but in 1875 and 1876 credit was readily available. Lenders competed against each other, providing mortgages with only cursory examination of the property, sometimes with none at all, as in this case most arrived at an inflated value which could not be achieved in the event of a downturn in the economy. The individual who valued many properties that became incorporated paper mills, including Samlesbury, was Samlesbury director to be Edwin Hamer. As it would have been Abbott who was to pay all costs prior to Incorporation, in valuing the property Hamer was actually working for the seller and time and time again Hamer estimated high values which benefited the vendor. Of course it also guaranteed Hamer further employment of this kind. But in an economic downturn when assets such as these lost value, it also guaranteed a shortfall when mortgages were foreclosed as bankruptcy loomed.
With also a mania for new limited liability cotton spinning mills in Lancashire occurring from the 1850's onwards, by 1874 the Samlesbury cotton mill, with outdated equipment would have been uneconomic and Thomas Abbott would have been well aware of the events at a larger, 35,000 spindle spinning mill at Catterall, near Garstang.(5) There another new company, the Catterall Paper Making and Cotton Spinning Co Ltd was also about to be incorporated and Blackburn Cotton Spinner and Manufacturer Thomas Livesey, was to be paid a substantial £18,500. It's not difficult to imagine fellow cotton manufacturers talking to each other and Abbott wanting to join the gravy-train, however, the economics of the Samlesbury start- up looked fatally flawed from the outset.
Discussion
With around eighteen months required to equip and commission the paper mill, it could only have been producing paper for a matter of months before a winding- up petition was raised on 23 July 1877 and the reason for its speedy demise can be derived from events at a nearby mill. (6) The Feniscowles Paper Mill Company spent £47,000 to install two machines and equipment in new buildings, in which case the cost for converting the Samlesbury mill to a one machine paper mill would have been no less than about £18,000. (7) I noted earlier that the articles of association initially allowed the Samlesbury company £10,000 of loans, but likely coinciding with the end of the conversion in July 1876, this was increased to £20,000 and the money would have been badly needed.
If we assume Abbott left £7,500 on mortgage with the company, its balance sheet would show a share capital of £5,628 plus borrowings of £20,000. On the negative side would be a £10,000 purchase payment to Abbott and about £18,000 conversion cost, so overall a shortfall of over £2,000. Perhaps the company's banker would have provided a small amount of unsecured capital and if Abbott forewent his mortgage interest, the mill could have been built. However, when complete working capital would be required to pay for raw materials and wages, or more likely goods were supplied on credit, but by 1877 competition in the paper industry had become cutthroat. Profits became non-existent and as a trade depression took hold loans dried up, in these circumstances creditor's patience ran out and the inevitable bankruptcy proceedings commenced at Samlesbury in July 1877. Two months later the mill, including horses Speedy, Duke and Bally were for sale.(8) The advertisement noted the site was divided into a Higher and Lower mills, one of which had operated as a cotton spinning mill let to the firm of McAlyn and Taylorson, whose business was also liquidated in September 1877.(9)
Purchasers of the business could now buy all the assets, but with none of the debts. Around 50% of the mania mills were up for sale in the late 1870's and they offered the opportunity to purchase a paper mill including modern paper making machines and ancillaries at a fraction of the money already expended. Because of the economic downturn it was only in July 1879 that the paper trade press reported that Messrs Isherwood and Brindle of Darwen have purchased Samlesbury and intend to produce brown paper, promising 'the mill will start forthwith'. (10) By 1890 they were manufacturing 'browns, shop papers and casing's' on its 76" wide machine and producing 22 tons per week.(11)
In 1898 the ownership of the mill changed as Isherwood left the business to establish Isherwood Brothers paper mill at the Red Turkey Dye Works, Simonstone, near Burnley and the Samlesbury mill briefly traded as Brindle and Mather. By 1900 Brindle and Isherwood registered a new company with a nominal £20,000 share capital and G. Brindle and H. Isherwood became its first directors. This was a private limited company where the share sales were restricted to family members as follows:
- G. Brindle, Darwen. paper maker
- J. Isherwood, Blackpool, paper maker
- H. Isherwood, Pleasington, paper maker
- Joseph Isherwood, Preston, paper maker
- Mrs. E. A. Brindle, Darwen
- Miss M. Brindle, Darwen
- Miss B. Brindle, Darwen
Both George Brindle and John Isherwood were from Darwen and both were paper merchants and had been involved in successful paper mill incorporations at the Darwen Paper Company Limited, incorporated February 1871 and the Burnley Paper Works Co Ltd. incorporated April 1875.
BY 1903 the mills 76" wide machine had an increased output of 30 tons per week.(12) Around this time the mill came in for praise as author A. D. Spicer reported, 'The principle alterations have been speeding up machinery and keeping abreast of the times, so production of one machine is double what it was 20 years ago'.(13) He also identified the output was limited to producing only brown paper because of its water quality, suggesting 'Brindle and Mather, now work rags for brown paper, the water being not of the best description, and therefore more suitable for this quality of paper'. Upstream there were ten paper mills operating twenty five or so paper making machines, meaning the amounts of effluent discharged into the River Darwen was immense. Latterly those using esparto and pulp as feedstocks generated particularly harmful effluents and other cotton mills such as dying and printing were particularly polluting and using only river water to make paper, it would easily affect paper quality. Not only did local authorities and landowners bring cases of river pollution to court, but paper mills prosecuted other paper mills. For example the nearby Withnell paper mill was forced to close by the downstream Star paper mill and papermaker Thomas Grime of Knott paper mill won £1,775 damages against the upstream, Spring Vale paper mill.(14) Samlesbury was also having difficulties in 1894 when a report identifies local authorities were prepared to give the mill additional time to complete settling tanks for their effluent, because the mill was alarmingly, 'destroyed by fire'.(15)
Without detailed business records it is not possible to make definitive statements about the financial health of the Samlesbury Paper Mill under Brindles ownership, but with a doubling of paper production and with lower overheads than many of the bigger paper mills, at least it survived. For Oakenclough paper mill, near Garstang, for which such detailed records do survive, the First World War provided a huge stimulus to profits. Changing its output to suit the war effort provided capital to invest in the future. This may also have occurred at the Samlesbury Paper Mill because by 1923 and renamed Brindle & Son, Ltd had again increased production, this time to 50 tons per week and enlarged its range of products, now including kraft papers, cotton samplings, cash bag manillas (sic), chalk drawing papers, twist casings,
bag and rope brown.(16)
bag and rope brown.(16)
The later history of the company lies outside this study, but as noted above small privately owned paper mills could survive, if not necessary prosper into the second half of the twentieth century. Documents held at Lancashire Record Office could confirm if Samlesbury was one such example.(17)
Sources
1] Public Record Office (PRO), BT 31/2088/9349
[2] The London Gazette, 2 October 1877, issue 24508, p.5484
[3] Malley M, The Illusive Silver Lining: The Rise and Fall of the Lancashire Limited Paper Companies, Volume 11 of The British Association of Paper Historians Monograph, 2017
[4] Preston Herald, 6 March 1875, p.1
[5] PRO, BT31 2094/9418
[6] The London Gazette, 27 July 1877, issue 244878, p.4436
[7] Blackburn Standard, 28 October 1882, p.5
[8] Manchester Courier, 21 September 1877, p.1
[9] The London Gazette, 28 September 1877, issue 24507, p.5446
[10] The Paper Makers Circular, July 1879
[11] Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co. Ltd, The Paper Mills Directory of England, Scotland and Ireland. (London 1890).
[12] Lancashire Record Office (LRO), QSP/4677/13 - Ratings of Paper Mills in the County of Lancashire c1903.
[13] A D Spicer, The Paper Trade, 1907. A Descriptive and Historical, Survey of the Paper Trade, from the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century. (London 1907), p.203
[14] Preston Herald, 15 April 1885, p.7
[15] Manchester Courier, 23 May 1894, p.7
[16] Phillips' paper trade directory of the world, 1923, Phillips (S.C.) and Co., ltd., (London), p.13
[17] LRO. Samlesbury Paper Mill Ltd. Sales catalogue and associated papers. DDX 3209/1/696, 1966
By kind permission of Mike Malley, published January 2023
Mike is a member of the British Association of Paper Historians
Mike is a member of the British Association of Paper Historians