Shopping and paper.

We had a proper lay in today, it was after 0800 when we finally got up. It was so quiet we slept on and on. Our plan this morning was to walk the mile into Hemel Hemstead. We had been to a B&M bargains or a Pound shop for ages and we had withdrawal symptoms! Plus there were a few things that we can only really find there too. Hemel, as the locals call it, was the third New Town to be declared after WWII. The Government bought nearly 6000 acres for the project in 1946 and the first new residents from the Blitz and slum clearances settled in during 1949. The original development were completed by 1962 and the population was around 80,000.

The plans for the 'Magic Round about were in the original design for the New Town but it wasn't built until 1973. It must take a bit of getting used to for new drivers.

Not only did we complete our errands but Helen had a good poke about getting ideas for Christmas presents and even bought a couple. We 'did' M&S, TX Max and Primark before we set off back home. Fortunately we missed the downpour by being inside.

This is the extension shopping area called 'The Riverside' (for obvious reasons) that was built in 2005.

The older part of the New Town shopping area was started in 1952 and you can see there are still traces of it in the architecture. The Marlowes Arcade is on the right.

We walked back to the boat to drop of the shopping and then straight out as we were going to visit the Frogmore Paper Mill. Just I had shut the door Helen said she hadn't got the key. It is only recently that I have stopped asking her if she had it before ceremonially shutting the door. Still not to worry as I have one hidden around the boat for just such situations.

The mill was just round the corner from our mooring. There has been a mill at Frogmore for over a thousand years but it wasn't until 1803 when paper making started at the mill. When the Grand Trunk Canal was built the Fourdrinier family who owned it took the company to court to have the route deviated from the original to save the works. The Fourdriniers asked Bryan Donkin to develop this method and the first commercial paper making machine was installed in 1804 and were later named after the Fourdriniers.  

The old water mill race is still as are the runs for two water wheels. How ever the paper making process uses steam, and still does to this day. Looking at the paper mill from the west down the mill race.

John Dickinson took over the mill and he further developed the process making paper cheaper than ever to manufacture. This meant that it was available for more and more uses. It directly lead to the creation of the Penny Post as stationary and envelopes became cheap and the post developed massively in such a short time. We learned how they put water marks in the paper and why it was required (so that the authorities could see who had made the paper that was used for defamatory leaflets etc). We also learned the Foolscap paper was actually named after a water mark of a dunces cap and bells that was used in Germany in 1479.

These are the steam drying drums of the Fourdrinier machine that was made in 1895 and installed in the Frogmore Mill in 1907. It was in production until 2009 when it became uneconomical for the Charity that now owns the Mill to run.

This is the a small version of the Fourdrinier paper making machine that is still in use by the Two Rivers Company making specialist papers. It was installed in 1902.

Frogmore Mill is the oldest mechanised paper mill in the world and the Paper Trail Charity runs it. There is also a letterpress printing area and a book binding school. To make insurance cheaper each paper mill in the area, of which there were many, had their own fire group and there is a collection of equipment from the area too. It was a full afternoon and well worth going if you get a chance.

Our plan was to get back to the boat and move on, but when we got back and had something to eat we decided to stay put for the day. I then went off to pick some blackberries and spent the afternoon making blackberry and apple jelly and some blackberry jelly too.