No 37, January 2001

No 37, January 2001

The Quarterly, No 37 -January 2001

The Padsole Paper Mill Token - Tim Porter

Concise history of the short life of Padsole Paper Mill, Maidstone Kent from around 1790 till the 1840's. Padsole Mill was one of the few paper mills to issue a token in the eighteenth century, a halfpenny one in 1795. The tokens were issued as a response to a shortage of low denomination coins being issued by the Royal Mint.

3 pages, illustrated

The Metaxas Letters: An Investigation into the Authenticity of a Group of Documents - Part Two - Peter Bower

The continuing account, and conclusion, of the author's investigation of a collection of eighty-nine letters addressed to Prince Andrew of Greece by his aide-de-camp Menelaos Metaxas between 3 June 1903 and 16 October 1913. The genuineness of the documents had been doubted and a sample had been examined at the University of Oxford Research Laboratory for Archaeology and The History of Art. The findings of this examination contradicted the evidence found within the paper itself and the author was instructed to examine both the papers and the methods of the laboratory.

7 pages, illustrated

The Magnays: Stationers and Papermakers for Four Generations - Ian Dye

A full and comprehensive account of the families involvement in papermaking over four generations from about 1790 to 1884. Thirteen members of the family were associated with at least seventeen paper mills in England and Ireland. The family also established a wholesale stationers business in London and had close links with the Times newspaper. An outline family tree is included in the article.

9 pages, illustrated, tables

Bankers Note Paper - Peter Bower

Although all the bank note paper for the Bank of England has been made by Portals in Hampshire there were also hundreds of "country" banks which issued their own notes. Paper for these notes were made at a number of paper mills, this short article details a sample made at Lewes and Isfield mills in Sussex.

1 page, illustrated

In Memoriam - Peter Bower

Tributes to two recent losses to the world of paper history, John Balston and Alan Tyson.
John Balston came to his research after retiring from the papermaking industry and Alan Tyson worked within the academic community. Both contributed greatly to the body of knowledge available about the history of paper, its making and usage and will sadly missed.

2 pages, illustrated

Book Reviews

By his own Labor: The Biography of Dard Hunter. Cathleen A. Baker

Damnable Inventions: Chilworth Gunpowder and the Paper Mills of the Tillingbourne. Glenys and Alan Crocker.

Carrongrove: 200 years of Papermaking.