Frogmore Paper Mill Update

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From Frogmore Paper Mill:

Frogmore Paper Mill suffered a devastating fire that occurred at our site on 22nd January 2022. It destroyed our museum, shop, café and education centre. Despite this tragedy, the Trust has developed an ambitious recovery plan, starting with converting the surviving historic buildings into a new visitor centre. The site of the former museum has become an outdoor education zone where the site's bio-diversity and unique chalk streams can be protected and celebrated. 

Work to restore our important heritage will start in August 2023. The Trust has worked closely with Dacorum Borough Council, architects, surveyors and contractors to ensure any restoration works are historically sensitive. This is essential work, as the building requires significant improvement in order to ensure Frogmore Mill, on an ancient mill site, survives for many years to come. Details can be found on Dacorum's Planning Portal.

In the short term, we are still fundraising to ensure we can re-open as soon as possible. With your help and support, we are confident that a new visitor centre, with an exciting new museum, artisan café and paper shop will open next year, in time for the 250th anniversary of paper making at Frogmore. Longer term, our goal is to become the leading example of an inclusive, accessible and sustainable eco-industrial heritage site.

Latest newsletter from Frogmore Paper Mill (February 2024)
Frogmore Paper Mill were awarded a grant by the AIM and Arts Scholars Charitable Trust Brighter Day scheme to deliver a fascinating new project; Into the Light – illuminating the hidden art of watermarks.

This online exhibition is now complete and live to view, using the link below. Produced by our Collections Officer, Rowena Haigh and using the Shorthand programme, this feature tells the story of watermarks, how and why they are created and features some of our wonderful archive items. We were fortunate to acquire a personal collection from the Jackson Family, containing masterful examples from Fabriano and personal experiments by the Jackson family's children. Andrew Jackson's father was an authority on handmade paper and left his collection to his son, who has subsequently donated it to us for all to enjoy.

Some of these examples will be on display when we reopen.

Explore the app here: Into the Light

[Dave Hughes]

The "Into the Light" online exhibition is great, a delve into the little-known world of watermarks in paper.

I think it is probably best viewed on a laptop or desktop rather than phone.

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Short video from Frogmore paper Mill - making Siver Leaf Paper


https://www.frogmorepapermill.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Paper-Mill-Craftsmanship-Final-Std_res.mp4

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This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:

Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom

Phone: 01442 234600

Email:

[printsmurf]

This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:

Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom

Phone: 01442 234600

Email:

[printsmurf]

This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:

Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom

Phone: 01442 234600

Email: postbox@frogmorepapermill.org.uk

[printsmurf]

This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:

Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom

Phone: 01442 234600

Email: postbox@frogmorepapermill.org.uk

[printsmurf]

This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:

Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom

Phone: 01442 234600

Email:

[printsmurf]

This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:

Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom

Phone: 01442 234600

Email:

[printsmurf]

This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:

Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom

Phone: 01442 234600

Email:

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Frogmore Paper Mill Announcement 2025

This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:
Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom
Phone: 01442 234600
Email:

[

Follow the link here:  https://frogmorepapermill.org.uk/

[printsmurf]

This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:
Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom
Phone: 01442 234600
Email: postbox@frogmorepapermill.org.uk

[printsmurf]

This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:

Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom

Phone: 01442 234600

Email: postbox@frogmorepapermill.org.uk

[printsmurf]

This newsletter is posted as a JPEG of a PDF of an email so links will not work. If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:

Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom

Phone: 01442 234600

Email: postbox@frogmorepapermill.org.uk

[printsmurf]

If you wish to donate or find out more please contact:

Frogmore Paper Mill, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9RY, United Kingdom

Phone: 01442 234600

Email: postbox@frogmorepapermill.org.uk
Frogmore Paper Mill Newsletter                                       
March 2026                                                                         

Busy

Spring is here and there is lots happening at Frogmore Paper Mill. Rowena Haigh delivered a talk to attendees of the British Association of Paper Historians, Spring Conference, held at St Brides. Outreach sessions continue, the first school has been on site, plus the gardens are being tended which is a huge undertaking. We have advertised for a new member of staff and had so many applications that we have taken the advert down. Thank you to all that have applied. We will be in touch on due course.

Thank you Wickes

A heartfelt "Thank you" to Elliot at Wickes Hemel Hempstead for a generous donation of two new wheelbarrows through the Wickes Community Programme. Our maintenance volunteers are thrilled, and they have already started using the barrows this morning to move heavy materials safely around our gardens. Not only that, but they also donated some topsoil!

To learn more about volunteering at Frogmore, visit our website: https://frogmorepapermill.org.uk/give-to-frogmore-paper-mill/volunteering-at-frogmore-paper-mill/



Above: Volunteers with the donated wheelbarrows.



Above: Alan, Buildings Manager with Elliot at Wickes

What we can deliver now!

Tours

Since reopening for Hard Hat Tours last October, we have been pushing the boundaries of what we can deliver in the space available. If you are a social group of 10-15 people we can accomodate you. You can simply book in via the online ticketing for a Hard Hat Tour and purchase all the tickets.  If you are planning ahead and do not have final numbers and are still to collect the funds, we are happy to book you in provisionally by payment of a 20% deposit, with the balance payable 7 days prior to the visit. Ideally your visit still needs to be on a Wednesday or Thursday our normal tour days. This may suit those of you with groups of 20 people who we can split into two groups and swop you about. One group can do hand papermaking and a short boat trip, while the other tours and then swop. This is dependent on available skippers and boat. There will be an additional charge for this option. Call 01442 234600 or email education@frogmorepapermill.org.uk and ask for Sue to discuss.

We are not yet able to take large coach parties but we will get there!

Education - schools

Outreach is still available, so if you wish to book email: education@frogmorepapermill.org.uk. Full details are on our website. Outreach has its own page here: https://frogmorepapermill.org.uk/education/educational-outreach/

Many schools have been itching to get back to the mill for the full industrial experience and just last week we hosted 60 children from a local primary school. Not all at once, but 30 per day on consecutive days. We cannot yet offer all options but if you wish to bring single classes of 30, talk to us and we will make it work. We were delighted with how the two days went, proving despite a gap of 4 years, we can still deliver to time! So if you have a school that wants to visit, contact us and we will see what we can do.

Youth Groups

We can fit you in too. There appear to have been glitches with the youth group enquiry form, so if you have used it and heard nothing please get back in touch. Please email directly to education@frogmorepapermill.org.uk. We can fit with your usual group meeting times and deliver papermaking, a mill tour or a short boat trip. Tell us what you need to achieve your badges.

Courses

Bookbinding is back! We offer Tuesday sessions with the wonderful Doug as your tutor, from 10am until 4pm. Sessions are £45 per and numbers are kept small, so you will get plenty of one to one attention. Letterpress will take a little longer to sort out but its progressing! Letterpress took a massive hit in the fire but each week we get a little closer, thanks to the diligent attention of our longstanding volunteer and compositor, Peter. The section has a new workbench, built by our in-house construction wizard, David Lattimer. Equipment is gradually being transferred from storage to workshop area.



ABOVE: First bookbinding session March 2026.

Talks Programme

Tickets are selling fast for the first in the 2026 Talks Programme series, with an opening presentation by Rowena Haigh, our Collections Officer. On Friday 17th April at 7pm Rowena's talk title is 'Dismal Solitudes of Torture' Children in the Paper Industry, an insight into Victorian working life in the mills, where the youngest employees were just 8 years old. A line guaranteed to frighten children of a similar age!

Tickets are available via our website for £18, which includes a fish and chip supper and a hot drink. All talks are held in the Tudor Room, Apsley Mill Cottage, Stationers Place, HP3 9RL. There is ample parking and you can register your car with us at the talk. There is a single steep flight of stairs to this room, so if you have mobility issues, get in touch first as there is a alternative.

Easter Storyboats

They're back! Storyboat tickets are on sale now and already in short supply,  so if you are looking for a gentle activity for the School Easter holidays, this should appeal. Stories, wildlife and a boat for £6 per person. All passenger must purchase a ticket and all children must be accompanied.

Boats depart from our Frogmore Paper Mill wharf, accessed via the Fourdrinier Way gate, HP3 9RY. Please arrive 5 minutes prior to departure. Parking is in the pay and display car park on Durrants Hill Road. It is very cheap and only a short walk away. If you are a Blue Badge holder please contact us well in advance and we can secure a parking place near our gate. Our space here is very limited.



ABOVE: Please note there are 10 cygnets and they have formed the number ten. We love this image!

Watch

If you thought the subject of recycling was boring or it was something only really considered in the 1970s, you would be wrong. You can update your knowledge courtesy of this short online exhibition.

Recycling - Nothing New!

Heritage Stories

In 1832, the Report of the Select Committee on Factory Children's Labour, better known as the Sadler Report, was published – a first investigation into the issue of child labour in 19th century Britain. The report was one-sided and incomplete, with the intention being to first attack the factory system and then have factory owners defend it, but the passing of the Great Reform Act that year saw parliament dissolved and the committee leader Michael Sadler lose his seat before the report could be completed. Nevertheless, the report triggered a public outcry and prompted further government investigations, eventually culminating in the 1833 Factory Act.

The 1833 Act began to introduce education requirements and limits on working hours for all children at work in cotton mills, though little was done to enforce it. By 1840, a new commission was ordered – the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Children's Employment – which also went on to cover many more industries than cotton mills and mining which had been the focus to this point. The report, published in 1842/3, provides some of the earliest insights into the life of children working in paper mills in the 19th century.  A couple of extracts from children are below:

Joseph Woodell, 14 years old, Apsley Mill:
              Get four or five hours' sleep always. Don't feel it very cold in winter now that I'm used to it, it feels colder to them as first comes on, can go and warm ourselves at the cabin fire. Isn't very hard work at all, doesn't tire, never makes me feel never right bad. Never was beaten in my life to hurt me since I came here, have a very good master.

Henry Hunt, 15 years old, Apsley Mill:
              It isn't very hard, but it tires me, can't sit down not very long, sometimes sit for half an hour. Work every day, and four nights one week, and three another. When working at night have my three hours' down (asleep), my mate (the man I work with) has his three hours. Make my head ache ever so many times, very apt to have the head ache, think it's the dust.

The report did lead to the introduction of a further Factory Act in 1844, limiting working hours for children and young people and bringing further safety measures, but the process of reform would still continue throughout the century.



ABOVE: Child workers at a paper mill in Germany, 1858.

Fire Recovery Fund

The latest donation total is £114,634. 20
HELP US !
There are two ways you can donate. Either of which will be very much appreciated.

If you prefer to 'Donate' by payment card, you can do so using the donate button below which takes you to our our website donation page. This will mean that we lose a small amount in transaction fees but we appreciate all the support that we receive. And if you can Gift Aid the donation, we can gain even more.

Donate

Or you can donate via our Wonderful* campaign page, which provides a free of charge service!  Wonderful* offer a card-free platform, where donations are completed via Open Banking, which is a simple and direct bank transfer, between the donor and the charity's bank account. They are a completely fee-free platform, so 100% of your donation or funds raised, goes directly to Frogmore Paper Mill. All major UK banks are supported. It is fast and very secure.
You can use the QR code here or the Fundraise for Us button below

You may prefer to have fun, or do something wild which you have always wanted to try, while you raise funds for Frogmore, such as  sponsored run, a skydive or a cake sale. These are all ideas that you could use to create a Fundraiser for us. On our Wonderful* campaign page, you will find all the tools you need, to help set you up a fundraiser on our behalf.  Just follow the instructions. Again this is fee free, so we will get the benefit of all your hard work. You may add Gift Aid if you wish. What's more, you will be able to add to the 'money raised' counter at the top of the page and see our money grow. 

Fundraise or Donate via Wonderful