A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



Adulteration Act became law, and put an end 

 to the fraudulent sale of killed seed. The 

 stores and offices cover a site of nearly seven 

 acres, and in addition the firm has fifty 

 acres of experimental grounds, and the flower 

 seed houses in Portland Place, where the 

 hybridization and improvement of choice 

 flowers have been carried on for many years. 

 The present members of the firm are Messrs. 

 Martin John Sutton, Arthur W. Sutton, 

 Leonard G. Sutton and Martin H. F. Sutton. 



Paper-making is carried on in the county to 

 some extent, the most interesting works being 

 the Temple Mills at Bisham, which have had 

 a curious history. They received their name 

 from the fact that the original mills belonged 

 to the Knights Templars. At the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century, being employed 

 for making brass and copper pans and kettles 

 they were known as the Bisham Abbey 

 Battery works. The proprietors having been 

 engaged in the unfortunate speculations of 

 the South Sea year, the loss occasioned by 

 working the mills is noticed in some of the 

 journals among the bubbles of the period. 1 

 In 1748 Temple Mills continued to be em- 

 ployed for making brass and copper utensils, 

 and there were two other mills, one for making 

 thimbles, and the other for pressing oil from 

 rape and flax seed, which were very successful. 2 

 In 1759 the mills were worked for brass and 

 copper only by Mr. William Ockenden. The 

 Pengree family succeeded to the property 

 which was purchased by the late Mr. Owen 

 Williams in 1788. The manufactures carried 

 on in the mills in 1800 were considered the 

 most complete and powerful of the kind in 

 the kingdom, and consisted of the rolling of 

 copper sheets for various purposes, the rolling 

 of copper bolts for the navy and other ship- 

 ping, and hammering out copper pans and 

 bottoms for distilleries. There was also a 

 mill for drawing brass wire. 3 The works are 

 now used for making paper, and are conducted 

 by Messrs. Thomas Brothers & Co., Limited. 



Paper-making was introduced into Cookham 

 about the middle of the eighteenth century by 

 Mr. William Venables. The paper was used 

 mainly for wrapping purposes, but was of a 

 superior quality and had a good reputation. 

 The business passed through four generations 

 of the Venables family, the last owner of the 

 name dying in 1893, and is still carried on 

 under the firm George Venables & Son. 



The Colthrop Mills at Thatcham now used 

 for paper-making have a considerable history. 



1 Mist's Journal, 26 Nov. 1720, ii. 71. 

 ' lour through Great Britain, iv. 1748. 

 ' Lysons, Berkshire, pp. 198, 199. 



They were re-built in 1472* and were then 

 corn mills. In 1540 the premises are de- 

 cribed as a ' fulling mill lately new built.' 6 

 In 1805, Fourdrinier, the Frenchman who 

 invented the paper machine, lived at the 

 dwelling house at the mill and worked the 

 mill for making paper, a business which has 

 continued to the present time. After passing 

 through the hands of Mr. Munn and Mr. 

 Shaw the mill was acquired by Mr. John 

 Henry, who with the assistance of his sons 

 has worked it for nearly half a century. The 

 paper made here is chiefly brown paper and 

 other kinds of paper and paper bags used by 

 grocers, drapers and warehousemen. 



Paper was also made at the Sutton Mills, 

 Sutton Courtenay by Edmund and John Norris 

 in 1830 ; and Mr.Dawson,who married Elmira 

 Reeves, the heiress of Arborfield Hall, estab- 

 lished extensive paper mills near the old Hall 

 about the same time, which were burnt down. 

 The powerful water-wheel still remains and is 

 used for providing motive power for the 

 electric supply for lighting the Hall. The old 

 paper mill at East Hagbourne, which be- 

 longed to the Slade family from the days of 

 Charles I., has disappeared. A medal was 

 awarded to Mr. William Slade at the Paris 

 Exhibition of 1855 for the only hand-made 

 blotting-paper of superior quality exhibited. 

 The mill was subsequently let to Mr. Ford, 

 who worked it a short time, after which it 

 was sold and demolished. Paper-making used 

 to be carried on at the Greenham and West 

 Mills, Newbury, and at the hamlet of Bagnor 

 there were two large paper mills, one of which 

 stood on the site of the cascade in Donnington 

 Grove, and was pulled down at the beginning 

 of the last century. The motive power was 

 derived from the Lambourn river. During 

 the latter half of the eighteenth century there 

 was a paper mill at Whistley, near Twyford, 

 on the site of the mill mentioned in the 

 Domesday Survey ; but it has entirely disap- 

 peared. 



Basket-making was at one time an import- 

 ant industry in the villages along the banks 

 of the Thames, where osier beds are cultivated. 

 Formerly it was used extensively for the 

 making of eel bucks and other fishing appli- 

 ances, especially at Cookham. The industry 

 is still carried on for the manufacture of 

 baskets required for fruit gathering and 

 marketing ; but the low prices of foreign 

 baskets has greatly interfered with the trade. 



Lace-making was formerly a very common 

 cottage industry at Cookham and other 



382 



* Barfield, Thatcham and its Manors, i. 352. 

 B.M. Harl. MSS. 606, f. 843. 



