Apsley Mill

There was originally a corn-mill recorded in the Domesday Book.^[1]

The mill was converted to papermaking by George Stafford in 1778, and was purchased by John Dickinson in 1809.^[1] At Apsley Mill, Dickinson installed a new kind of paper machine, the Cylinder Mould Machine. Rather than pouring a dilute pulp suspension onto an endlessly revolving flat wire, this machine used a cylinder covered in wire as the mould. A cylindrical mould is partially submerged in the vat, containing a pulp suspension, and then, as the mould rotates, the water is sucked through the wire, leaving a thin layer of fibres deposited on the cylinder.^[2] The mill supplied cartridge paper for the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars,^[3] and produced envelopes, cards, ledgers and railway tickets, rather than paper, from 1888.^[1] The stationery products were branded Basildon Bond, Three Candlesticks, Lion Brand and Challenge Notebooks.^[4]

During the 1930s, the site became a vast industrial complex with the building now known as Apsley Mill Cottage, with its oak-panelled boardroom, at its centre.^[5][6] Following a change in ownership, Apsley Mill ceased the manufacture of stationery in 1999.^[7]

The war memorial, which is a grade II listed building,^[8] and Apsley Mill Cottage, which is also grade II listed, are all that remains of Apsley Mill.^[3] The remainder of the site is now occupied by Apsley Mills Retail Park (to the northwest),^[9] by residential developments and the Paper Mill public house, operated by Fuller's, (behind)^[10] and by the Holiday Inn Express Hemel Hempstead to the southeast.^[11]