Standon, Old Paper Mill c.1965

Photo ref: S377006

More about this scene

Previously a corn mill, the building was converted to manufacture hand-made paper in 1713. More than forty people were employed here collecting rags, which were sorted by women and children, washed in the river and laid out to dry in Laundry Meadow opposite the mill to the right of the photograph. The rags were then cut up and pounded to form the fibres in the paper. In 1865, the mill was converted to a saw mill and later to an engineering workshop. It is now a private residence. The ford does not cut straight across the Rib, but runs along the river bed and then emerges further down stream on the opposite bank. Motorists use the ford at their peril: it is susceptible to flash flooding, and many an unwary traveller has found himself and his car floating away down stream.