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.
