RAMSBOTTOM PAPER MILL
Peel Bridge, Ramsbottom
Built about 1857
This mill started to make paper in 1857 under the ownership of J.B. Ingham & Son. Whether it had previously been an industrial site is not known. The Inghams also owned a paper mill at Shuttleworth as early as 1849 which bore the Excise Number 126. Then it was registered in the names of Samuel Broadbent Ingham and James Broadbent Ingham. Their new mill at Ramsbottom was given the number 73. Casings and wrappings were made here from old bagging, jute and manila ropes.
In 1872 the Inghams trading as S.B. Ingham & Bros agreed to sell their mill at Ramsbottom for £12,000, to a new public limited company which was formed to acquire it. Early that year subscriptions were to purchase shares in The Ramsbottom Paper Mill Co. Ltd. Prominent in the flotation were William Olive of Bury and Captain Edward Partington of Glossop, who were together involved in the substantial papermaking business of Olive & Partington at Glossop (This business continued under that name until closure in 1950s).
At this time wood pulp began to be used at Ramsbottom as well as esparto straw and new rags for making better class paper. The new company did well and before the end of the first year, machinery extensions were already under way.
Among the early shareholders were several persons notable in the locality and paper trade – William Rumney of Stubbins, John Austin Porritt, James Porritt and Richard Millett Porritt all felt cloth manufacturers of Stubbins Vale. Profits rose steadily to a level of £6,600 in 1876. Robert Skelton joined the company at its beginning when he was only eighteen, having worked at the Railway Station, next door. He became a prominent figure in the years following and a Director in 1893.
It has been possible to ascertain very little about the fate of the company in the following twenty years and in particular during the dreadful period of 1883-86, but it certainly continued whilst others around it failed, having perhaps more substance and being served by more modern plant. Indeed, one may wonder whether the problems at Ramsbottom could have been very great at all because it was in 1885 that a brand new 90inch paper machine built by Smith & Law of Bury was installed. This machine continued to run for 89 years, closing for the last time in 1974.
In 1896 it was decided to put the company into voluntary liquidation and to form a new company with exactly the same name. The only reason for this was capital reconstruction.
The first subscribers of the new company were:
- Edward Partington of Glossop, Papermaker
- Thomas Aitken of Holcombe Hall, cotton manufacturer
- Charles Leopold Samson of Booth Street, Manchester, Solicitor
- Robert Pearson Skelton of Tower View Ramsbottom, Papermaker
- Joseph Greenhalgh of Irwell Mount Ramsbottom, Paper Mill Manager
- John Austin Porritt of The Cliffe, Stubbins Vale, Woollen manufacturer
- John Henry Maden of Spring Bank, Ramsbottom, Cloth Commission Agent
Edward Partington was appointed Chairman, Thomas Aitken, Deputy Chairman and Robert Skelton, Secretary. William Olive was no longer involved.
RAMSBOTTOM PAPER MILL
Early in 1896 the Irwell & Mersey Joint Committee gave notice to the Mill that pollution must be abated within two months. This situation continued for a few years but the Mill eventually had to give up the cooking of raw straw and esparto and any other material that required boiling and expensive plant had to be put down for the pumping of the effluent.
By 1914 Edward Partington had been knighted and shortly before his death was elevated to the peerage taking the title ‘Lord Doverdale’.
Robert Skelton retired in 1919 and died in 1929
In 1921 the company reported a loss – the pulp and paper market had collapsed. The Mill had mixed fortunes over the following years – the General Strike and Coal Dispute of 1926 caused to Mill to run intermittently because of irregular supplies of coal and during the 1930s there were adverse conditions, shortage of orders, unsatisfactory selling prices.
During the years following the Second World War the Ramsbottom Company was able to share in the better times that generally blessed the paper industry up until the signing of the E.F.T.A. free trade agreement in 1959 which opened the British market to the full force of Scandinavian competition.
In 1964 the Mill was sold to the Liverpool Daily Port & Echo Ltd. For some three years after the change of ownership the Mill traded under the name of Holcombe Paper Mill Co. Ltd and then in 1968 became part of Trinity Paper Mills Ltd.
[ From the Book ‘Paper in Bolton’ by Denis Lyddon & Peter Marshall 1975].
1992 Became Danisco - a Danish paper Packing company.
2002 Became Mondi paper.
2008 December - Mill closed
1895 – 230 electric lights were switched on at the mill, this being the first appearance in Ramsbottom of one of the most important 20th century inventions. The lights had taken 4 months to install and ranged from 16 candle power to 50 candle power (on outside of building) with 2 arc lights in the colour mixing department which, according to the Ramsbottom Observer of 26.1.1895 ‘gave illumination almost equal to daylight’.
The mill had its own railway sidings, signal box and turntable to take goods into the mill yard
[Last 2 paragraphs – information in RHS Planning file- compiled (I think) by Janet Smith)]
The first reference in the Trade Directories is in 1861 and 1871 – Samuel B. Ingham & Brother – papermakers – Shuttleworth & Ramsbottom [Drake & Worrall].
In 1883 & 1888 it is listed as Ramsbottom Paper Mill Co. Ltd – paper manufacturing, Peel Bridge [Barrett & Slater].
The 1892 Rate Assessment Book shows Ramsbottom Paper Mill as owner/occupier of Paper Mill off Bridge Street.
Hume Elliot refers to ‘The Ramsbottom paper Mill Co. Ltd have greatly extended and improved their premises in recent years and their works employ 250 people and now constitute an important factor in the material wellbeing of the town.
The Mill is marked as a Paper Mill on the 1908 map.
An advertisements for Ramsbottom Paper Mill Company Limited appears in the 1948 Ramsbottom Official Guide – ‘manufacturers of all types of coloured papers with plain, embossed or mottled finishes’.
In 1971 Ramsbottom Official Guide it is now Trinity Paper Mills Ltd, Peel Bridge Ramsbottom – ‘manufacturers of all grades of paper for the corrugated carton industry. Head Office – Churchgate House Bolton’.
In 1992 Danisco, a Danish Paper Packing company took over from Trinity Paper Mill. [handwritten notes found in RHS Archive, Civic Hall 2/2009]
In the Bury Times 25th September 2008 there was an article reporting that Mondi would probably have to shut down in December 2008, due to crippling energy costs.
The article states that after it became known as Holcombe Mill in 1964 ‘the business subsequently underwent several changes of ownership. Later it traded as Danisco Paper before being acquired by Mondi in 2002. The international company has key interests in Western Europe, Russia and South Africa. The group is principally involved in the manufacture of packaging paper and converted packaging products. Mondi has production operations across 35 countries’.
Extant 2008 operated by Mondi Paper.
25th September 2008– Article in Bury Times re closure of mill in December 2008.
Apparently there are two date stones seen on site at Ramsbottom paper Mill
1859 – on office near chimney.
1875 R.P.M. from engine house [‘Stories in Stone Update’ by John B. Taylor of Stacksteads]