Local
historians, Charles Tebbutt and Rosa Young, have published extensive research
into St Neots’ history. What follows has largely been gleaned from their work.
In
1735 Joseph Eayre bought one of the best sites
in St Neots, on the banks of the Great Ouse by the old priory. He built a bell
foundry in
His
profits were invested in property, He built ‘The George’ in St Neots in 1740 which
had the town’s Assembly Rooms on the first floor. He also owned all the
houses between
When
he died in 1770 his son, Edward Arnold, the brewer as well as clock and
watchmaker, carried on his bell-making business. In 1778 he opened
another factory in
Okestubbe Mill was a water-powered medieval corn-grinding
mill by the Great Ouse in Little Paxton. It was owned by the monks of St Neots
priory. It was acquired in 1799 by Owsley Rowley, rebuilt and let to Mr Hobson
of Eaton Socon.
In
1804 it was leased to a firm of paper-makers, Henry and Sealy Fourdinier and John Gamble. They spent £60,000
on machinery to change it from producing flour to a paper mill. Instead of
making single sheets Henry invented a process to make rolls of paper.
Unfortunately they did not patent it and other entrepreneurs used
their ideas and competed with them.
The
mills was powered by the waterwheel turning a spindle which turned cogs to
operate the machinery..
They
became bankrupt in 1808 and sold the company to Matthew Toogood. He employed experienced paper makers and used
sound business methods to make a success of the venture.
The
1823 flood left the machine room five feet (1.85m.) under water and four men
were trapped for four days. He and his
sons after him operated the paper mill until the 1887 when the business
closed down. Steam power units were introduced in 1851 and
updated in 1861 to reduce the mill’s reliance on water power.
A
raised footway, called the ‘traps’, was built to allow the workforce to
get to work in the winter months when the river flooded.
The
closure of the mill and the decline of the Vulcan iron Works led to
unemployment and distress among the poor. As
the mill had provided employment to hundreds of local men and women some local
business people (John McNish of Paine’s brewey, Joseph Wilcox, W. Emery, James Paine and W. Bowyer)
set up a consortium and reopened it in 1888 as St Neots Paper Mill
Company Limited. They took no money from it themselves until the business
became profitable again.
They
were limited by out-of-date machinery. By 1903 new turbines and steam
engines were installed.
Much
of the wooden buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1912 when 200 people
were employed. Rebuilding started in brick and improved equipment was used. By 1913
the mill produced the finest grades of bank, writing, ledger, drawing,
chart, cartridge, typing, loan and envelope papers, and cream and tinted typing
and envelope papers.
Its
fortunes declined during the economic depression after the 1920s and it closed
down in 1939. However, during the Second World War, Wigmore
Teape evacuated their paper mill at
The
mill was converted to manufacture nylon but had closed down by 1948. The lease
was sold in 1950 to Samuel Jones Limited.
The
River Mill in Eaton Socon was rebuilt in 1847 using better machinery. Duloe windmill burned down in 1815 and was
rebuilt. Other mills were built next to the Paper Mill, in
In
1895 St Neots Spa opened. A spring of mineral water was found by
the
In
the early-19th century George Bower opened an ironmonger’s
business north of the
Bower’s
Gas Meter Works on Brook Street lay derelict until after the First
World War when the site were converted for producing malt extract.
(Sources: Young, R. (1996), 'St Neots Past',
Phillimore; Tebbutt, C.F. (1978), St Neots – History of a Huntingdonshire Town,
Unwin Brothers)
Tasks:
List the main
industries in 18th and 19th century St Neots.
Try to put them
in chronological order (or rank them earliest to latest)
What were the names of the main people involved in the industrial development of St Neots?