THE GROWTH OF THE WIGGINS TEAPE GROUP OF PAPERMAKERS.
1761 – 1963
Early in the 18th Century:
Hathaway & Edwards carried on a stationery business at the Sign of the Nags Head in Northumberland Alley off Fenchurch Street in London.
1761:
The business was moved to 10/11 Aldgate under the name of Edwards and Jones. This date is taken as the foundation date of the Wiggins Teape Group because the same stationery business, at the same premises, was later to become known as Wiggins&Teape .
1799:
Three men, Richard Jones, Thomas 1eventhorp and Jeremiah James signed an agreement to be co-partners in the firm and put down £8,800. In the same year, Edward Wiggins joined the business with a salary of £9 per year.
1815:
Both Leventhorp and James died and in the following year Richard Jones took three new partners, Edward Wiggins, George Hedley and Samuel Robinson.
1819:
Samuel Robinson died and was replaced by Henry Teape who was the Kings Printer and in charge of H.M.S.O In due course both Hedley and Jones died, leaving Wiggins and Teape to carryon the business. They were later joined by other partners, but the names of these have not survived the passage of years and the company became known as Wiggins Teape.
1880:
Until this year the company, which had now been in existence for well over a century, had been solely engaged in the selling of paper and related articles. However, in this year Edward Barlow ,joined the Company and largely as a result of his influence, the first papermill was bought. This first mill was a hand-made paper mill at Dowton, near Salisbury, and although sold again in 1899, Wiggins Teape had established themselves as makers as well as sellers of paper.
1881:
The Withnell Fold (Chorley Mill) was bought and a private company of seven shareholders, including the former owner of Withnell Fold, was formed with a capital of £180,000.
1892:
Buckland and Crabble Mill, Dover were purchased for £20,000, having three years earlier begun the very successful production of the Conqueror quality of paper for Wiggins Teape.
1894:
Glory Paper Mill was bought for £14,000 to produce more of the Conqueror quality.
1919:
A Public Company was formed with a capital of £1,500,000. P.W.Holden was made the first Chairman and the Board of five included L.W.Farrow, the present Honorary President.
1920:
Devon Valley Mill, whose history goes back to 1767 was purchased from the Hele Paper Company to make blotting paper. In this year also, the first paper research laboratory was started at Glory Mill by Stephen Edge.
1922:
During the first World War, two companies, Wiggins Teape at Glory and Alex Pirie at Stoneywood, had become expert in the manufacture of photographic paper. With the ending of the war the demand for photographic base paper was insufficient for two companies to produce it in competition, so a merger took place under the guidance of Mr. Farrow. This merger not only added Stoneywood Mill to the Wiggins Teape Group, but also the stationery manufacturing business of Pirie Appleton.
1925:
F. W.Holden resigned as Chairman and was replaced by Keith Barlow whose grandfather had been a partner of the firm in 1852. He enlarged the merchanting side of the business which had changed little since Wiggins Teape became interested in Making paper in 1880. Charles Morgan & Co., Ltd. (1760) was acquired and a diverse group of six provincial merchants now unified under the single name of Allied Paper Merchants (A. P .M.).
1928:
F.Keay & Co. Ltd. of Birmingham was bought to add high quality covers to the Group’s products.
1930:
Having secured a world-wide merchanting organisation it was now time to continue the expansion of the production side of the Company. A number of mills were acquired fairly cheaply as the slump in trade of the early 30′ s began.
A merger was effected between part of Portals, famous as the makers of bank-note paper, and Wiggins Teape. This added Ivybridge, Keighley, Rhoughway, St.Neots and Chartham to the Group. Keighley, Roughwa,y, and St.Neots have since been sold, the last to Towgoods after the machine had been shipped to S.A.P.P.I.
Annandale & Sons of Polton was bought, but the mill was closed in 1949 and sold in 1952.
Basted Paper Mills Kent were bought but again have since been sold (in 1951 to Odhams).
Wm.Joynson & Sons of St.Mary Cray, Kent was bought jointly by Wiggins Teape and De1croix of Belgium. The Belgian interest was bought out in 1958.
Finally in this important year, Keith Barlow died and was replaced as Chairman by Col. Sir Wyndham Portal.
1931:
Dartford Paper Mill (five machines), was bought from the Inveresk Group. Originally it had been a newsprint mill for the Daily Telegraph.
1933:
A new Head Office and Warehouse was built at Mansell Street since 10/11 Aldgate was how far too small for the greatly increase size of Wiggins Teape .
A completely new, two-machine mill was built at Dartford for the production of greaseproof.
1938:
Hylton Mill, Sunderland was bought from the Ford Paper Company. In those days it was an esparto mill, having been the first mill in the world to use esparto as a raw material for paper.
1940:
Col. Portal, now Lord Portal, joined the Ministry of Works and so had to resign as Chairman. He was replaced by Frank Barlow, elder brother of Keith. During the war, Wiggins Teape played an important part in the war effort by being almost the sole supplier of photographic and tracing paper.
1946:
Frank Barlow died and his place was taken by the present Honorary President, Mr. L.W.Farrow.
1950:
Bridgend Paper Mill was opened. Designed by Dr. Frankel, it was the first Wiggins Teape venture into both building a completely new mill and entering the highly competitive tissue market.
1953:
Having built Bridgend, Dr. Frankel turned his attention to. pulp, with the result that Sudbrook Pulp t1ill (Mommouth) was opened in 1958 to produce ‘Gatecel’ .
1954:
The two Thomas Owen mills of Ely, Cardiff and New Bury, Lancashire, were bought from British Coated Paper and Board. This added twelve more machines to the Group.
1956:
The Treforest Coating Factory, Glamorgan was bought (again from British Coated Paper and Board) principally to make NCR.
1957:
Shoalhaven Mill (80 miles from Sydney) was built in company with William Nash, Kent. The Nash interest was bought out in 1961.
1958:
Dartford No.6 was built. This large machine is 204 inches wide, can run at 1,500 f .p.m. and is capable of producing 85 tons of paper a day.
1959:
The then fastest air-knife coater in Europe was installed at Treforest (No.8).
1960:
Wiggins Teape Converters was formed by the purchasing of six small companies, Aston & Full, British Waxed Wrappings, Keighley, F.S.Flegg & Co.Ltd., Griffiths & Diggins, Waxed Papers. This substantially added to the converting side of the Company, a side which is assuming increasing importance.
1961:
The Millbank Paper Co. was formed. This was a joint stock holding company formed by Wiggins Teape and British American Tobacco.
The B.A.T. interest added the mills of Cromptons Stubbins (Lanes.), Pirahy (Brazil) and Tribeni (India).
At the same time Wiggins Teape took over part of Zarate Mill, near Buenos Aires, from Cellulosa Argentina, forming the mill known as Witcel.
These mills with Nivelles Mille (Belgium) originally acquired from Papeteries Deloix, formed Millbank Paper Co
1962:
A controlling interest in Jointine Products (Lincoln) was bought to produce Impregnated and coated papers.
New Machines were started at Chartham and bridgend and a new coater was installed at Ely Mill.
Finally in 1962, Wiggins Teape acquired a controlling interest in the Millbank paper Co. With British American Tobacco purchasing 25% of Wiggins Teape shares in return.
1963:
New Coaters were started at Stoneywood, Ely and Nivelles and new paper machines were installed at Shoalhaven and Pirahy.
In April 1963, the largest single capital expenditure, Scottish Pulp and Paper Mills, was inaugurated. At a cost of £20 million, The Mill will be producing 40,000 tons of paper per year.
This sketchy outline of the groups activities can be followed more closely by reading extracts from gateway magazine and booklets issued by the publicity department.
In Particular
Gateway Magazine – Bicentenary edition
The story of Wiggins Teape 1791 – 1961
Fine paper makers – the Wiggins Teape group
The Wiggins Teape group – History and papermaking
Anon
Circa 1964