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J. WHATMAN

TURKEY MILL PAPER

J WHATMAN - WATERMARK ON BATONNE LAID PAPER

Turkey Mill, in Maidstone, Kent England may have been the site of a medieval fulling mill, certainly a fulling mill was operating by 1629. There was a short period when the mill was used for grinding corn from India known as Turkey wheat from whence it gained its name. However, between 1671 and 1693 the mill was converted to papermaking and by 1719 the mill was operating with three water wheels and had expanded into a substantial works. It was largely re-built in 1738 by Richard Harris and in 1740 was taken over by James Whatman, father and son who ran it until 1793 when it was taken over by John and Thomas Hollingworth. The mill was converted to steam power in 1846, though water power was used until 1909.

Turkey Mill assumed a nationally important role in the development of the white paper industry under the Whatman's. Whatman paper was used by the artists Thomas Gainsborough and J M W Turner. William Blake used Whatman paper for four of his illuminated books. Wellington wrote many of his famous dispatches on Whatman paper and Napoleon sat on the island of St Helena and wrote his long and detailed will on Whatman paper only three weeks before his death in 1821. George Washington signed many state documents on Whatman paper and Queen Victoria chose Whatman paper for her personal correspondence. In the 1930's Soviet leaders used the paper to publish their five year plan for the future of the USSR while the Peace Treaty with Japan was signed on Whatman paper at the close of World War Two. The paper mill ceased production in 1976 as a direct result of the miners strike and the three day week. The business was put into liquidation and the property acquired by Young and Partners, who began a gradual programme of sympathetic and sensitive refurbishment of the former mill buildings. In August 1997 Turkey Mill was purchased by Turkey Mill Investments Limited who are continuing the programme of careful refurbishment and development.

An exhaustive and comprehensive Exhibition of the History of Turkey Mill Paper was recently presented by the Yale University's Beinecke Museum of Rare Manuscripts.