Old School Press - Making Paper at Abbey Mills

One for people with an interest in 20th century papermaking.

We have recently received a copy of the Old School Press book entitled ‘Making paper at Abbey Mills’. The mill closed in 1982. The book is printed throughout on paper manufactured at Abbey Mill and has two main parts.

The first part is a detailed description of the manufacture of paper from esparto grass (in which the Mills specialised) written in the early 1920s by the co-managing director of the company.

The second part, which is interspersed in the book with the first, is a variety of ephemera printed on a sample of 11 different coloured papers made at Abbey Mills. To take one example opening, the left hand page explains that ‘The present book was designed and printed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Old School Press was in lockdown at the time but the confinement meant the possibility of concentrated work’. Opposite this is printed a highly relevant extract from ‘The Plague’ by Albert Camus.

The book is handset using a range of fonts and nicely bound by Ludlow bookbinders.

Although this is perhaps of specialist interest I mention it here as there are only 60 copies of the book available. Further details are available on the Old School Press website.

>1 edgeworn:

The extract from The Plague is doubly relevant if (as I think I remember reading) the esparto grass that used to be used to make paper in the UK was all imported from North Africa.

>2 housefulofpaper: you are correct that the esparto grass was imported from North Africa. Apparently this was only economic as a return cargo in ships which had delivered coal from the UK to North Africa. Once processed the esparto fibres were very fine and could make paper of a very close texture and smooth surface.

Sad that it closed. I realize it was decades ago, but apparently the mill had been in operation since 1770 - the USA was not even a country!
SIGH... I wish someone would reopen it.

I tried finding it on the site but almost left in frustration. It also seems the YouTube video of the book is private so can’t be viewed. So that did it.

>5 U_238: it’s the first hit on Google for “making paper at abbey mills” when I search. Link is:

https://theoldschoolpress.square.site/product/making-paper-at-abbey-mills/44

I agree the main site could use some reorganization. The “shop” link on the site’s home page will also take you to the right place.

>6 abysswalker: Thank you! Much better.

I Google'd Old School Press and was taken here:
https://www.theoldschoolpress.com/

Then if you manage to find the link to the book it takes you to another page, a huge one, but the URL doesn't change.

>6 abysswalker: >7 U_238: The trouble with being familiar with the web site of a private press is that you forget that new visitors may not find locating information straightforward! Thank you for providing the link. From the home page the link to this book is found on the yellow side bar entitled 'Books recently published:'

This is partly to update the link in >6 abysswalker:, http://www.theoldschoolpress.com/index.html, which gets you there one page quicker, but mostly to say that the press has a new book now available, 'Into the Lagoon', which will appeal to people keen on Venice, like me. There's a link to a short video that turns the pages. Just 50 copies.

>9 affle:
Thanks for the link. Enabled.

>9 affle:
>10 wcarter:

Same. Great find!

>9 affle: Thanks for letting us know. I was just reading a review of Leslie Gerry's Venice Reflections in Parenthesis 38 this afternoon. This one is easier on the wallet and just as appealing. (Opinions on Venice Reflections warmly welcomed though!)

>9 affle:
I too am rather keen on Venice and Venice books. I'd been following the progress on Into the Lagoon and ordered as soon as it became available, though I'm still waiting to receive it. This is Martyn's fifth (or sixth--see below) Venice book:

1. Venice Approached (1991)
Reprinted in a slightly expanded edition in a new format in 2014
2. Venice Visited (1999)
3. The Bricks of Venice (2005)
4. An Italian Dream (2008)
5. Into the Lagoon (2021)

These are all wonderful productions, each very different from the others. I have all except the 1991 Venice Approached, though I'm quite happy with my 2014 version. Venice Visited is the standout in my opinion. It's beautifully printed on dampened handmade paper from Sheepstor mill, features stunning pochoirs by John Thornton, and is bound in really delightful hand-blocked paper from Venetian Alberto Valese.

>13 kronnevik:

And at a slight stretch, you might include Palladio's Homes, reviewed by Warwick Carter at https://www.librarything.com/topic/322925

I'm particularly pleased to see this new book. I saw the OSP's Stockholm reflections at the Oxford Fine Press fair a few years back, where it won an award, was very taken by Gerry's illustrations, and thought the book production was great. I didn't buy it for want of much interest in Stockholm, which I have visited briefly once only, so to see the same illustration style for Venice is very welcome.

>12 ChampagneSVP:

I haven't seen Venice Reflections but it sounds as if I might like to.