Beoley Paper Mill

REDDITCH B PAPER MILL DRIVE (west side) SP 0568 Church Hill

8/138 Beoley Paper Mill

II

Paper mill, now warehouse. C17 on earlier site; remodelled late C18 with mid- (:19 and mid-C20 alterations and additions. Part brick with corrugated iron cladding, part timber-framed with brick infill and replacement -walling; plain and machine-tiled hipped and gabled roofs. Main part of T-plan with large four-bay range aligned east/west; overshot water wheel originally situated at west end at junction with two-bay intersecting cross-wing which is lower in height. Two levels. Main south elevation: three large and one small ground floor windows with cambered heads; four first floor windows; two doors, one with shuttered transom and one with cambered head; wheel was housed beneath elliptical archway to left and there is a square opening above the archway. Cross-wing gable end has a large doorway with a cambered head and three loft doors, two of which have blue brick sills. At the east gable end there is a truncated collar and tie-beam truss with two collars, three struts to lower collar and two raking struts to upper collar. Adjoining the west side of the cross-wing is a large timber-framed wing of roughly six framed bays and on two levels; two rows of panels survive at the upper level and there is a collar and tie-beam truss at the west gable end; in the south elevation there are five square openings and one rectangular opening at ground floor level; most of the upper row of panels are open or are blocked with wood boarding; three doors. A large corrugated iron lean-to addition adjoins the two easternmost bays. Interior not inspected Large C19 gabled addition adjoins the framed part at rear. It is probable that the mill site was established by the monks from Bordesley Abbey about half a mile away. From the late C18 until about 1940 the mill produced "blue" (purple) needle wrapping papers believed to have been developed by Moorish craftsmen and introduced into this county c1560 by the Huguenots. The mill continued to produce various papers after 1940 until production stopped altogether in 1951. (J G Rollins, The Needle Mills, SPAB 1970).

Listing NGR: SP0548568473