Discovering the art of paper-making

04.03.2020

On Friday Year 2 set off with great excitement to Frogmore Paper Mill in Hemel Hempstead, the oldest mechanised paper mill in the world. 

The girls started their day with an introduction to the art of making paper.  They were intrigued that paper and water could be put in a blender and the resulting pulp could be scooped onto a frame to make a new sheet of paper.  They learnt that before the machines were invented paper could only be made the size of a man’s arm span.  Following the talk, they had a tour of the mill and were fascinated by the water wheel which was spinning noisily. The river has been a source of power for the mill for over 1,000 years!

The next activity was to make their own sheets of paper, which they did with great enthusiasm and skill.  We were grateful that our pieces of paper were put in a drier so we could take them home at the end of the day.  The girls were then shown how printing used to be done and how each letter had to be added to a frame individually.  The final activity was using the Braille machines and creating our own names.  We all decided they were tricky for us to ‘read’ with our untrained fingers!

It was a fun and informative day which we all enjoyed.