Kemsley Paper Mill is a paper mill located in the village of Kemsley near Sittingbourne, Kent, Engalnd.
Paper manufacture started in Sittingbourne in 1708, when Peter Archer was recorded as a paper maker. Sittingbourne Paper Mill existed from circa 1769, which by 1820 had grown and was owned by Edward Smith. After newspaper editor turned publisher Edward Lloyd bought the factory in 1863, it burnt down that August.[1]
Covering paper production from his London sites with longer shift production, Lloyds rebuilt the Sittingbourne paper mill closer to the new railway to enable easier shipping of product to his newspaper presses in Bow, East London. site in 1863. After purchasing the Daily Chronicle in 1876, Lloyd instals new machinery capable of producing 1,300 square feet (120 m2) of paper per minute, and handed over management of th site to his youngest son, Frederick. By 1882, the transfer of paper making from London to Sittingbourne is completed,[1] enabled by using esparto grass imported from Algeria and Southern Spain via the creek port as a replacement for expensive cotton rag; the output supplied newsprint to his presses in Bow, East London.[2]
Having expanded the sites production capability by converting the mill to steam power, in 1889 Frederick builds a horse-drawn tramway to carry materials from a new wharf at Milton Creek to the mill. On what is now known as the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway, in 1906 the first of three steam locomotives, all 0-4-2 Brazil type tank engines sourced from Kerr Stuart. In 1913 the railway was extended to the new dock built at Ridham. By 1912, Sittingbourne Paper Mill was the largest producer of newsprint in the world,[2] with 1,200 employees using 17 machines to make over 2000 tonnes per week, supplying the demands of Fleet Street.
In 1924, Lloyd's son Edward built a new mill at Kemsley, together with a model village for employees - this became the present day Kemsley village. He died in 1936, when the Lloyd Group was taken over by Sir William Berry, who in 1936 formed the Bowater-Lloyd Group.[2]
After both plants were acquired by Metsa Serla in 1998, the decision was made to close the Sittingbourne Mill in October 2006, with the last reel produced on 23 January 2007.[2]
Today the Sittingbourne site has been redeveloped, whilst the Kemsley mill is owned by DS Smith plc. With an annual production capacity of around 800,000 tonnes, it is the second biggest recovered fibre-based paper operation in Europe. Presently the plant produces K-Light testliner in white and brown, dual purpose liner/fluting, standard fluting and plasterboard liners.