Cylinder mould machine

Papermaking is a skilled job, undertaken by our craftsmen, who have learnt their profession from years of training.

St Cuthberts Mill is fortunate to have one of the few remaining Cylinder Mould Machines left in the world. It is now over 100 years old, and was originally built in 1907. 

Quality

As true professionals, we pride ourselves on the quality of our papers. Our strict quality controls ensure that the paper leaving the mill is of the highest standards.

Pure Ingredients

Water is a vital ingredient for papermaking, and St Cuthberts Mill is located on the banks of the River Axe, close to the rivers source at Wookey Hole Caves. The River Axe provides a clean source of water, which has been naturally filtered through the limestone in the Mendip Hills. The water has the highest level of classification for cleanliness and biodiversity.

We only use pure raw ingredients, to guarantee that we only make the highest grade of archival papers. Our pulps and cotton linters are specially sourced for their purity and performance.

Genuine Felt Marked Paper

To create the surface finish of our papers, real woollen felts are pressed into the paper. These felts have a random texture, which produces each unique sheet surface.

Surface Sizing

All our papers  are internally sized to increase strength. Saunders Waterford paper is also passed through a bath of gelatine to increase the external/surface strength of the sheet.

Hand finishing

Highly skilled staff finish our papers by hand. The paper is checked for contamination, hand counted and meticulously wrapped manually. The deckle edges on Saunders Waterford and Somerset are expertly created by splitting each sheet of paper by hand.

All our papers are touched by human hand in our Salle (or finishing department), whether its embossing, creating a deckle edge, counting sheets, or wrapping a ream of paper. We aim to provide only the best paper for artists.

Environment

St Cuthberts Mill is located in the Somerset countryside. We take great pride in protecting the environment we live in, making paper in harmony with the local countryside. No hazardous chemicals are released into our river, and we are proud to have large quantities of wildlife living in tandem with the mill. Our location boasts a wide variety of wildlife which include, ducks, trout, pheasant, buzzards, foxes, badgers, roe deer, rabbits, heron, kingfishers and woodpeckers.

All materials are screened in the mill to ensure minimal environmental effect. Pulps are sourced from sustainable sources (no rainforests are harmed in making our papers), and our cotton linters are an annual crop, which are a by-product from the textile industry.