Museum of Science and Industry

Until the eighteenth century, the British papermaking industry was concentrated around London. The regional spread of the newspaper industry changed this pattern. With its ready supplies of rags and soft water, the key raw materials, Lancashire was a promising location.

In 1800, all paper was handmade and most paper mills were small, with just one vat. An exception, with its four vats, was Smith & Ingle's paper mill at Throstle Nest, Old Trafford. Advances in bleaching meant that cotton waste could be used for papermaking. John Appleton's paper mill at Smedley was also a bleaching works in 1820.

From 1807, the adoption of the Fourdrinier papermaking machine and steam power transformed papermaking. Bury became a centre of papermaking machinery manufacture. With its established engineering expertise, Lancashire had overtaken Kent to become the leading papermaking county by 1865. Local paper production, by then based mainly on wood pulp, ranged from packing papers to tissue and continues today.