Thames Board Mills Purfleet

09/01/2026

In December, a lady named Karen Fiske joined this group and mentioned that her Grandfather Mr W.G. Fiske ran the Mill in the 1930s. I decided to do bit of research, because although I had heard the name Fiske, I hadn’t realised quite how influential the Fiske brothers were in the formative years of Thames Board Mills.

It was William J. Alford who led the foundation of the Thames Paper Company in 1902. Although he lived in the USA, he came from a British family, but Mr. Alford's widespread business interests made him a continuous traveller and while he spent a good deal of time in Britain and was a frequent visitor to Purfleet, he did not himself take an active part in the management of the business. For that reason, in 1903, Mr. Alford
invited Mr. Edwin Burton Fiske to take over the management of the newly launched Board Mill and E.B. Fiske became the Company’s first Managing Director.

In 1907, Mr. Fiske appointed his brother, William Grant Fiske, (Karen’s Grandfather), as a Director. This was far from an example of nepotism, because Mr W.G.Fiske was a respected businessman in his own right, with specific expertise in the manufacture of cartons and containers. It’s thanks to him that the Fiberite container and its well known name came into being.

If you read the Thames Topics articles attached, you will get an appreciation of how much they gave to the Mill. In their era, Purfleet installed 5 Board Machines, including the largest in the World (No.5) and the Warrington Mill was built with two machines operating.

As you will see they both retired in 1938, at which time, William was 64 and his brother, Edwin almost 70. Sadly, Edwin died in 1940, but William enjoyed his retirement at Harwood Hall in Upminster, occasionally visiting the Mill to appreciate the fruits of his endeavours. He died in 1952 at the age of 78.

The attached images, including pictures of the two brothers, are taken from the Thames Topics of the time. Mr W.G. Fiske is the gentleman without the moustache.

31/12/2025

On the day we mark 22 years since the closure of the Purfleet Mill, may I thank everyone who has taken the time to read the TBM page in the last year and take this opportunity to wish you and your families all a very Happy and Healthy 2026.

23/12/2025

Hello again all, further to the news about Darrell, his funeral will be on Friday 16th January, 12:30pm at Corbets Tey crematorium (South Chapel). Afterwards there will be a chance to celebrate Darrell’s life at Aveley Village Social Club, Mill Road, Aveley, RM15 4SJ.

14/12/2025

Today, I have to pass on a message I have received from Spencer Wood. It is the desperately sad news that his Dad, our friend and former colleague, Darrell Wood passed away at home last Sunday December 7th aged 63.

Affectionately known as Del Boy, Darrell started at the Mill in 1988 and was an extremely popular member of E shift. At the time of the closure he was the Shift Supervisor.

In recent years, Darrell has certainly not enjoyed the best of health, with failing eyesight and frequent hospital visits for dialysis. However this did not stop him from recently organising a meet up of some of his Mill mates, which a number of us attended in November.

The details of Darrell’s funeral will be posted as soon as I know, but in the meantime I’m sure you’ll join me in sending our condolences to Darrell’s wife Michelle, his daughter Hollie and sons Jack and Spencer, who I thank greatly for sharing this sad news. May he now rest in peace after fighting poor health for so long.

(As well as the pictures I have of Darrell in the Machine control room, I’ve included one taken on the occasion of the late Russell Smith-Allen’s retirement with Freda Beeny in the background).

08/12/2025

This evening, the draw for the Third Round of the FA Cup was made. This is the stage where the millionaire footballers of the Premier League could be drawn to face a team comprising of part time players who are employed in a variety of everyday jobs to earn their living.

It reminded me that over the years, Thames Board Mills have had employees who played a good standard of Non-League football while employed at the Mill. One of the most memorable years was in 1960/61. That year Tilbury reached the final of the Essex Senior Cup for the third time in their history. Their previous two forays in the final had ended in defeat to Romford and Leytonstone.

In 1961, their team included Johnny Simmonds from the Engraving Department who scored the winner in the semi-final. His Dad also worked in the Case Department on the Pasters. Then there was Brian Russell who worked on C Shift in the South Mill Machine House. He was an inside forward. Brian went on to become No 5 Machine Man on M Shift in the 1970s. Many of us will remember Dean Russell, who was Brian’s son, but Brian’s father, Bill, also worked in the Mill.

Another C shift man was Freddie Ryder, a left winger who created many opportunities for his teammates. Mrs. Ryder was also a TBM employee and she worked on the Stitchers.

Also in the Tilbury team was Ross Livermore, who was the son of Bert Livermore, who was a long serving Mill-man. Ross was one of Tilbury’s greatest ever goal scorers and Bert was among the Mill’s greatest employees (himself a good sportsman).

Tilbury were to play Walthamstow Avenue, in the final on May 16th. The Avenue were overwhelming favourites, in fact they had been to Wembley the week before the match to win the FA Amateur Cup, which at that time, was the most prestigious trophy in Non-League football. However, in an amazing match, played at Ilford FC’s ground, Tilbury managed to win 4-1 after extra time.

This was a great period for local football and during the following season, Tilbury were drawn against local rivals Grays Athletic in the 2nd qualifying round of the FA Cup (by which time Ross Livermore had moved to Grays). The tie went to a replay, but both matches attracted huge crowds, some supporters saying it was the largest attendance they ever saw at St Chad’s Road.

The pictures attached are from the excellent page called “Tilbury and Chadwell Memories.” They include a picture of Ginger Shovlar receiving the Essex Senior Cup.

Absolutely wonderful times.

17/11/2025

It is with enormous sadness that I bring you the shocking news that our friend and colleague Peter Caistor passed away yesterday at the age of 76. His health hasn’t been great over recent years but he had been doing reasonably well until quite recently when his condition worsened and he was hospitalised.

Peter’s Mill story was the classic case of “working your way up the ladder” because he started as an Engineering Apprentice in August 1965 and progressed to the position of Engineering Manager. As well as being responsible for the day to day maintenance of the site, he oversaw many large projects. When the Mill closed in 2003, Peter managed the dismantling of the machine and its rebuilding in its new home in Saudi Arabia.

Despite these monumental achievements, perhaps Peter’s most memorable moment in his 40 years at Purfleet was meeting Sue Rowland (sister of our colleague, Mick), whom he married in 1973. It is to Sue and all of Peter’s family that we send our heartfelt condolences today.

May you rest in eternal peace mate.

(The gentleman pictured with a young Peter is Harold Clinkard)

03/11/2025

I recently received this message from Martin Roast on the main FB page. The item he describes starts with a comprehensive written description but at the end there are numerous pictures of the whole site. Thanks for this fantastic recommendation Martin.

“Hi folks, has anybody else seen the archaeological report made on the Purfleet Mill site made not long after it closed? I've always meant to mention it before, but always forgotten. I stumbled across it as you do when googling Purfleet mill. I downloaded a PDF file of over 100 pages and photographs. Quite sad to see a dead and empty building with so many memories. Give it a look if you haven't already.”

This is the link to that page.

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/12317504/the-former-thames-paper-board-mills-purfleet-thurrock-essex-historic-?fbclid=IwVERDUAN1SgRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHhQ1LXrlJ2RWIbAilrmqwp_NZjbxK7wcGGSqxRFyHpmkwC6IkVKSHvQpL21q_aem_bRdo_4z7Ye1FCfrHDx4-lw

the former thames paper board mills purfleet, thurrock essex historic Read more about interior, archaeological, purfleet, solutions, buildings and concrete.

13/10/2025

Really sorry to bring some sad news. I learned today that our friend from the Patrols, Bryan Jennings passed away last Tuesday. I'm sure a lot of you remember Bryan well and like me always found him a great person to deal with. Our condolences go to all of Bryans family.

Bryans burial will take place from Corbetts Tey Chapel on 31st October 2.30 followed by his wake at Sir Henry's in Aveley.
RIP Bryan

03/10/2025

Good Afternoon everyone. As promised I've set up a "group", which will allow members to post directly to the feed, which will make it much more user friendly. It's a private group, so you will need to find the "Thames Board Mills Purfleet"Group and ask to join. It has a black and white TBM photo on it. However to the people I am friends with on FB, I have sent an invitation to make the job a bit quicker.

This page will remain, as will all of its content, but I'm hoping that my future posts will be made to the group, where you will also be able to post directly.

Hope this all makes sense. Regards to all, Paul

25/08/2025

Following the post about the Sports Club last week, I received this message from David Johnson.

“Hi, a post on 24 August 2024 mentioned my grandfather AJ Noble. I am attaching a cartoon of him done by well-known cartoonist Ralph Sallon. This cartoon was printed on the menu for Archie's retirement dinner held at The Dorchester in London in 1959.

BA Johnson (Johnny), my father was his son-in-law and worked at TBM from 1928 until the 60s. His father, Carl Johnson was a foreman at TBM

Archie Noble died in 1977, not 1987.

Best wishes

David P Johnson”

(Mr Noble was the first Post War Chairman of the Sports Club and I have attached a photograph of him, to demonstrate just how good the cartoon actually was.)

24/08/2025

*** Since I set this page up, it has not been possible for people to post directly to the feed as you can on personal pages. This is totally my fault as I set it up as a Professional Page. This means that as things stand, the page is only contactable via “Messenger” and a little known route called “Mentions”.

To access “Mentions”, you follow the line on the FB page that says “Posts, About, Photos, More”. Click on “More” and “mentions” is there. From there you can post and read others’ posts.

I have spent ages trying to remedy this. It’s taken hours of googling, contacting the Facebook administrators, all to no avail. Finally I resorted to the grandson route! 🤣

So within the next few weeks, I’m planning to create a “Group” which I hope will open the page up far more and ensure that the TBM community can continue to thrive without relying on my permission.

The content we have amassed on this page will always remain accessible, of course.

I will be in touch in due course with any progress. Meanwhile, thanks as always for reading our mutual page.

20/08/2025

Andy Gross alerted me to this post on the excellent “Thurrock’s Past” page. The photograph with the dignitaries wasn’t published in Thames Topics, so it’s great that The Thurrock Gazette captured the moment. In addition I’m posting the description of the event that did appear in the Thames Topics and the picture that appeared with it.