Alfred Towgood's Helpston real estate 1903

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Plan of Towgood real estate Helpston 1903

Courtesy R Drabik

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Old photo of the Paper mill manager outside his house

Helpston.net archive

Paper Mill Manager's House, Glinton Road

Alfred Towgood who lived at Riverside, Little Paxton near St Neots, purchased the paper mill site alongside the Helpston Railway track and nearby station in 1861.

Production started in 1865 under the trading name of Arborfield Paper Mill 296, Helpston. Alfred had previously managed a paper mill in Arborfield, Berkshire which was destroyed by fire in September 1861.

The prosperity of the mill called for good quality dwellings to house the workforce.

1. The property just west of the railway track was once 4 terraced cottages housing mill workers (Budget Paper Supplies office).
2. The Mill Manager’s House on Station Road (Dental Surgery, Glinton Road) was most probably built around the mill production date of 1865. Census records show the Manager, John Stewart living there in 1871 followed by Graham Stewart and Phillip Crawshaw on the 1921 Census.
3. A pair of semi-detached stone houses were built along High Street (now a single house, 49 West Street) in 1871. The 1871, 1881 and 1891 Census records George Bowery, Papermaker as occupant and the 1881 and 1891 Census records William Abbott, Stoker at Paper Mill as occupant at the adjoining property.
4. Another 8 semi-detached stone properties were built along Station Road (22-36 Glinton Road) between 1873 and 1877 and Census records from 1881 onward show paper mill workers as occupants.
   

   In addition to building new housing, Alfred Towgood purchased existing properties around the village:

5. No 6 Woodgate was purchased by Alfred Towgood in 1876 at a cost of £160 and it is recorded on the 1881 Census as occupied by William Porter, a clerk at the Paper Mill and on the 1891 Census as occupied by Thomas Booth, Papermaker.
6. The 1871 Census records James Quincey, Labourer at the Paper Mill as occupant at 8 Woodgate.
7. A cottage, barn, stable and outbuildings on Church Lane at the junction with Maxey Road along with land to the south amounting to approximately 2 acres.
8. All of the properties on Cromwell Mews, 5 houses in total.
9. 3 small cottages on the east side of Maxey Road bounded on the north by a parcel of land and the Ram Dyke. Alfred purchased lands in Helpston totaling just under 20 acres including gardens, yards and paddocks associated with the mill, and housing and some agricultural lands. He died in March 1888 and in his will left his estate in Trust to his wife Frances Ellen Towgood, his eldest son Robert Louis Towgood and his son in law Edward Snow Fordham. In 1903 his son Robert Louis Towgood, purchased from the Trust, all his father’s Helpston Lots at a cost of £12,800 (in 2023 the incremented value being just under £2m). In total Alfred’s estates were worth approx. £20m in today’s value.

   Sourced from Abstract of Title 1903 held by owners Chocolate Cottage, 6 Woodgate.
   1841 – 1911 Census records – Ancestry.co.uk
   1921 Census record – Findmypast