Messrs. S. D. Page and Sons have built a large warehouse in the Haymarket, where they employ upwards of 100 hands in the manufacture of brushes for wholesale trade. They are also extensively engaged in the paper trade and in the manufacture of paper bags by very interesting and curious machinery worked by steam power, and by which each bag is pasted, folded, cut, and completed in the machine with astonishing rapidity. Three such machines, and several hands, are employed. The bags are made of various sizes and qualities of paper, adapted for the general use of grocers, drapers, confectioners, &c.
Flour Mills.
Besides the steam flour mills at Carrow works, which produce about 1500 sacks of flour weekly, there are mills in St. Swithin’s and Hellesdon, which also produce enormous quantities. Messrs. Barber and Sons are the owners of the water mills at Hellesdon, and the steam flour mills in St. Swithin’s. The old water mills in St. Swithin’s, the property of the corporation, are in the occupation of Mr. Wells, and are in active operation. There are also many wind mills in the neighbourhood, and water mills abound.
Paper Manufacture.
This business is carried on, as before stated, at Carrow works, but the largest mills are at Taverham, a few miles from Norwich. At these mills, vast quantities of paper are produced yearly, of various kinds and qualities, including broad sheets for several influential newspapers. The trade has been greatly increased since the repeal of the duty on paper; but the increase here is nothing to what it has been elsewhere, since the daily newspapers have reached a circulation of hundreds of thousands per day.
The Soap Trade.
Another branch of business, arising from productive industry, is that in soap, of which Mr. Andrews, of Fishgate Street, is a large manufacturer. Within the Norwich Excise Collection, there are several soap makers, who produce immense quantities of an article which is used in the silk, woollen, linen, and cotton manufactures, as well as for domestic purposes. About 300,000,000 lbs. are produced yearly in the Norwich Excise district. The repeal of the duty upon this useful article must have greatly increased the consumption.
The Coal Trade.
About a dozen Norwich merchants carry on a considerable trade in coal. They receive coal inward by river 70,000 tons, by railway 62,000 tons; in all, 132,000 tons annually. The conveyance, at 6s. 8d. per ton, will be £44,000; and the total value, at 20s. per ton, will be £132,000. The principal merchants are Messrs. J. and H. Girling, Mr. Dawbarn, Mr. Pointer, Mr. Coller, Mr. Jewson, and others, who now bring coal by railway from the central coal fields.