John Norwood
John Norwood provides another link in the chain of events in this history of papermaking on the Dour, his life following the pattern of many papermakers of the era. He was born in 1767 end lived to the age of 81. It seems probable that he was born at River for he served his apprenticeship at River Mill and worked there with Francis and Thomas Ash. He married Martha, the daughter of Francis Ash, in 1795. John Norwood left River in 1800 and worked for Phipps at Lower Buckland Mill. In 1806 he moved to Horne Street, Cheriton, where he purchased the Horne Street Paper Mill.
The mill at Horne Street is believed to have had only one vat at the time and was situated in a ridiculously small brook only a few feet wide which now flows into the Hythe canal in a drain pipe under the road at Seabrook. (believed to be named as the spot where the brook met the sea). It was a very old mill being first mentioned in local records (Hythe) as a by Wareham’s Paper Mill, in 1512. The next mention of the mill comes in 1713 when it was owned by the Honeywood family and in 1769 it was owned by one monad Pearce and listed as a "wind and water" mill. A.H. Shorter in his book "paper Making in the British Isles" mentions but three certain examples of the use of ‘wind power’ in British mills, one of which he states was at Cheriton, in kent, the location of the Home Street mill. There is no record of John Norwood having used wind power but it is known that the mill had a fairly large head of water in his time and when this was full he "worked the beaters". (There was probably only one beater). He appears to have worked when there was water in the head pond irrespective of day’ or night and rested when the water was low.
John Norwood ran into financial trouble in 1813 when a reference to him was ‘made in the Kentish Gazette’ thus:- "The creditors of John Norwood in the parish of Cheriton, in Kent, papermaker, may receive a Dividend on their respective debts, by application at the office of Mr. Shipdem, Dover, on any day after the first of May next". (Mr. Shipdem was a leading lawyer of Dover and was Town Clerk from 1791 to 1826 and Mayor in 1833). In 1815 the mill was recorded as being owned by the creditors of John Norwood. In 1821 he appears to have had an association with George Paine who came from Charthan Paper Mill and who worked with him at Horne Street and In 1839 when John Norwood retired to Live in a cottage he owned at Horne Street Paine appears to have bought the mill. The Pigot Directory of 1839 refers to Paine with paper and oil mills at Cheriton and also a flour mill at Seabrook.
Daniel Hobday was apprenticed to John Norwood in 1811 and married his daughter Sarah in 1827. A son, Henry Norwood, kept the Fountain Hotel at Seabrook for many years. The hotel was rebuilt some years ago but remains on the same site at the junction of Horne Street and Seabrook Road. During a visit to Horne Street and a call at the Fountain the original writer found that the bar tender was an old papermaker from Aylesford. The locals still speak of the old paper mill although there in no evidence of it today.