THESE employees of the Goose Eye Turkey Mill, about to enjoy a meal in an establishment with smartly-dressed waitresses, were presumably on a between-the-wars works outing.
Goose Eye had been involved in the paper-making industry since 1822, when John Town had built Turkey Mill, though by the time it closed down in 1932 it was run by Messrs Portals Ltd, of Laverstoke in Hampshire. It was then employing a hundred workers, producing paper for Indian rupees and Australian banknotes.
“When I was last in Goose Eye,” related a Yorkshire Observer reporter, “they had just dried off three-and-a-half tons of five-pound note paper for the Australian Government. This had come off the machines at 50 feet a minute, the pulp being watermarked at lightning speed by a secret process.”
Nevertheless, in 1932 shortage of work was the reason given for the closure, although some employees transferred to Portals branches elsewhere. Turkey Mill was subsequently used for storing sugar and wool.
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