By Martin Brisland.
Today, I use Apple Pay and rarely use paper money. The move to a cashless society is recent and, for centuries, cash was the main means to enable trade.
Its usage is connected to Huguenots from France who first arrived in Southampton in the 16th century.
Our area has fast-flowing Hampshire chalk streams which provide energy and water for papermaking. In 1700 there were ten paper mills in Hampshire, nine making brown paper and one on the River Itchen at South Stoneham manufacturing white paper. This is known today as Gater’s Mill at Mansbridge, just beyond the White Swan pub.
It was here that the young Huguenot Henri de Portal learned the skill of white papermaking. About sixty people, many of French origin, would have been employed at South Stoneham.
It was one of several mills in England operated by the Company of White Paper Makers. It formed when fifteen men, nine of whom had French Protestant roots, were granted a patent and then a charter by James II (1685-1688) enabling them to make writing and printing paper. Of the nine French Huguenots, five had connections in Southampton. Most were burgesses and business people rather than skilled papermakers. One, Elias de Grouchy, became a Mayor of Southampton.
During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries French Protestants, known as Huguenots, were persecuted in Europe and many fled to nearby countries. One fifteen-year-old French Huguenot was Henri de Portal. Legend has it he escaped to Southampton hidden inside a wine barrel with his brother. Arriving in Southampton around 1705, he attended the ‘French Church’ of St. Julien in Winkle Street. His wealthy family originated from Toulouse.
A key local papermaker, Gerard de Vaux, was also from Toulouse. Gerard obtained work for Henri at South Stoneham where he learned the art of papermaking. In 1711 Henri was naturalised at Winchester Quarter Sessions. The certificate described him as ‘Henry Portal, of South Stoneham, Gentleman.’
Henry made friends with Sir William Heathcote, who leased him Bere Mill near Whitchurch in 1711. In 1718 Henry moved to Laverstoke Mill further up the River Test. It made paper for the Indian rupee.
In 1724 Henry was awarded the contract to produce paper for banknotes by Sir Gilbert Heathcote, the Governor of the Bank of England and uncle of Henry’s friend Sir William Heathcote. Henry’s particular expertise was the production of paper with superb watermarks essential for security with paper money.
The Laverstoke papermill is now the site of the Bombay Gin distillery. A plaque there shows Henri de Portal arriving in Southampton in a wine barrel.
Henry died at Freefolk House adjoining Laverstoke Mill in September 1747. He is buried at All Hallows, Whitchurch and there is a plaque there to his memory. Today, there are Portal Roads in Sholing, Bishopstoke and Winchester.
In 1922 the printing of banknotes and security paper moved from Laverstoke to nearby Overton Mill. It produced paper there for Basingstoke based company De La Rue who printed the nation’s notes.
With the move away from paper to plastic money in 2022 they announced the end of its contract with Portals Paper Ltd, ending a 200-year association with banknote production. There are plans to use the Overton Mill site for residential housing.
Main image: This watermark is held in the archives of Portal’s Paper Mills now the location of the Bombay Sapphire Gin Distillery at Laverstoke near Overton in the north of Hampshire. It depicts the Huguenot refugee Henri de Portal arriving in Southampton having been hidden in a barrel for the journey from Toulouse.
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