Scroll through the pictures above.

Bourne End pictures in Marlow Nostalgia? Probably justified, since so many Marlow folk worked at Jacksons Millboard & Fibre Company behind Furlong Road.

In fact, it was my own first job in the offices after leaving school at 16, and I have happy memories of my three years there, either cycling or travelling on the steam-hauled “Donkey” in my first year, and then graduating to a moped and then a motor bike. 

Many of the workforce had been there for decades (a 25 year service award is top), but I was there at the time when demand for their boards was slowly lessening: the main customers were the bookbinding trade, backs for valve radios and televisions, interior car trim panels and inners for the shoe industry, and producing and cutting these various boards was a complicated and lengthy business, requiring large and expensive machinery. 

An aerial view of the vast complex in the 1950s is above in the pictures, but no trace of it now remains, other than a residential development on the site, named Millboard Road.

Managing director Maurice Jackson was a formidable but respected figure who travelled by Rolls-Royce and lived at “Rosemary” on the outskirts of Well End, and who ruled his domain from an oak panelled board room. John Jackson, Ralph Dancer, John Parry and Richard Wicks were other directors. 

A sports ground stretched down to the River Wye and the Mill had both cricket and football teams in local leagues.

However working in the Drawing Office was a footballer who played at a considerably higher level: Mick Rockell was a star of Wycombe Wanderers.

A family spirit existed at the Mill with annual Summer outings and a regular house magazine, The Mill Stream.

Send your pictures in to Michael at michael@jazzfans.co 
or call 01628 486571.