FORMER employees at Glory Mill and their contribution to paper-making in the area have been recognised in a new booklet on the mill's history.

Glory Mill 400 Years of Paper Making, co-authored by Mike Trim, Glory Mill's PR consultant and the mill's personnel manager Gloria Corbett, who left the mill in December after 27 years, is primarily about the people and the community that grew up around the Wooburn Green mill.

People like former managing director Jim Fryer who was born and bred in Wooburn Green and started his apprenticeship at the mill in 1957.

He writes in the introduction: "Many things have been written about the history of Glory Mill and the production of paper, but to me the history of Glory Mill is also about its people."

The awards received by the company, such as the Thames Valley Business of the Year Export Award in 1992, the contribution made by the engineering department, and the achievements of staff at group show days, are all included along with lots of pictures to recall those days.

The loss of the Agfa Gevaert business in 1993 marked the turning point in the fortunes of the mill.

Its subsequent owners, Felix Schoeller, extended the life of the mill until March 1999 when it made the decision to close it for economic and logistical reasons. The Digital Imaging Division has remained on site in an extended and modernised technical block.

Copies of the booklet have been sent to former employees, one of whom, Andy Wigglesworth, has set up a web site, www.glorymill.com