Alongside the canals are the ghosts of many industries that have long since moved on. The valley of the River Gade was once a great center for paper making, printing, and publishing. Some of the first mechanized paper production in the world happened here. Ample supplies of clean fresh water from the river were used in the manufacturing process, and also to power the mills. Later the canals brought coal for power and to provide steam heat to the rollers to dry the paper. These days paper is made in countries with forests to be cut down, and most of the water from the river is diverted for domestic use.

All that remains is one lonely machine, making paper out of elephant dung.

Yes, that’s right, I said elephant dung. They get it by the bucket from Whipsnade Zoo.

They mix in some recycled paper pulp and produce a distinctive brand of writing paper.

I should warn you that Paula bought a sheet of Ellie Poo writing paper, so if you get a letter from her with brown fibers in the paper you’ll know she really likes you.

The paper making machine is in the Frogmore Paper Mill, now run as a museum, though their one remaining machine, over a hundred years old, is run as a commercial business. As well as the Ellie Poo, they also make fair trade banana fiber paper for Lush to wrap their soap in.

To produce paper in a continuous process, the pulped fiber and water passes over a fine wire mesh to let some of the water drain out, and then through a series of heated rollers to dry it further. In this machine the rollers are heated by steam, and some of it leaks out.

You have to love any piece of industrial equipment that has steam spurting out of it. Undaunted, the operator sticks his arm in the middle of the rollers to thread the paper through.

The museum has lots of other paper making and printing equipment rusting away.

If any of that looks familiar, the museum was used as a set for the most recent Justice League movie, and you have no taste.

Near the old paper mill, there is a still functioning brush factory, with a strange sculpture outside of a woman with chains for hair.

I can just imagine her going into Boots the Chemists, looking for hair care products: “Do you have anything that shampoos, degausses, and removes rust?”

The weather continues to be lovely.

Something has gone wrong with the English summer.