Flaming Nora: 5 Locations in The Paper Mill Girl

Tuesday, March 02, 2021

5 Locations in The Paper Mill Girl

Would you like to know more about the locations I use in my novels? I hope that if you read the book, or if you've read it already, that these pictures might give some context and background and add a bit of depth to the locations I've written about.

The Paper Mill Girl is available in paperback, hardback, e-book and audiobook and you can buy it here

Here we go with my top 5 favourite locations in The Paper Mill Girl

1. Hendon Paper Mill

The setting for most of the drama and action in the novel, focussing on the women who work there and three friends in particular, Ruth, Edie and Jane. The dangers of their work are laid bare and I researched thoroughly but in the story, the real danger doesn't come from machinery, it comes from someone the girls are forced to work with inside "the cutting room". This was where the girls cut up rags brought in as raw material to make paper.

2. The Guide Post Inn

A canny little Ryhope pub run by Keith and Julie who kindly showed me around the place when I was researching the book. The Guide Post Inn is where Ruth Hardy and her family live and Ruth is the heroine of the book, she is The Paper Mill Girl. I've given the pub a wonderful landlady called Mrs Pike. According to my historic research of pubs at the time when the novel is set, many Ryhope pubs had women's names above the door.

3. Hendon Grange Pub

The Hendon Grange pub is closest to the old Hendon paper mill site and would have been where male workers went for drinks after work. Not so the women, not in the time when my book is set, although Id did find reports that the women were invited to union meetings held at the Blue House pub, a little further away from the mill. The Hendon Grange takes centre stage for a very dramatic scene involving Ruth and the girls she works with in "the cutting room" at the mill.

4. Tunstall Terrace

Tunstall Terrace is a large house in Ryhope which features heavily in Ruth's life. I can't say more than that otherwise it'll give too much away of the plot. At the time when I was writing the book, Tunstall Terrace came up for sale and pictures of it were available on RightMove. Talk about a stroke of luck!

5. Seaburn

There's a day trip for the girls from the mill to the sands at Seaburn beach, but secrets are revealed on the outing which threaten Ruth's friend, Jane.

And if you'd like to find out more about locations in my Ryhope-set novels, here you go: