Category: UK/Europe

Yorkshire Evening Press, Xmas Eve

Christmas visit
This picture, taken on Christmas Eve 1978, shows (from left to right): The Archbishop of York, Stuart Yarworth Blanch; York & County Press Production Manager Raymond Heppell and David Hughes, Apprentice Compositor.

There are six pages of Yorkshire Evening Press photos on Metal Type. Check the “Related Pages” menu to see the rest.

During my time at the Yorkshire Evening Press it was a tradition that the Archbishop of York visited the works every Christmas Eve to press a green button to start the presses rolling. Read the Full Article . . .

Harrison and Sons, 1950

Composing room, Harrison and Sons
Composing room, Harrison and Sons, Printing House Lane, Hayes, Middlesex. 1950.
From left: Neville Jackman, Joe Hillier, Bert Archer, Frank Farrant, Bert Edwards, Bill Cummins, Harold Harrison, Bill Morrisey, Charley Varnel, Bill Harries, Ernie Bray (aged 17), Cyril Cross, Vic Spall.
The job on the stones in the foreground is probably voters’ list.
Bill Cummins and Charley Varnel are working on record labels which we printed for EMI and Decca.
The tops of the two Linotypes can be seen at the back on the left.

Many thanks to Ernest Bray from London for sending in this photo and caption.

Burlington Press & Electrical Press

Mike Wilson
I’m on the Linotype in Burlington Press, Bridlington, a one-man operation (my Dad and my mother) until his death in 1978. I’m probably on holiday from Aylesbury, where I was department overseer on the Bucks Herald. I worked a brand new Intertype there, a model that came out before the days of the Elektrons etc. A ten-line-a-minute job with a blower etc. But I could still keep a line hanging. But despite the blower the mould got so hot that it would splash often, and the union man told me to slow down or everyone would have to work at my speed. They promised me an output bonus but it never materialised.

Mike Wilson also sent in these pictures of himself and his father.

Linotype fan? Don’t miss the Linotype Chat section of the Metal Type Forum. Read the Full Article . . .

Printing House Museum

Linotype keyboard
The linotype keyboard. Spacebar to the left, then lower case, numbers, etc. are in the blue section and caps on the right. There is an expanding spaceband on the tray above. The blue section also contained the now little-used ligatures (fi, fl, ff, ffi, ffl).

The photographs on the following pages were all taken at The Printing House Museum, Cockermouth, Cumbria, UK. The museum unfortunately closed down in 2010.

Linotype fan? Don’t miss the Linotype Chat section of the Metal Type Forum. Read the Full Article . . .

London Evening News 1980

London Evening News stonehands
Dick McWilliams and colleagues round the stone at the London Evening News. The picture was taken the day the paper folded at the end of 1980 after losing out in the circulation war with the London Evening Standard. Dick (a sub) is to the right with glasses and no apron.

All smiles round the stone as the London Evening News bites the dust in 1980. Picture sent in by Dick McWilliams.