INDUSTRIES 



Past and. Present, 1901. A. Gibbs and Clegg 

 & Son are also printers in the town. Two 

 newspapers have recently been started in the 

 town, the Wantage Herald published by 

 Mr. A. Gibbs, and the Wantage Free Press. 

 John Bradford was established as a printer at 

 Wallingford in 1830, and he had several 

 active successors. In 1855 the Berks and Oxon 

 Advertiser was established. It is published by 

 Mr. W. D. Jenkins. The Wallingford Times 

 was printed and published by Mr. G. Rippon, 

 but is now discontinued. Mr. Bradford is 

 now a Wallingford printer. Maidenhead 

 had two printers at the beginning of the 

 century, Thomas Hughes and G. W. Welton. 

 Now it has two newspapers, the Maidenhead 

 Advertiser, published by Mr. F. G. Baylis, 

 and the Maidenhead Argus by Mr. T. J. 

 Northery, and four other presses owned by 

 Messrs. Burnham, Loosley, Isaac and J. C. 

 Smith. 



Windsor had three early printers in the 

 nineteenth century, one of whom, Henry 

 W. Reynall in 1812 founded the Windsor and 

 Eton Ex-press, which is still published by Oxley 

 & Son. The Windsor Chronicle is published 

 by Mr. T. E. Luff. Mr. F. Walker has also a 

 press in Victoria Street. 



The spread of printing has caused the 

 setting up of several presses in the rising 

 villages of Berkshire, such as Ascot, Crow- 

 thorne and Bracknell. The little town of 

 Hungerford does not yet support a newspaper 

 of its own, but it has a printing office owned 

 by Mr. F. New. 



After this brief resume of the presses through- 

 out the county, we must return to the county 

 town, where in recent years an enormous 

 increase has taken place in the numbers 

 and extents of the printing establishments. 

 There are now no less than twenty-one firms 

 engaged in this industry, and while some are 

 only small concerns with one or two presses, 

 a considerable number are large and important 

 works, replete with modern machines and 

 appliances. 



During the past few years the removal of 

 large printing works from London to the 

 country has not been uncommon. The high 

 value of land in London, the heavy rates and 

 rental, have induced several printers to 

 migrate into the country, where sites can be 

 secured at a reasonable rental and room for 

 expansion can be procured. Reading, owing 

 to its proximity to London and its excellent 

 train service, has found favour as a suitable 

 place for the erection of printing works, and 

 several firms have established themselves in 

 the town. Amongst those who have migrated 

 to Reading is the firm of Messrs. Wyman 



& Sons, who had large works at Fetter Lane 

 and at Carter Lane, Doctors' Commons, 

 London, and required an extension of their 

 premises. They selected a site of three acres 

 just off the Caversham Road in Cardiff Street, 

 about three acres in extent, and in 1901 

 erected their new buildings, which have 

 subsequently been enlarged. The works cover 

 a space of nearly two acres, and there are 

 numerous departments for the various kinds 

 of printing carried on in the buildings. 

 Amongst the most important productions of 

 this press are the Parliamentary debates, 

 which have to be printed with much expe- 

 dition, and a large staff of readers is employed 

 when Parliament is in session. The Litho- 

 graphic department is an important one, and 

 the geological maps of the Ordnance Survey 

 are produced by this firm, who are also 

 contractors for the printing for the Treasury, 

 the Privy Council Office, the Education 

 Department and H.M. Stationery Office. 

 They print also time-tables and other matter 

 for the Great Western Railway, besides news- 

 papers and magazines. A large staff is also 

 employed in the binding department. In 

 the composing and other departments a large 

 amount of female labour is employed, the 

 hands having migrated here from Edinburgh, 

 Glasgow and Aberdeen. Recently two more 

 annexes have been added to the works, one of 

 which contains the monotype installation, 

 and the other a roller-casting plant. 



The proprietors of The Graphic have 

 established at Reading their Colour Printing 

 works in Katesgrove Lane. The old multiple- 

 colour process has been abandoned at these 

 works, and the new three-colour process is 

 entirely adopted. Each machine is driven by 

 its own electric motor. The Reading works 

 are in close touch with the London office, 

 and no inconvenience has been caused by 

 the establishment of this department in the 

 Berkshire capital. 



The needs of the modern advertiser have 

 called into being many huge printing estab- 

 lishments, and amongst these the large works 

 of Messrs. Petty & Son, called the ' Southern 

 Printeries,' in contradistinction to their 

 north of England ' Whitehall Printeries ' at 

 Leeds. The founder of the firm, the late 

 Mr. J. W. Petty, learnt printing at the Leeds 

 limes office about 1830, when that newspaper 

 was printed on a handpress. The Reading 

 business was started in 1895 in buildings in 

 Katesgrove Lane, burnt down in 1901, the 

 ruins of which were purchased by the pro- 

 prietors of The Graphic, and converted into 

 the colour printing works described above. 

 Messrs. Petty bought the large Queen's Hall, 



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