The Robert Smail’s Printing Works, managed by the National Trust for Scotland, is the last remaining letterpress printers in the UK and is celebrating its industrial heritage with a year of special events to mark its 150 year anniversary.
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) writes:
National Trust for Scotland property, Robert Smail’s Printing Works, the last remaining Victorian letterpress printers in the UK, is marking its 150th anniversary with a year-long programme of events.
On 2 March 1866, Robert Smail signed the deeds for his new Printing Works on the High Street in Innerleithen, near Peebles. The Printing Works has been located in the same premises for 150 years and is now owned by The National Trust for Scotland, whose team of expert printers, compositors and conservators maintains the historic machinery and keeps the print works’ practical skills alive as it operates both as a commercial printer and as a popular visitor attraction. It is also home to a vast social history and print archive including original letterpress documents collected in 52 huge ‘guardbooks’, which contain copies of almost every printed job created since the business began operating 150 years ago. The guardbooks contain everything from product labels from the local textile mills to copies of local newspaper, The St Ronan’s Standard and Effective Advertiser. The archive also holds correspondence and tickets for transatlantic liners from the printing works’ time as a travel agent in the early 20th century, photographic collections and detailed records related to Smail’s business and customers These archives offer a fascinating insight into the life of Innerleithen from a time when every small town in Britain would have had its own jobbing printer.
To mark its 150th anniversary year, Robert Smail’s Printing Works will host a diverse programme of events kicking-off on 25 March when it re-opens to the public for the new visitor season.
A free exhibition titled Future/Past: 150 Years of Robert Smail’s Printing Works, will run at the nearby St Ronan’s Wells visitor centre from 9 April showcasing 150 years of letterpress printing in Innerleithen and featuring never-seen-before material from Robert Smail’s archive collection. Other highlights of the anniversary programme will include the Ink Differently exhibition featuring letterpress posters created by Edinburgh Napier University students on the attraction’s historic presses, and talks and workshops on a diverse range of topics from printing and paper making to artefact conservation.
See http://www.nts.org.uk/News#
View more information on the Printing Works building and collection
