Author Archives: Backstreeter

Printing Neighbours – part 2

I was taking some picture the other day when a gentleman told me about Burgess …

Burgesses were in Stert Street when I started in 1949. I started work at £1 10s a week. £1 for my mum and 10s for me. All the presses were hand-fed back then…. Abbey Press was by the side of it in Stert Street. Then Burgesses moved to up near Waitrose… I was a printer all my life. Just before I retired the last press they bought cost 2.4 million, a Heidelberger machine. It did the lot, and all automatic – put the colours on the inside and the varnish outside, all in one pass. The last picture we printed was a big picture of the sighting of the Bismarck. I got a picture framed of that for my retirement.
Ye Olde
Burgess and Sons, the printer, were at 55 Stert Street in the 1930s. At that time they did a lot of work for HMSO, printing patents.

Next door, number 57 was vacant for some time. 57 had been the Abingdon Kinema. Burgess and Sons had plans to expand into number 57. But before they could get everything agreed The Abbey Press (John Hooke Ltd) bought 57, and so the two printers were neighbours for the first time.
Ye Olde
That was a blessing in disguise as a larger premises on Station Road, by the old coal yard, became available. Most of the building was owned by William Press and Son, a big engineering company. They took part in the big conversion from coal gas to North Sea natural gas in the 1970s, when 20 million appliances were altered.
Ye Olde
Burgesses took over some of the building. Then when William Press and Son moved out, Burgesses took over the lot. It was more than they needed but gave room for expansion. Some parts of the site were let, one part to The Abbey Press – and so the printers became neighbours for a second time.
Ye Olde
The twenty first century arrived and Burgesses had been taken over by a company outside Abingdon who had exciting plans. The shocking news came in June 2000 that the 195 staff of Burgess were to loose their jobs. Europe’s largest independent greetings card printer, was to close. Their parent company, Bezier, decided that the market for greeting cards was changing, and their plan to make Abingdon the center for making greeting cards was no longer viable.

The Abbey Press expanded and carried on both on the old Station Road site and in Nuffield Way. The old Station Road site became the Thames View housing development so they moved all their operations to Nuffield Way. The Abbey Press ceased trading in April 2013.

I find it amazing, in my own lifetime, to have seen factories and institutions, that I thought would last forever, demolished, just leaving individuals’ memories. I don’t know if anybody has written a history of John Hooke Ltd and The Abbey Press. Leslie E. Stopps compiled A Short History – Burgess & Son (Abingdon) Ltd in 1980, and I got a copy second hand after listening to the man who was a printer all his life. It has lots of pictures of people and printing presses.

Printing Neighbours

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Ye Olde
Stert Street, Abingdon, at lunchtime today.
Ye Olde
Stert Street, Abingdon about the turn of the century – 1900.
Ye Olde
At number 55 was Ye Olde Printinge Workes. At the far end was W. H. Hooke. Both were printers.
Ye Olde
W. H. Hooke is now Robert Gatward Jewellers.

So what did happen to Ye Olde Printinge Workes and W. H. Hooke. How did they become neighbours during the twentieth century, not once, but twice, and what has happened to them since the year 2000.

Find out in tomorrow’s Abingdon Blog installment of ‘Printing Neighbours.’

Fallen Poplar

Abingdon 100 years ago – August 1920

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Abingdon 100 years ago
7th August
The Vicar of Abingdon presided over a meeting held on Thursday in the Guildhall, on the subject of the League of Nations. It was intended to hold the meeting in the grounds of Caldecott House, but the weather prevented it. A branch of the League is to be formed Abingdon.

The Abingdon Bowling Club played their first game on the new links in Albert Park on Thursday afternoon, when they met the East Oxford Club. Abingdon won by 30 points in a 30-end game, the scores being- Abingdon, 101 ; Oxford, 71.

A marriage is announced shortly to take place between Major W. Morland, D S.O, M.C., Oxford and, Bucks Light Infantry, son of the late Mr Edward Morland and Mrs Morland, of West Ilsley, Berks, and nephew of Alderman Morland, of Abingdon. and Miss Dulcie Musgrave Wroughton, daughter of Mr W. Wroughton, of Creaton Lodge, Northampton, and Chester Square, London.
Abingdon 100 years ago
14th August
The Abingdon Town Cricket Club met on Saturday last, on the home ground, a team from the Oxford University Press C.C. and a good game was the result. The scores were Oxford, 146; Abingdon, 132. Mr Roff, for the home team, compiled 73.

The Abingdon Rural Deanery Branch of the Girls’ Friendly Society held their annual festival at Abingdon on Thursday last week, when there were nearly 140 members present from Abingdon, Long Wittenham, Milton, Steventon, Drayton, Sunningwell and Radley. The members – met at The Gables, the residence of the Hon. Sec, Mrs Councillor Reynolds, and afterwards went to the Roysse Rooms, Borough Buildings, for tea and prize giving. A service was held at St. Nicolas Church, when an address was given by the Vicar of Radley. The day’s programme concluded with a visit to the Abingdon Flowershow Fete. The weather was fine and contributed to make the festival very enjoyable.
Abingdon 100 years ago
21st August
At the Abingdon Borough Police Court on Monday, Frederick Woodbridge labourer, of Ock Street, was sentenced to 14 days’ hard labour for being drunk and disorderly on the previous day.

At the Abingdon County Bench on Monday, William Hewlett, labourer, was sentenced to three months’ hard labour for obtaining, between April 1st and May 27th last, out-of-work donations of £9 10s, whilst at the same time being in work.

The Abingdon Branch of the Comrades of the Great War held a fete at Abingdon on Saturday last. The Corn Exchange Cinema was shown, and, later, dancing took place in the same building.

A garden party, in connection with the North Berks Men’s and Women Unionist Associations, was held on Thursday afternoon and evening in the grounds of Stratton House, Abingdon, the residence of Lady Norman. It was intended to have postponed the gathering but it was found to have been the expressed wish of Lady Wantage during her illness that the public entertainment should not be cancelled on her account, and so the meeting was held. Mr A. T. Loyd, the prospective candidate for the constituency, addressed the meeting, but confined himself to the death of Lady Wantage. Tea was served on the lawn, there was a whist drive, together with an entertainment a concert party. The Abingdon Town Band played a selection of music. There was a large attendance.
Abingdon 100 years ago
28th August
At the Borough Police Court on Tuesday William George Turner, Gaol Yard, Abingdon, was summoned by Edith Trinder, Court 3, West St Helen Street Abingdon, in a case of paternity. The case lasted two hours and there was much cross examination. The magistrates made an order for 7s 6d. per week until the child is 15, and Turner was ordered to pay the costs, £3 2s 6d. The verdict was received with applause in court.

The Abingdon Town Council, at its monthly meeting last week, sealed a mortgage for £23,000 for their housing scheme, of which £2,900 was for the land and £20,100 for commencing the work for 22 houses.

The Abingdon Young Helpers’ League, on behalf of Dr. Barnardo’s Homes, collected in 32 boxes this year the sum of £11 3s 6³/4d, which, with donations, &c., made a total of £12 5s 6d to be forwarded to the Homes.

Thank you for the extracts to the Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette on the British Newspaper Archive. The picture of the Rookery is an old postcard from around 1920. The 1920 adverts for Phospherine, Blanc Mange, and Brown and Polson’s Corn Flour came from the North Wilts Herald.