Started in 1946, Welch & Sons Printers
has gone through many changes but still remains a family-run business
offering a personalised service to each of our many customers. When you
talk to us about your printing, advertising or design requirements, you
can be sure that you're talking to helpful people with years of experience
in each stage of the process involved in creating your printing. Being
a family owned and run company, all the employees are seen as individual
people not jobs and that is how we treat all of our customers from new
customers struggling to get their first business venture off the ground
in today's competitive market to international sellers with whom we've
enjoyed close working relationships for decades.
The
History of Printing in Peacehaven
-Based on a speech given by R.I. Welch to Peacehaven Chamber of Commerce in 2007
From our point of view printing in Peacehaven really began in Sheffield in the thirties. My grandfather, Robert Henry Welch, was considered one of the foremost printers of his time, back then printing was considered a bit of an art or craft, and he'd had several articles he'd written on cutting and creasing published in various trade publications. The highlight of his career was being invited to make the invitations for King George VI's coronation, back then royalty was considered much more highly than you find nowadays.
At 14 years old, my father (Robert James Welch) began printing with his father. Given his height at that age, he had to spend the first few years of his printing life standing on a box (later to be known as the 'Bob step') to be able to stretch over the machines and feed the paper in. This wasn't the safest of jobs in a print house, all the machines were belt-driven from a central shaft, health and safety really consisted of not falling off the box. Because of the heavy machinery involved at that time, there were occasional visits to all print houses by factory inspectors, on their arrivals at the factory the kids were hidden upstairs and had a couple of hours off while the inspectors did their jobs.
Machinery wasn't the only hazardous aspect to life in industrial Sheffield at that time. After years of exposure to a high level of toxicity living and working in the shadow of the Sheffield steel mills grandfather contracted TB and was instructed by his physician to move or die. Then war broke out.
After the war the family once again looked to move away from Sheffield. At the time the sea breezes of the South of England were considered by both old wives and doctors to be beneficial to one's health. At first they looked at a site in Tunbridge Wells set by a river in stunning scenery (compared to industrial Sheffield anyway). Unfortunately, there were flood stains on the walls of the premises and given the amount of paper it was considered perhaps not the best site for a printers. And so it was that they came in 1946 to move to the new seaside resort of the sunny Peacehaven we all know and love. They purchased what was then known as Peacehaven Press, located in Steyning Avenue from where Coastal Cabs now operate. Peacehaven Press had originally been bought by a widow and set up for her son upon his return from the war but after the war all interest he'd once had in printing was lost. At that time Peacehaven Press consisted of two treadle (hand fed) machines and a single rack of type (like having one font in one size on your computer). It was all a far cry from the sprawling printworks and factories of Sheffield but it was the start of Welch And Sons Printers (AKA WASP), we have more machines and fonts now.
The Next Generation
Later on my grandfather's younger son, Philip, was able to join the firm and then at 16 I joined them directly from Tideway school in Newhaven. Back then there were no such things as gap-years and trying to explain the concept of travelling the world at leisure for a few months to a family from the sweatshops of Sheffield probably wouldn't have gone down so well. So I finished school on Thursday, had the Friday as a day of grace and began a five year apprenticeship on the Monday, starting at £5 and ten shillings a week. At first I learnt to run the Heidelberg presses we had, they basically took the lettering for a page, covered this lettering in a very fine coat of ink and then using tons of pressure pressed the ink onto the paper. For its time the Heidelberg was a very revolutionary machine as it automated this whole process. Originally the type (or fonts as we now all know them) came in one size, you'd purchase one font in one size and that is what you got, lots of lead letters but if you wanted another size or bold or italic you'd have to buy another set. It used to be one of my jobs to take all these letters and arrange them to make words for business cards, letterheads and so on, which wasn't so bad but we were also printing a fair few brochures and newletters, which took me a long time. I'm not the fastest typist in Peacehaven but when I look back at how long it used to take me I wonder how we ever got anything done. Any graphics or logos had to be sent out to block makers. Although we were using modern machinery for the time, printing was still based on the same principles of the hand-turned woodblock that were first seen in use around the time of Caxton. I used to take a frame (known as a chase), fill it full of the lead letters needed and then cram them in place with small bits of wood called furniture so they wouldn't move. Although it was then secured with metal clips known as coins if I dropped it as I was carrying it to the machine, I'd have to start all over again.
Later on we were able to purchase a hot metal machine and I began typesetting the jobs full-time. This machine had an interface a bit like a typewriter which I'd use to drop moulds of letters into a line. Liquid lead (98% lead with 2% tin to harden it off) was then squirted into this mould and then when it had cooled we'd have a whole line of type to set into place in a frame rather than working with individual letters. It gave us a lot more flexibility but if, as was often the case, the mould wasn't perfectly aligned, you'd get showered in molten lead. At the time my hair was getting longer, my trousers more and more flared and I was into glam rock so having all my trousers covered in baubles of shiny lead was actually quite groovy.
Computers
We all knew what computers were of course, they cracked codes in war time but the idea that you could use one to print things was one that no-one really saw. I remember there was a large exhibition down in Dorset that we'd been to. At this exhibition they used a computer to print out one a long roll of type, this in conjunction with new plate-making technology that allowed you to chemically burn an impression on to a plate changed printing overnight. Looking back now, I don't think any of us really had thought that using a computer to make words 'appear' on paper would be possible but overnight we made the decision to get our first computer. It wasn't desktop publishing or pagesetting as we now know it but it was a start. With a c:> prompt, a printer, scalpel and a drawing board, I could arrange letters for printing without risking the occasional molten led dunking. A lot of the other printers around at the time thought we were wasting our time and that computers could never possibly replace our ten-ton hot lead machines, one doesn't like to say I told you so but I did.
The history of printing then really becomes the history of computers, the advent of the 386 computers with Microsoft Windows suddenly meant I could throw the scalpel away (carefully of course) and set the whole plate up on the computer.
Now when I'm pagesetting on the computer and change the font of a newsletter from Times to Arial, it makes me smile to see it happen at the speed of a couple of clicks and not at the slightly slower speed of a couple of days. Indeed, I now have thousands more fonts than we'd once have had room to store.
The other big difference in printing in recent years is attributable to developments in photocopier technology. We've always had a copier or two in the shop ever since they became commercially available but the quality you can achieve on our new machines (we currently have three various copy machines and a spare) is so good that very short print runs can now be achieved at the touch of a button (or two) where previously the cost of setting it all up would have been prohibitive for such a short amount of printing. Previously, we were always working to and within the limitations of the technology and machinery we had but now the only limit is what we can think of to create with the technology we have.
The Future
My son (Robert David Welch) does all our webdesign work, creating webpages, interactive emails and so on, and with this it looks like printing is starting to move beyond the final boundary that I never thought it would be possible to remove: Paper. As more and more business is conducted online and as the internet increasingly becomes the first point of contact between customer and retailer, it is becoming more and more important to have a visually attractive and concise web presence to get your company across to the customer, a need that in the past printing had always fulfilled. So although I don't fully understand it, I think that's probably where the future of printing might lie. Actually, over the years the usage of paper has always been changing. To start with you could choose thick or thin paper, white or vellum (a kind of off-white cream), now of course there's so much choice of paper available it can be quite overwhelming, you can even have your company logo embedded as a watermark. We've always recycled all our offcuts of paper ever since East Sussex County Council made such services available and now we are also able to recycle all our toners, which makes a big difference. All our paper now comes from sustainable resources where a decade ago it was quite difficult to source such paper and the cost was prohibitive to many of our customers. I see a similar thing happening now with recycled paper, we can always offer a recycled alternative to our customer but the extra cost can be unwelcome, in the future I'd like to see all paper suppliers (and perhaps the laws) changing policy so that all the paper we use has some recycled content.
-Based on a speech given by R.I. Welch to Peacehaven Chamber of Commerce in 2007
From our point of view printing in Peacehaven really began in Sheffield in the thirties. My grandfather, Robert Henry Welch, was considered one of the foremost printers of his time, back then printing was considered a bit of an art or craft, and he'd had several articles he'd written on cutting and creasing published in various trade publications. The highlight of his career was being invited to make the invitations for King George VI's coronation, back then royalty was considered much more highly than you find nowadays.
At 14 years old, my father (Robert James Welch) began printing with his father. Given his height at that age, he had to spend the first few years of his printing life standing on a box (later to be known as the 'Bob step') to be able to stretch over the machines and feed the paper in. This wasn't the safest of jobs in a print house, all the machines were belt-driven from a central shaft, health and safety really consisted of not falling off the box. Because of the heavy machinery involved at that time, there were occasional visits to all print houses by factory inspectors, on their arrivals at the factory the kids were hidden upstairs and had a couple of hours off while the inspectors did their jobs.
Machinery wasn't the only hazardous aspect to life in industrial Sheffield at that time. After years of exposure to a high level of toxicity living and working in the shadow of the Sheffield steel mills grandfather contracted TB and was instructed by his physician to move or die. Then war broke out.
After the war the family once again looked to move away from Sheffield. At the time the sea breezes of the South of England were considered by both old wives and doctors to be beneficial to one's health. At first they looked at a site in Tunbridge Wells set by a river in stunning scenery (compared to industrial Sheffield anyway). Unfortunately, there were flood stains on the walls of the premises and given the amount of paper it was considered perhaps not the best site for a printers. And so it was that they came in 1946 to move to the new seaside resort of the sunny Peacehaven we all know and love. They purchased what was then known as Peacehaven Press, located in Steyning Avenue from where Coastal Cabs now operate. Peacehaven Press had originally been bought by a widow and set up for her son upon his return from the war but after the war all interest he'd once had in printing was lost. At that time Peacehaven Press consisted of two treadle (hand fed) machines and a single rack of type (like having one font in one size on your computer). It was all a far cry from the sprawling printworks and factories of Sheffield but it was the start of Welch And Sons Printers (AKA WASP), we have more machines and fonts now.
The Next Generation
Later on my grandfather's younger son, Philip, was able to join the firm and then at 16 I joined them directly from Tideway school in Newhaven. Back then there were no such things as gap-years and trying to explain the concept of travelling the world at leisure for a few months to a family from the sweatshops of Sheffield probably wouldn't have gone down so well. So I finished school on Thursday, had the Friday as a day of grace and began a five year apprenticeship on the Monday, starting at £5 and ten shillings a week. At first I learnt to run the Heidelberg presses we had, they basically took the lettering for a page, covered this lettering in a very fine coat of ink and then using tons of pressure pressed the ink onto the paper. For its time the Heidelberg was a very revolutionary machine as it automated this whole process. Originally the type (or fonts as we now all know them) came in one size, you'd purchase one font in one size and that is what you got, lots of lead letters but if you wanted another size or bold or italic you'd have to buy another set. It used to be one of my jobs to take all these letters and arrange them to make words for business cards, letterheads and so on, which wasn't so bad but we were also printing a fair few brochures and newletters, which took me a long time. I'm not the fastest typist in Peacehaven but when I look back at how long it used to take me I wonder how we ever got anything done. Any graphics or logos had to be sent out to block makers. Although we were using modern machinery for the time, printing was still based on the same principles of the hand-turned woodblock that were first seen in use around the time of Caxton. I used to take a frame (known as a chase), fill it full of the lead letters needed and then cram them in place with small bits of wood called furniture so they wouldn't move. Although it was then secured with metal clips known as coins if I dropped it as I was carrying it to the machine, I'd have to start all over again.
Later on we were able to purchase a hot metal machine and I began typesetting the jobs full-time. This machine had an interface a bit like a typewriter which I'd use to drop moulds of letters into a line. Liquid lead (98% lead with 2% tin to harden it off) was then squirted into this mould and then when it had cooled we'd have a whole line of type to set into place in a frame rather than working with individual letters. It gave us a lot more flexibility but if, as was often the case, the mould wasn't perfectly aligned, you'd get showered in molten lead. At the time my hair was getting longer, my trousers more and more flared and I was into glam rock so having all my trousers covered in baubles of shiny lead was actually quite groovy.
Computers
We all knew what computers were of course, they cracked codes in war time but the idea that you could use one to print things was one that no-one really saw. I remember there was a large exhibition down in Dorset that we'd been to. At this exhibition they used a computer to print out one a long roll of type, this in conjunction with new plate-making technology that allowed you to chemically burn an impression on to a plate changed printing overnight. Looking back now, I don't think any of us really had thought that using a computer to make words 'appear' on paper would be possible but overnight we made the decision to get our first computer. It wasn't desktop publishing or pagesetting as we now know it but it was a start. With a c:> prompt, a printer, scalpel and a drawing board, I could arrange letters for printing without risking the occasional molten led dunking. A lot of the other printers around at the time thought we were wasting our time and that computers could never possibly replace our ten-ton hot lead machines, one doesn't like to say I told you so but I did.
The history of printing then really becomes the history of computers, the advent of the 386 computers with Microsoft Windows suddenly meant I could throw the scalpel away (carefully of course) and set the whole plate up on the computer.
Now when I'm pagesetting on the computer and change the font of a newsletter from Times to Arial, it makes me smile to see it happen at the speed of a couple of clicks and not at the slightly slower speed of a couple of days. Indeed, I now have thousands more fonts than we'd once have had room to store.
The other big difference in printing in recent years is attributable to developments in photocopier technology. We've always had a copier or two in the shop ever since they became commercially available but the quality you can achieve on our new machines (we currently have three various copy machines and a spare) is so good that very short print runs can now be achieved at the touch of a button (or two) where previously the cost of setting it all up would have been prohibitive for such a short amount of printing. Previously, we were always working to and within the limitations of the technology and machinery we had but now the only limit is what we can think of to create with the technology we have.
The Future
My son (Robert David Welch) does all our webdesign work, creating webpages, interactive emails and so on, and with this it looks like printing is starting to move beyond the final boundary that I never thought it would be possible to remove: Paper. As more and more business is conducted online and as the internet increasingly becomes the first point of contact between customer and retailer, it is becoming more and more important to have a visually attractive and concise web presence to get your company across to the customer, a need that in the past printing had always fulfilled. So although I don't fully understand it, I think that's probably where the future of printing might lie. Actually, over the years the usage of paper has always been changing. To start with you could choose thick or thin paper, white or vellum (a kind of off-white cream), now of course there's so much choice of paper available it can be quite overwhelming, you can even have your company logo embedded as a watermark. We've always recycled all our offcuts of paper ever since East Sussex County Council made such services available and now we are also able to recycle all our toners, which makes a big difference. All our paper now comes from sustainable resources where a decade ago it was quite difficult to source such paper and the cost was prohibitive to many of our customers. I see a similar thing happening now with recycled paper, we can always offer a recycled alternative to our customer but the extra cost can be unwelcome, in the future I'd like to see all paper suppliers (and perhaps the laws) changing policy so that all the paper we use has some recycled content.
131
South Coast Road
In the forties the family began operating Welch & Sons Printers from the old premises of the Peacehaven Press in Steyning Avenue. But in 1959 they moved to their current premises at 131 South Coast Road. This property had come on the market for £1,495 but rather than take out a loan for this princely sum they opted to rent it for 32 shillings and six shiny new pence per calendar month. The building had previously been home to local small businessman Jimmy James, he had run a junk shop downstairs there for several years. At first, the family lived upstairs with a bathroom, kitchen and living room downstairs as well as the printshop. But with the retirement of Robert Henry Welch and his relocation down to the West country, the whole premises was turned over to the running of a printworks and stationery shop.
In the Seventies we were able to finally purchase 131 South Coast Road. For the next three decades hippys, punks and yuppies all came and went but apart from the occasional lick of paint 131 South Coast Road remained unchanged externally. Internally, a lot more occured with all the changes we'd experienced in technology, various bulky machines weighing several tons had to be shifted around in a building originally designed to be used as barracks, then as a home. Walls came down, got moved around and covered up in a fairly random manner as we struggled both to fit in new machinery and, with rather more difficulty, to dispose of obsolete machinery that weighed more than an elephant, I doubt even Ebay would have helped us shift them in a hurry.
It wasn't until the year 2000 that we were able to finally renovate our premises at 131 South Coast Road into what they now are. Like most houses from that time in Peacehaven the walls had originally been constructed from asbestos. In many ways it would have been easier to bulldoze the structure that was there and start again but the presses, as they say, have to roll and so it was done a step at a time, with much moving around of machinery from one part of the shop to another. And with the completion of the renovation work, we're looking forward to another sixty years of printing in Peacehaven.
In the forties the family began operating Welch & Sons Printers from the old premises of the Peacehaven Press in Steyning Avenue. But in 1959 they moved to their current premises at 131 South Coast Road. This property had come on the market for £1,495 but rather than take out a loan for this princely sum they opted to rent it for 32 shillings and six shiny new pence per calendar month. The building had previously been home to local small businessman Jimmy James, he had run a junk shop downstairs there for several years. At first, the family lived upstairs with a bathroom, kitchen and living room downstairs as well as the printshop. But with the retirement of Robert Henry Welch and his relocation down to the West country, the whole premises was turned over to the running of a printworks and stationery shop.
In the Seventies we were able to finally purchase 131 South Coast Road. For the next three decades hippys, punks and yuppies all came and went but apart from the occasional lick of paint 131 South Coast Road remained unchanged externally. Internally, a lot more occured with all the changes we'd experienced in technology, various bulky machines weighing several tons had to be shifted around in a building originally designed to be used as barracks, then as a home. Walls came down, got moved around and covered up in a fairly random manner as we struggled both to fit in new machinery and, with rather more difficulty, to dispose of obsolete machinery that weighed more than an elephant, I doubt even Ebay would have helped us shift them in a hurry.
It wasn't until the year 2000 that we were able to finally renovate our premises at 131 South Coast Road into what they now are. Like most houses from that time in Peacehaven the walls had originally been constructed from asbestos. In many ways it would have been easier to bulldoze the structure that was there and start again but the presses, as they say, have to roll and so it was done a step at a time, with much moving around of machinery from one part of the shop to another. And with the completion of the renovation work, we're looking forward to another sixty years of printing in Peacehaven.
