Newspaper - British Letterpress

The Oxford Gazette

London in 1665 was an unhappy place. Bubonic place was sweeping London killing 100,000 people — then a quarter of London’s population — over 18 months. King Charles II fled London for Sailsbury, but when cases of the Plague were found in Sailbury the King, his Court and family moved to Oxford in September 1665.

“Bring Out Your Dead” *This image comes from Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom, CC BY 4.0*

News sheets could come from London but Charles was keen not to handle papers that had come from the plague-ridden city. He ordered that a newpaper be printed at the University Press.

The paper was printed under the authority of Lord Arlington, a statesman who had fought for Charles and, in 1665 was the Secretary of State for the Southern Department. This role was responsible for Southern England, Wales, Ireland, but also the US Colonies and Roman Catholic and Muslim countries of Europe. While printed under Arlington’s authority, the effort of the enterprise was delegated to Joseph Williamson, one of Arlington’s under-Secretaries.

This day the first of the Oxford Gazettes come out, which is very pretty, full of newes, and no folly in it. Wrote by Williamson.
Diary of Samuel Pepys, 22 November 1665

The paper was a sheet 11″ × 6″ printed on both sides, with the back page of that first issue was printed by Leonard Litchfield who was Printer to the University, but pre-dating the first centrally-provisioned printing works for the Oxford University Press. It was published twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays.

The Gazette was never intended for general circulation and with a target of officials, the legal profession and merchants. Circulation was around 6,000 by 1704 and copies purchased for Government use out-numbered those sold to the public.

The Gazette drew its contents from gentlemen, tradesmen, provincial officials, and later from the Privy Council, the Treasury, the Admiralty and the War Office. Although news came from many quarters, it sometimes was doctored or ‘masked’.
James Thomas, The Local Historian, 1982

By February 1666, the name had changed to the London Gazette for issue 24 onwards.

*The London Gazette, 1705, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

The London Gazette is still published today as the official journal of record, with a requirement for over 450 types of notice to be recorded in the Gazette. The Gazette makes the claim that theirs is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK, with Berrow’s Worcester Journal being the next-relative newcomer from 1690.

Year and Era

1665 / Craft

First published 7 November 1665

Object Type

Publication

Location

Oxford

Oxford

Sources and More Information

Thomas, James (November 1982), The Local Historian, British Association for Local History
London Gazette site

An Appeal

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March 19, 2022

Times Mobile Printing Unit

Following World War II, the spectre of nuclear attack faced the UK and civil defence organisations were established with a changed focus of the aftermath of such an attack. It seems fair to assume the The Times’ development of a mobile printing unit was driven in part by the need to maintain continuity of even a small part of their work, just as the BBC and others were developing wartime broadcasting services.

From a printers point of view, the way they approached the challenge, the equipment selected and the way it was tested is fascinating.

It appears that the plan for a mobile works was created in 1951¹, and was shown off to the public at the British Industries Fair at Olympia in 1953².

“The Times” Is the only daily newspaper in the English language with an unbroken continuity for the past 168 years, and the unit is built to ensure production and publication even if the main printing house should be destroyed, for instance by enemy action.
Derry Journal, 20 November 1953

Transport and Accommodation

The full complement of transport and accommodation was made up of —

2 x Leyland Beaver tractors each hauling a ‘semi-trailer’. This carried the main production parts of the newspaper.
A Dennis Lorry holding stores of paper and ink, with a trailer containing a diesel engine and generator to power the printing works.
4 x Landrovers, for editorial staff, and to distribute the printed paper. Once Landrover was equipped with radio equipment to link with the printing works.

The whole operation could be assembled by a crew of six to be ready in two hours.

The process of getting ready was to align the two trailers, flip down the size walls so they connected with each other (providing an open space between the two trailers held on jacks), and opening the other side of each trailer. The main void between the two trailers was covered with an aluminium frame, heavy canvas covering and strip lighting installed. In terms of being ‘battle-ready’, the British Printer noted that ‘…construction is such that an efficient ‘black-out’ is obtained.’

Printing Equipment

The main press was a Timpson Rotary press, specially designed and built by them with an output at maximum speed of 12,500 copies per hour. Typesetting was through two Linotype machines (although the Reading Standard suggested Monotype machines were used). One Linotype was equipped with teletypesetting equipment to be used in conjunction with the radio equipment on one of the Landrovers.

Of course, to get from the Linotype slugs to the rotary press required that a flong be created which was then used to cast a 5/16th of an inch curved metal plate for use on the rotary press.

The Emergency Newspaper and Typography

The edition of The Times was to be a 16″ × 10″ newspaper of eight pages, each being four 13em columns wide separated by brass column rules. The Linotype machines included 7pt and 9pt Times Roman and the associated Italic. Headlines were set in 10pt or 12pt Times Heavy Titling. Since so much extra equipment would be needed to reproduce photos, no provision was made for halftones or other illustrations.

Testing or Exercising

The set-up produced newspapers as souvenirs of the British Industries Fair in 1953, but more curious is the local newspaper report from Reading in 1955.

The Reading Standard reported that in the tiny village of Sulhamstead the whole column of vehicles made their way to a farmyard to set up overnight during a newspaper strike. At the weekend, ‘boys from Pangbourne Nautical College and Bradfield College’ were invited to see the Mobile Printing Works in action and they too were presented with newspapers as souvenirs of their visit.

Final Reflections

The Times took seriously its role as a newspaper of record for the UK, and London’s susceptibility to the Blitz and the possibility of nuclear war meant the paper had to look at ways to ensure continuity of production.

While I’ve listed the location as Printing House Square, the then-home of The Times, it would have been foolish to keep this reserve printing plant in such a vulnerable location. It’s intriguing as to where this works was kept and how long for. By 1968 the Industrial Civil Defence Society had been disbanded and the BBC was well under way with preparations to inform in the case of war. Especially odd is the absence of a national reference to the testing of the plant in a farmyard in Berkshire in 1955.