Before the early 18th Century, very few provincial cities (with the exception of those hosting a big University - Oxford, Cambridge and York) hosted a printing press. If you wanted something printed, you had to get on your horse and ride to London. Slowly however, as an increasing fraction of the populace became literate, the demand for printed works increased and this led to the establishment of Norwich’s first printing press by Frances Burges in 1701.
The newly literate weren’t clamouring for books. There were plenty of printed Bibles and academic treatises abounded. There was no need for a local press to be producing more of these. What people were desperate for was printed news in the form of news sheets and early newspapers that could inform them of the issues of the day. An expensive printing press was worth the investment if it could guarantee weekly work in the form of a local news sheet.
To supplement his earnings from printing books of Sermons for the local clergy, Frances Burges began to print and distribute the first British weekly newspaper outside of London: the Norwich Post. Within five years, two rival printing presses had been set up, each producing their own newspapers. Readers anxious for the latest gossip could choose between the Post, the Norwich Postman and the Norwich Gazette, until all three collapsed when a halfpenny tax was introduced on newspapers in 1712.
This did not kill Norwich’s nascent print industry - far from it. The printers produced new titles with new sizes and distribution methods to get around the tax. The fierce competition meant that the printers were forced to take on any printing jobs that might result in big sales even if this meant breaking laws. Norwich printing presses developed a reputation for printing seditious and political pamphlets that the big presses elsewhere daren’t touch.
By the 1760s, all the heroes of Norwich’s early printing press days had passed away and a new generation of printers were starting in the trade. Printing was firmly established in Norwich.
Colour Print was founded in 2001, exactly 300 years after the first Norwich printers set up shop. We are proud of our city’s printing heritage and are pleased to continue a practice with such a prestigious history.
If you have a news sheet or seditious pamphlet that you want printed, please contact us on 01603 488001 or drop us an email at websales@col-print.co.uk
