Due to restrictions as a result of the Covid 19 Pandemic we are unable to have a printed copy of the trail available for visitors while walking around the museum. As a result there will be a large version available at the Museum reception to photograph and view via your phone or you can download … Continue reading Paper Trail Exhibition – Download the exhibition information
Paper Trail: Ruth Geldard
One of my earliest memories is of sucking my thumb while cradling a piece of Royal blue silk to my nose, breathing its exotic mustiness. I wouldn’t sleep without it and clung on until it was a tiny shred of its former self. The former self being a large, men’s handkerchief fashioned from World War … Continue reading Paper Trail: Ruth Geldard
07:28 1st July
On the 6th July 2018 we launched Appletye and as we approach our second anniversary we have been looking back on how and why we formed. The origins of Appletye can be traced back to a project called ‘From Wasteland to Wasteland’. Following a visit to the Lochnagar Crater on the Somme Battlefields in 2015 … Continue reading 07:28 1st July
Print Works Part 4: Working In The Print Industry
There were a variety of jobs in the pre-digital printing industry, meaning works like the Thanet Press employed large numbers, and needed specialist suppliers so supported small printers, bookbinders, and other trades locally. The key jobs, as a compositor laying out type, proof reading pages, or working with the machines, were highly skilled. A printer's … Continue reading Print Works Part 4: Working In The Print Industry
Print Works Part 3: The Martell Press
Two Thanet schoolboys had already caught the addictive whiff of printer's ink, oil, and paper that you find in any pre-digital printworks, from their father Norman, co-founder of publishers The Graham Cumming Group and owner of printer Westwood Press. Norman Martell printed town maps for councils, and diaries for clubs and societies, selling advertising in … Continue reading Print Works Part 3: The Martell Press
Print Works Part 2: The Thanet Press
In 1887 Frederick J Bobby, who had been running a small store in Bedford, moved to Margate and took over the Smeeds store, on the junction of Margate High Street and Cecil Square. With business booming, over the next few years Bobby's acquired neighbouring premises to expand the business. In 1907, he bought a nearby … Continue reading Print Works Part 2: The Thanet Press
Print Works Part 1: Forgotten Industry on the Isle of Thanet
Each town on the Isle of Thanet is distinct. Ramsgate has its Royal Harbour, and is still an active port for pleasure craft, and the rugged boats that service the offshore windfarms north of Margate. Broadstairs is the quintessential seaside town, a curve of beach at the break in the chalk cliffs, with the town … Continue reading Print Works Part 1: Forgotten Industry on the Isle of Thanet