Roger Evans - Caxton Press

Roger was born in Treorchy in 1941 and worked as a printer all of his life, alongside his father and brother. His grandfather bought Caxton Press in 1910 which became a 100-year-old family legacy. Roger began his apprenticeship at 15 years old, and his tasks included “taking parcels and getting cigarettes for the boys.” Having learnt his trade as a bookbinder, Roger witnessed at first hand the many ways in which technology changed his profession over the decades, up to his retirement in 2011.

Listen to 'Roger Evans - Caxton Press'

Transcript

“There were four or five people upstairs... setting the type… after the type had been set and the job worked you had the apprentices that had to put the type back in the cases... There were no computers then so... letters had to be picked out and put in position and then printed... So it was very manual, there was a lot of work... We bought a printing machine The Heidelberg and it was a workhorse... we bought it in 1961, and it worked basically almost every day. You know it’s even working now in the office... the machine is still working as good as ever. It sounds as if… the pump is like it’s got a bad chest. But it’s going strong…”