WRG Print The end of an era

One indirect result of the pandemic has been the end of the long-time garden shed based Navvies printing operation, as John Hawkins explains

R. I. P. WRG Print (well at least in its old format)

For many years we (I, and formerly my late wife) have been printing and distributing Navvies magazine.

Firstly, a little history: when we first started the only machinery we used was a bench-mounted friction-fed A4 litho copier and an A2 guillotine. We then moved onto an A4 suction fed machine.

As time marched on we acquired various machines, either bought at good secondhand prices, or bought by a WRG regional group, or just donated to us. These included: a small booklet maker, a collating machine and the latest addition to our setup, a machine that takes collated sets, then staples, folds, trims the fore-edge and finally forms a ‘square back’. The purchase of the collating machine really helped with the production process; prior to its purchase Navvies was collated and stapled by hand.

For many years Navvies was totally printed in black ink – with the exception of the cover sheet which had a second colour. We bought an A3 machine (which had a ‘second colour head’) and so I could have printed the full four colour by doing two passes (which may not have looked too good if I didn’t exactly match the settings), but soon after that Chris Griffiths (who has been a WRG volunteer and supporter for many years) from Stroudprint offered to print the covers in full four colour. These were then sent to me by courier in readiness for me to collate with the inner pages that I would have already printed.

We also printed the bar-codes etc on the envelopes, and we printed other WRG related booklets. As time went on we produced booklets, fliers etc for Canal Societies, other groups and local businesses to raise money for WRG. We also produced and sold Christmas cards and notelets, printed by me, hand folded and packaged by my wife.

All was going well... until along came Covid-19 and its derivatives.

Unfortunately, as the initial Covid rules dictated, the company that I used in Watford to produce the master plates for Navvies etc had to close part of the business, which meant that they couldn’t process the plates. Later, as the rules were eased, the company couldn’t draw-in sufficient work and it was wound-up. Several other companies were also having the same problems.

Meanwhile WRG had decided that (in order to limit our contact during the worst of John Hawkins

2020: the press stands idle. John Hawkins takes up baking

the pandemic, for example at the volunteer envelope-stuffing sessions) if we held subscribers’ email addresses on the system they would receive Navvies on-line; and for the remaining minority of subscribers we managed to get a relatively small print run of a ‘hard copy’ of Navvies produced by a company operating legitimately under a different set of Covid rules. These were then mailed out. By using the different methods everybody, who was a paid-up subscriber should have received a copy. All with the advantage that all pages were produced in full colour. Previously a full colour edition had been available on-line for some years.

During this period Martin was still managing to produce a very full edition of Navvies; but it was becoming obvious that many people, often for a variety of reasons, really preferred the hard copy version. And also, during this period Alex at IWA/WRG head office (Alex has now moved to another company and his position is being covered by Jonathan Green) and I were continuing to find different ways in which we could still keep the whole operation running smoothly. (Not helped by the fact that the IWA Office was also having a new computer system installed!)

As Covid rules have been relaxed Navvies is being produced in total by Stroudprint and then sent by courier to the IWA office in Chesham in readiness for me to collect, or on occasions I have collected it direct from the print company.

Since some months back, I have been attempting to re-instate the volunteer magazine-stuffing evenings at the London Canal Museum that we used to have in pre-pandemic days. This will obviously be dependent on the Covid/Omicron situation and may

Martin Ludgate July 2021: first Navvies stuffing session since pre-pandemic days lead to sessions being cancelled at short notice – as happened just before Christmas. Thanks to some folks who have offered other premises for the stuffing evenings-I think that I’ve replied to all. As mentioned earlier a new computer system is/has been installed in Chesham. This has inevitably led to a few teething problems, but I think that Jenny Morris has now managed to correct the majority of the hiccups that I have highlighted. Over the years of running WRG Print I sometimes wonder the total weight of paper that I have handled... and no, I’m not going to try and establish a figure, but now at least I’ll get some more space in my dining room!! Although I’ll no longer be doing the actually printing of Navvies I will still be involved in its distribution etc; mainly by liaising with Martin , the printers, Jen and Jonathan (for the printing of labels and envelopes) and also to arrange a date with the London Canal Museum. And finally – well nearly, if anybody is in need of any printing machinery then please contact me via email. And finally, finally, a big thank you to the London Canal Museum for the continuing use of its premises and to all of those people who over the years have helped at the assembly / stuffing evenings, wherever they may have taken place. John Hawkins page 31