Living History days - we beg to inform you.......
Robert Smail’s Printing Works, Innerleithen is celebrating the 500 years of printing in Scotland by staging Victorian living history tours. For the first time visitors to this unique National Trust for Scotland property can literally step back in time and meet employees of R. Smail & Sons from 1896. Customers to R. Smail’s would never go beyond placing their orders in the office, but by applying to take up an apprenticeship here, visitors will be able to view ‘the works’ as it would have been.
Sirs,
We are inviting attendance from potential apprentices whom may be interested in learning all aspects of the printing trade. Apply in person to R. Smail & Sons, High Street, Innerleithen on Saturday inst. Applicants will be received between the hours of Noon and 5 o’clock whereupon staff will instruct and then judge upon suitability for the positions available.
Your obedient servant,
R. C. Smail
On 15th September 1507 Androw Myllar and Walter Chepman were granted a patent by King James IV, an enthusiastic innovator and patron of the arts, to set up Scotland’s first printing press in Edinburgh’s ‘South Gait’ (now the Cowgate). The trade they learnt in France and brought to Scotland 500 years ago differs little from the way Smail’s worked from 1866 until 1986. The huge Victorian advance in technology means that the presses are more modern but the type is still set by hand in the original way.
The Living History Tours will run on the last Saturday of the month during our open season. 26 April, 31 May, 28 June, 26 July, 30 August, 27 September and 25 October within our normal opening hours of Noon-5pm and normal admission prices apply.
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