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Robert Smail's Printing Works
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Office
The office at Smail’s is piled high with invoices, ledgers, old newspapers and various other items pertaining to the running of this thriving Borders business. The St. Ronan’s Standard and Effective Advertiser (printed on the premises from 1893–1916) offers amongst its front page ads the best place to buy your ‘high class artificial teeth’ and a ‘vacuum clothes washer’. See the records of the passages booked by local folk to the new worlds from Robert Cowan Smail’s shipping agency, and peruse examples of the printing work from 1877 until the present day.
Paper Store
See a reconstruction of one of the original undershot waterwheels, which powered the works until 1930. Also we have an example of a pen ruling machine and some original lithography stones.
Caseroom
A visit to the Caseroom will give you the chance to learn something of a way of printing which lasted over 500 years. The Caseroom is filled with rack upon rack of founders’ type and has a Columbian eagle press for proofing. There is a unique opportunity to try your hand at typesetting and to get your name in print!
Machine Room
The machine room contains several printing presses, the designs of which span over a hundred years. The Arab Clamshell Platen, Wharfedale Reliance and Original Heidelberg are still used today and are demonstrated during this section of the tour.
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- Smail’s centre of local history week
The National Trust for Scotland’s Robert Smail’s Printing Works will be at the heart of Innerleithen’s local history week this March, helping to commemorate the past and present of one of the Borders’ most historic towns. more>
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