Apprentice Wanted!

It’s an unfortunate fact that we all get older.  No one has trained as a  letterpress compositor or printer for many years.  This presents Robert Smail’s Printing Works with a real dilemma – how are we going to replace the skills that the current staff bring to the Printing Works in the future.  The answer is of course to reinstitute another of part of Smail’s history and bring back apprentices.

In partnership with Historic Scotland the National Trust for Scotland is participating in Skills for the Future – a project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.  This has provided funding for two apprenticeships in Heritage Engineering Skills.  One will be based at Robert Smail’s and the other at Barry Mill in Angus.  These bursaries are for 18 months – a lot shorter than a traditional craft apprenticeship so we’ll have to see how things develop.

Advertisements for these two post will appear in the New Year and the apprenticeships will start in March 2012.  The successful applicant will develop a range of skills to operate, repair and maintain the machinery at Smail’s.  They will also be involved with visitors.

For an application pack email your CV to:

HS.TraditionalSkills@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Switched-on Innerleithen

The best Christmas Lights in the Borders were turned on this evening. Prior to that there shops were open and there were all kinds of activities on offer.  This whole affair - Switched On Innerleithen - was orchestrated by our very own Gen Harrison who spent the afternoon as the Town Crier encouraging active participation in all the events.

As well as very busy afternoon in the shop Smail's "Get Crafty" was available in the Masonic Club in Chapel Street, the first time that the Mason's have been involved in Switched-on Innerleithen.  All afternoon Rachel was surrounded by children decorating Christmas Trees and Snowmen and making their own wrapping paper.

On the other side of the room I was encouraging people print their own bookmark on one of our Adana printing presses.  Not as busy as Rachel but it became quite hectic towards 16:00 and I had fun and so I hope did everyone who had a go.  Every time I do one of these events I always get caught out by just how heavy a case of type is.


An excellent afternoon - well done Gen.

Archive Update

A lot of work has been done in the Paper Store by Rachel who has been helped by Anna Starkey who is spending a year with the Conservation Department of the National Trust for Scotland as an intern (paid).  This is funded by the Bute Memorial Fund and ICON (The Institute of Conservation). She and Rachel have been cataloguing the items in the paper store and in the process finding a great deal of interesting material of which more later. I've been helping with this rather than getting to grips with some of the outstanding archive work.  As you can see from the list on the water wheel door there's still a lot more to be done.

Late Night Innerleithen

Mulled wine, Mr Harrison's famous mince pies and retail therapy were all on offer at Smail's on Friday evening.  Tom did a sterling job upstairs producing batch after batch of fresh hot mince pies and ensuring that the mulled wine didn't run out.  Ailsa and Gen had a successful evening in the shop where the takings matched or even exceeded expectations and Rachel made sure that no one missed out on the wine and mince pies.  Meanwhile I was there to bark (but not often) at anyone who didn't use a coaster when they put their glass down and talk about Smail's to those that behaved.  A very successful evening all round.

Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser

Last week I wrote about an enquiry from Langholm Archive about a collection of printer's blocks they'd acquired from the Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser.  Today  Tom Hutton from the Langholm Archive came to see us with the blocks.  There were four cardboard boxes of blocks - difficult to estimate how many but far fewer than the original enquiry suggested.  Amongst them was some fascinating stuff - pictures of many of the Cornets - the principle in Langholm Common Riding - photographs of the Langholm area and some lovely line drawings of local buildings.  Regrettably some were in poor condition but we'll see if we can get could quality prints from as many as possible as and when we have time.  You never know there might be one or two interesting additions to our collection of printed material.

Questions.

Monday was of the course the last day that we were open to the public.  Shortly before we closed two young ladies from St Ronan's School came in asking about Victorian History.  Unfortunately they were a bit early for Living History which won't happen before the spring (watch this space) and we struggled a bit for suggestions. Gen suggested Horrible Histories and gave them a copy of our Schools Pack for the class with a suggestion that they came back for a visit.

Earlier this week a message was sent to all Trust staff looking for people willing to talk to Members Groups. Well I’ve been on their list for a couple of years with talks on: 

• Robert Smails’s Printing Works
• Robert Smail’s Archives
• Lasting Impressions ( a history of printing)

I’m not proud I’ll talk to any group about Smail’s for little more than travelling costs and a beer. Of course if you want the best deal ask for Gen instead.

A contact in Langholm wanting to make copies of hundreds of old printing blocks from the Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser.  At the moment we’re thinking about that.  If there really are hundreds that’s  a lot of work for someone so how best to help them do it for themselves? If anything interesting comes out of this we'll let you know.

Leaf Printing

Time for our annual leaf printing fun as part of Tweed Valley Forest Festival on Friday 28th October at St. Ronan's Primary School, Innerleithen. We are running two sessions in the afternoon/evening, either 3.45 - 5.45 or 6.30 - 8.30. After a short walk with ranger Susan Kevan from the Borders Ranger Service collect our leaves we will be using them to create beautiful printed images for pictures and greetings cards. Cost to cover material - £6.00 Adult £5.00 Child/Conc. Booking is essential - either pop in to Smail's, t: 0844 493 2259 or e: smails@nts.org.uk Looking forward to seeing you there.