William Clowes Ltd. is a British

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

company founded in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1803 by William Clowes. It grew from a small, one press firm to one of the world's largest printing companies in the mid-19th century. The company merged with Caxton Press, operated by William Moore in

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fli ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

in the late 19th century and concentrated its business in the town following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It is one of the UK’s largest manufacturers of directories and reference books and continues to operate out of its large printing factory at

Ellough Ellough is a civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk, located approximately south-east of Beccles. The area is sparsely populated with a mid-2005 population estimate of 40. The parish, which has an area of , b ...

near Beccles as part of the CPI UK group.William Clowes
CPI UK. Retrieved 2011-06-25.Locations
CPI UK. Retrieved 2011-06-25.

History

Clowes established the firm on 21 October 1803 at 2 Villiers Street, London next to the Strand. The company was small in the beginning, having only one

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...

and one assistant.Weedon.A (2004a) 'Clowes, William (1779–1847)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press
available online
, accessed 2011-06-25. Clowes worked for three days and nights to finish his first job, which satisfied the customer. Business soon grew from word of mouth, as customers were impressed with the company's speed and accuracy.

Expansion and steam powered presses

The company expanded in 1823 with the purchase of Northumberland Court and the installation of its first

steam-powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...

press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

es (made by Applegath and Cowper). However, the new noisy presses disturbed the

Duke of Northumberland Duke of Northumberland is a noble title that has been created three times in English and British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Great Britain. The current holder of this title is Ralph Percy, 12th Duke ...

, whose palace was nearby, and he ordered the company to cease operation. When Clowes refused, the case was tried in court in June 1824, where the printer won with the help of his attorney John Copley.Smiles.S (1884) 'William Clowes: introducer of book-printing by steam' in ''Men of invention and industry''
available online at Project Gutenberg
. Retrieved 2011-06-25. Clowes agreed to move the presses though in exchange for a sum paid by the Duke. The exchange proved fruitful for Clowes, as the bankruptcy of

Archibald Constable Archibald David Constable (24 February 1774 – 21 July 1827) was a Scottish publisher, bookseller and stationer. Life Constable was born at Carnbee, Fife, son of the land steward to the Earl of Kellie. In 1788 Archibald was apprenticed to Pe ...

caused a short period of bad business that afflicted the London publishing industry and the Duke's compensation helped offset the large losses Clowes experienced during this time. In 1826, the company purchased and moved to premises on Duke Street that had previously been occupied by Applegath and Cowper. The firm, which was renamed at William Clowes and Sons in 1839, grew rapidly, and by 1843 was one of the largest printing companies in the world: it operated 24 presses and had its own type and stereotype foundries, 2500 tonnes of stereotyped plates (at the time worth at least 500,000

pounds sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO 4217, ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of #Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, its associated territori ...

), and a collection of 80,000

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

s. In 1847, Clowes died, and three of his sons, William Clowes the younger (1807–1883), Winchester, and George, took over running the company. In 1851, the company secured a large contract to print half a million catalogues for the

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...

. The project involved the use of 50 tonnes of type, 30,000 reams of paper and three tonnes of ink.Weedon.A (2004b) 'Clowes, William, the younger (1807–1883)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press'',
available online
, accessed 2011-06-25.

Merger with Caxton Press

In 1873, William Clowes the younger's eldest son, William Archibald Clowes (1843–1904), and his nephew William Charles Knight Clowes (1838–1917) entered a partnership with William Moore, who operated the Caxton Press in

. Although Moore suddenly disappeared, leaving a considerable debt, the firm survived and was re-established as Clowes and Clowes. It grew from operating four presses to 15 in just three years. In 1880, Clowes and Clowes merged with William Clowes & Sons to form William Clowes Ltd.

Relocation to Beccles

The company continued operating into the 20th century, but suffered a setback during

, when

the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

destroyed its Duke Street offices. Following the war, the firm decided to concentrate on expanding its presses in Beccles. In the late 1970s, computerised phototypesetting was introduced to the company which has continued to invest in digital technology. The company sold its old Beccles premises in 2003 and moved to a new, custom-built factory at

on the outskirts of Beccles in 2004.Staff call for safe route to work
BBC news website, 2008-02-28. Retrieved 2011-06-25.

References

*Langley, Leanne. "Clowes".
Grove Music Online
' (subscription required). ed. L. Macy. Retrieved on March 7, 2007.

External links

William Clowes Ltd.
{{Authority control Printing companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Suffolk