As a former employee of Sun Printers and having members of my family working for Andre & Sleigh of Bushey, I feel it puts me in the perfect position to provide a bit more meat on the bone regarding a report in the
Watford Observer (“Remembering Sun Engraving and Sun Printers”, March 26). This report says Watford owes its position as a printing town to a pioneer named George Jones’s decision to locate a large print works in Whippendell Road in 1906. That is not entirely accurate because George W. Jones Ltd had been acquired by Debenhams, the London department store, two years earlier in 1904. In 1906 the owners (and not George W. Jones Ltd) invested £14,000 in a new purpose designed modern factory in Watford and moved the printing operations there, along with 300 employees. At this time in 1906 Mortimer Menpes became the firm’s art director. In 1908 Menpes took over the running of the company, renaming it Menpes Printing and Engraving.
Your letters
Does anyone remember those ‘Holidays at Home’ weeks in Harrogate during the dark days of the war? They were designed to persuade families to stay at home and not to waste time and money travelling the country. Most holiday resorts were shut down anyway, filled with pill boxes and barbed wire obstacles on the beach.
As a small boy I recall the competition to create a picture with coloured chalks supplied by the corporation. It took place along the pavement adjoining West Park Stray. We were each allotted a paving stone and then we set about making as interesting a drawing as we could. The judges came round in the late afternoon peering over our shoulders as we knelt over our masterpiece. I can’t remember any of my own creations attracting any praise, but it was good fun. There were many other attractions organised during that week.