Archived Extracts

WITH this issue the "Free Press" completes fifty years of publication, and on such an occasion readers - whether old or new - will expect from the Editor some reference to the paper's history, and perhaps some indication of its future policy.

Such a message must necessarily be of a somewhat more personal character than the usual contributions from the Editor's pen, but on this one unique occasion we know our readers will excuse us. It is a pleasure, and in some respects a great privilege, to look back on the accomplishments of fifty years' service, but unfortunately newspapers cannot grow old without those responsible for their production also being made aware of the flight of time.

For close upon forty years the "Free Press" has been under the control of its present Editor (Mr. E.S. Buck); for the whole of the half-century it has remained the property of the family of its founder, the later Mr. F.W. Buck, J.P.

It was on September 4th, 1985, that the first number of the "Free Press" was published, so this issue completes the half-century, and with the first number in September the newspaper will enter its 51st year of production.

Mr. F.W. Buck, who was a native of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, came to Sutton to enter the service of the late Mr. Charles Plumbe, the printer and publisher of the old "Midland Gazette". In the year 1869 Mr. Buck commenced in business as a printer and stationer in Parliament Street; later he moved to the top of the old Market Place, and then to Low Street to the premises now occupied by the Maypole Dairy Company. There the "Free Press" - and the writer, too, for that matter - was born.

These premises, however, like everything else round and about, have greatly changed since those days. Plate-glass fronts had not come into general use in 1885, and the shop-front then was composed of small panes of glass so well remembered by the writer, whilst illumination by night was obtained from the old flat-type of gas-burner. The shops on either side were occupied by the late Mr. K.C. Procter, watchmaker and jeweller, and Mr. W. Starr, butcher, respectively.

The printing works at the rear were of two storeys, to which building a third storey was subsequently added. On the ground floor was installed the printing plate - driven by a vertical type gas engine - and the type-setting was carried on in the upper storey. In those early days all the type had to be set by hand, but the "Free Press" was amongst the first newspapers to adopt mechanical type-setting. Linotype machines being introduced in the year 1897. To-day these wonderful machines are in universal use for newspaper type-setting, and the latest models now utilised for the production of the "Free Press" to-day.

With the growth of the paper and its increasing circulation it was soon realised that the Low Street offices were inadequate, and 37 years ago the present premises in Priestsic Road were built, and have since been used for the paper's production and publication.

Since those days there has been an enormous growth in Sutton, Kirkby, Huthwaite, Skegby, Stanton Hill and the whole of the surrounding districts, but the present generation can hardly conceive the advances made during the past fifty years in many ways such as transport, lighting, telephones and wireless communication, etc. There was then only one station in Sutton - that at the Junction ; there passengers had to join the trains, and all parcels for dispatch had to be conveyed to that station.

As the motor, or even "safety" bicycle or pneumatic tyre, had not then been invented, the only alternative was carriers cart, and older residents in the district well remember using this means of transport over roads which were very dusty, and by no means of the level surfaces found to-day. But the many changes which have taken place in the district during the past fifty years are dealt with in this issue by other writers; let us here deal rather with the history of the "Free Press."

This newspaper was first published as an eight-page paper of six columns per page. In later years the number of columns per page was increased until it became somewhat unwieldy, and a few years ago the number of pages was increased to a minimum of sixteen, and the present handler page size adopted.

A glance at the first copy of the "Free Press" affords considerable interest to residents of this district old enough to carry their minds back over half a century, whilst to younger people it reveals the fact that Sutton possesses many old-established businesses. The names of some of the advertisers found in our first issue are still seen in our columns, though, in the natural order of things, most of these businesses to-day are being carried on by later generations of the same name.

It must, however, be a unique fact to find that two of the actual persons who advertised in the first issue of the "Free Press" are still in business, and still using our columns. We refer to our friends Mr. Wm. Ward, tobacconist, and Mr. G.W. Briggs, chemist, both in business in Low Street. Mr. Briggs had opened his chemist's business three months earlier than the first publication of the "Free Press" in 1885, but Mr. Ward has personally conducted his tobacconist's business in Low Street since 1881, and must be Sutton's oldest tradesman