The Printshop

Provided a low-cost printing service to community groups

Sadly, our Printshop finally closed in the Spring of 2019 after over 30 years of faithful service to the local community. This page is now part of the archives and history of CARESCO. Our thanks to all our wonderful volunteers and staff who over the years worked so hard and had laughs while collating, stapling and counting various community magazines and newsletters. In the end technology and commercial printing meant the Printshop was no longer viable, but we had fun while it lasted!

The Printshop Story

In 1986 the Manpower Services Commission pulled out of their community Printshop which shared the Homecraft Centre with CARESCO. The CARESCO Management Committee agreed to take on the Printshop and therefore the whole building.

The Printshop provided a low-cost printing service to community groups from the surrounding area and was run by a manager who also did the printing work and co-ordinated teams of volunteers to collate, fold and staple.  Using Risographs most recently, printing was done with black ink on white or coloured paper to the quality of a photocopier.

Most work was in the form of village magazines, newsletters and event programmes printed onto A4 and either stapled or folded into A5.

Regular Work

The bi-monthly Sawtry Eye village magazine, which is also edited by CARESCO, was the largest regular publication printed by the Printshop.  The 3000 copies took around two to three weeks to be printed by the Printshop Manager, then collated and stapled by volunteers.

Smaller but monthly, the Stilton Scan magazine was the next biggest regular job. Both magazines now outsource the printing to a commercial company.

Page last updated: Mon 20 Jun 2022
SAWTRY EYE
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