The story starts with a reference at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100134074 to a book entitled "Aphorisms from Shakespeare", published by Longman Hurst, et al, of London, but printed by Gedge and Barker, Bury, 1812. The partners were Peter Gedge, founder of the Bury and Norwich Post, and William N Barker.

Illustrated here is a theatre bill advertising the play “ Rob Roy” Wednesday 17th October 1827, which was printed by Gedge and Barker, printers, Bury, in 1827. Peter Gedge had died in 1818 and his place in the firm of Gedge and Barker was taken by his second son, Johnson Gedge.

In White’s Suffolk Directory of 1855, there is a listing of William Barker & Sons of 26 Hatter Street whilst the home address is given as 39 Northgate Street.

We assume that Johnson Gedge of 'Gedge & Barker' had dropped out of the partnership by 1855 and William Barker carried on the printing business with the help of his family. This is the firm of Barkers that F.G. Pawsey was possibly apprenticed to.

(Editor's note :- William Newney Barker was born in East Dereham, Norfolk, in 1779. He had married Elizabeth Ann Searle in Bury St Edmunds in 1813, and had been printing in Bury St Edmunds, as Gedge and Barker, prior to his marriage. He is recorded as a printer aged 62 in the 1841 census. William Barker retired in 1849, and his son, Horace Barker, took over the printing and publishing business.

In the 1851 census Horace Barker was listed as a printer, aged 34, employing 9 men and 4 apprentices. He was living with his parents at this time. Horace Barker died at the age of 54 in 1869. He had been publisher and printer of the Bury and Norwich Post and Suffolk Herald at the time of his death.

Horace had been married to Emily Lydia Ross, and she would take over the business on his death. One of their sons was named Horace Ross Barker, who would also enter the business and eventually leave to become Curator of Moyse's Hall Museum in 1900.)

(Summary supplied by Andrew Gough, a descendant of the family:-

• William Newney Barker was born in 1779 in East Dereham.
• In 1798 William N Barker started as an assistant printer at Gedge's firm.
• In 1810 Gedge made William N Barker a partner in the firm, now to be called Gedge and Barker.
• William N Barker married Elizabeth Ann Searle in Bury St Edmunds in 1813.
• William Newney Barker died in 1863 in Bury St Edmunds.
• Horace Barker was born in Bury St Edmunds in 1816 and died in BSE 1869. Married to
• Emily Lydia Barker née Ross was born 1831 in Ipswich and died in BSE in 1904.
• Horace Ross Barker was born in BSE in 1863 and died in BSE in 1941.)

Listed in the 1855 White’s Directory is an entry of Horace Barker, Publisher of the Bury Post, 26 Hatter Street. Horace Barker, the publisher of the Bury Post, is a son of William Barker and Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Barker.

Later on, Kelly’s Post Office Directory of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex of 1875 lists a Mrs. Barker, 39 Northgate Street; so the Barkers were still living at the same address. This was Mrs. Emily Lydia Barker, wife of Horace Barker deceased.

We also know this from the 1885 edition of White’s Suffolk Directory which lists: Mrs. Emily Lydia Barker, General Printer, 7 Lower Baxter Street and 3 Guildhall Street; with her home address still at 39 Northgate Street.

In the 1885 White’s Directory, Horace Ross Barker’s occupation is that of printers’ manager, so it looks as if he was managing the 3 Guildhall Street business for his mother while Samuel Catling was managing the 7 Lower Baxter Street premises, (there is further evidence of Samuel Catling’s profession given later).

Since there is no entry in the 1885 White’s Directory for Mrs. Barker at 26 Hatter Street, it appears that F.G.Pawsey commenced in business that same year at 26 Hatter Street having acquired the business from Mrs. Barker and thirteen years later, bought the property from the executors of Johnson Gedge, (the deceased partner of Gedge & Barker) who had retained ownership of the property. The property was auctioned on January 6th 1898 at the Angel Hotel, Bury St. Edmunds and F.G. Pawsey and Frederick Cater were the highest and successful bidders at £760.

Therefore, 26 Hatters Street had been connected with the printing trade for at least 164 years from 1827 and possibly a lot longer, perhaps 196 years, as we shall see later in a further item of information concerning the date of establishment of the Catling business.

The earliest recorded date of a picture postcard printed and published by Langhorn Pawsey & Co is October 1903. From that date, local views of Bury St Edmunds and many villages in Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex were produced.

The publication entitled “East Suffolk Illustrated” was commissioned at the same time as the “West Suffolk” volume and printing commenced at the later date of August 7th 1908 finishing in 1909. This consisted of twenty parts and again issued fortnightly at 7d. The price for binding the twenty parts was more expensive than for the fourteen parts of West Suffolk, at 14/6 in cloth and 15/6 or 16/6 in leather. The volume “East Suffolk Illustrated” was also compiled by H.R. Barker with the assistance of Mr. V. B. Redstone of Woodbridge and Mr. F. Woolnough, Curator of Ipswich Museum, who wrote the account of Ipswich. To advertise these two volumes “Pawseys” printed “Particulars of Two Volumes Suitable for Presentation” which has accolades from the local press.

Today the two volumes are an important historical record as all churches, old castles, monasteries, halls and other buildings are listed and illustrated with a brief description, together with the geographical location and population of each village.

One notable set consists of four studies of the founder’s youngest son, Frederick Walter Pawsey (my father), entitled “Me and my Cat”. These cards feature my father Fred at the age of about seven as they were produced about 1907/8. I have since found a black and white card which is not listed in the trade list of 1910 in my posession .

Another interesting coloured set consisted of 25 Newmarket horse racing jockeys in their racing silks also printed about 1907/8.

There are 1750 different picture postcards listed in a Pawsey trade list dated October 1910 but there were many more produced for private and trade customers that are still coming to light.

Most postcard collectors are aware of the history of the picture postcard but for the general reader, it is worth mentioning that production of picture postcards increased dramatically in November 1899. The British Postal Authority allowed an increase in size to 5 ½ in. x 3 ½ in on November 1st and Messrs Raphael Tuck & Sons were the first to print picture postcards in the new size. Three years later, in 1902, the Post Office Regulations were relaxed again to allow a message on the left and the address on the right of the back of the card instead of just the address. The “split back” ruling gave rise to an immediate explosion of popularity for the picture postcard and heralded the “Golden Age of Postcards”. The First World War or Great War increased the use of postcards because of the large numbers sent to and from the troops. However, due to the rapid advance of the telephone immediately after the War, the use of postcards began to decline and never recovered from the heyday of the “Golden Age”. Today, “Pawsey” postcards have a number of collectors and are an important source for collectors of Suffolk Churches postcards.

He had six children, three boys and three girls, all of whom were employed in the business at some time in their lives. Ernest (Ernie) the eldest, Thomas (Tom) and Frederick (Fred), the youngest were the boys who all served in the First World War. After the War they all returned to the business and were employed mostly as commercial travellers calling on the printing customers and retail shops in Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex. The three girls in order of age were Lilian, Vivian and Nell. They worked mostly in the Hatter Street retail shop and with the accounts, so it really was a family business!

Ernie served in The Royal Inniskillins in the First World War and was hospitalized from the trenches with “trench foot”. After recovering he returned to the trenches until the end of the War. Like his brothers he was also a great sportsman, playing cricket for Bury United and football for Bury Town. After his playing days he served for many years as Chairman of Bury Town. He left Bury St. Edmunds in 1936 and moved to Chelmsford where he established a successful funeral undertaking business.

Tom served in the 1st and 3rd Suffolk Regiments and saw action in Salonika in the First World War before being invalided back to Britain and convalescing in Scotland. He played for Bury Town Football team and was Captain for several years. Free entry to any football ground in Suffolk and a gold medal were awarded to him at the end of his playing career. Besides football Tom also played several other sports at County level and was a household name in Bury and district.

When old enough, Fred was recruited into the Civil Service Rifle Brigade, and was transferred to the Motor Cycle Machine Gun Corps, seeing action in France in the First World War. After the war he rejoined the family firm and involved himself in sport like his brothers, playing football for Bury Town and at County level in other sports including billiards. After a dispute he left the firm in 1936 and became an agent for a time. However, this was insufficient to support his growing family and he moved to Ipswich in 1938. Following a period of unemployment, he was employed by the Ministry of Food during the Second World War. Immediately after the war he commenced his own business as a stationery wholesaler and paper and paper bag merchant, which grew to a considerable size up to, and after, his death in 1976. The history of this business is too long to detail here and must be the subject of another story.

Only postcards, almanacs and the East and West Suffolk volumes have been mentioned so far but Pawseys were specialists in most areas of general printing, particularly bookbinding and excelled at producing leather bound ledgers. Some of these were so thick and heavy that modern clerical workers would be prohibited from lifting them by the Health & Safety Executive because of their weight. Many other items of printed paper stationery were also manufactured. Paper bags of all descriptions, size and for almost every purpose were made by hand in the years before 1900 and into the 1920s. The big paper mills with their fast running and increasingly automatic machinery put paid to the bulk of this work, although after the Second World War paper bags for specialist purposes were made in quantities which were too small for the mills.

Some of the events of the 1930s have already been mentioned but in 1932 there was a name change to Pawsey, Wright and Co. Ltd. This was because Samuel Wright injected money into the business when it was suffering as a result of the depression. Samuel Wright left the business in 1936 and the name reverted to F.G. Pawsey & Co. Ltd.

After the departure of the two brothers Ernie and Fred in 1936, the business continued to run to a profitable formulae which was to continue to the end of its days. On 19th November 1951, N.B. Theobald (known as Ben Theobald) was elected Managing Director in place of F.G. Pawsey who was not able to continue because of illness; and F.G. Pawsey was re-elected as a Director.

As previously mentioned, all three of his sons had been playing members. He had been captain of two Bury bowls clubs, the Risbygate, which he helped to found, and the Northgate. He was a founding member of the Bury Golf Club. It was not only the sporting world with which he was associated, he was also involved in the founding of the old St. John’s Land and House Investment Society, (one of the early building societies) and as a director of the Mutual Benefit Building Society, which was eventually amalgamated with the Bury St. Edmunds Permanent Benefit Building Society. He was also very active in the Friendly Society world, and had been an Odd Fellow since the age of seven.

The only item of note in the 1960s was the fire, which gutted the paper warehouse in High Baxter Street on Tuesday, 2nd July, 1968. Sadly not only paper and paper bags were lost but all the old company records and all the stored glass negatives as well as many of the old copper printing blocks and plates for the postcards.

Very few postcards were produced after the warehouse fire and the firm concentrated on the printing manufacturing and wholesaling of stationery. The Managing Director, Ben Theobald who spent all his working life at Pawseys, apart from his service in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, (a total of 67 years; it must be a record!) was at the helm until the end. In 1991 it was decided, due to the retirement of most of the printing and bookbinding craftsmen, to close the business and it was put into voluntary liquidation.

What a revelation to find hundreds of dealers and collectors and seemingly millions of postcards all packed into one very large hall. My wife, Esme and I found nearly 50 different Pawsey cards of Suffolk but no one had heard of the Jockey postcards, except one dealer who, as a collector declared his interest straight away. Immediately after this fair I inserted a standing monthly advert in The Picture Postcard Magazine. This advert together with membership of the Bury St. Edmunds Postcard Club and attendance at a number of postcard fairs since 1997, when I started my collecting, has resulted in a collection, which, whenever I look at the albums, transports me to the Bury printing works and the more leisurely times of the “Golden Age of Postcards”.

Editor's Notes

This article was written by Bob Pawsey of Ipswich as part of his research into his family history which led to him becoming a postcard collector and enthusiast. The article was first published in 2005 in the Picture Postcard Monthly Magazine but here it has been revised and completed in 2019.

Bury St Edmunds Alexandra Football Club was formed around 1890. It was a splinter group from Bury Town FC, formed "for the sole purpose of giving a certain class of members the chance of getting some match play which they could not get while members of the town club." The new club was immediately successful but in 1908, Alexandra and Bury Town amalgamated to form Bury St Edmunds United FC. The name reverted to Bury Town FC in 1923.

In case you missed the connection, the H R Barker who compiled the volumes on West and East Suffolk in 1907/08 was the son of Horace Barker who had once published the Bury Post, and was later Printer's Manager at 3 Guildhall Street. In retirement he took on the post of Curator of Moyse's Hall Museum in about 1900.

Obituary

Richard "Bob" Pawsey, of F. W. Pawsey and Sons and a member of many societies, died in Ipswich at the age of 88 on October 26th, 2022, after suffering a short illness. Born in Bury St Edmunds, Mr Pawsey lived in Ipswich for most of his life. After moving to Ipswich Mr Pawsey was a part of a family business there called F. W. Pawsey and Sons, a wholesale stationers and publishers which started after the war. The four brothers started off by making paper bags in the back garden and then opened wholesalers and newsagents. He was also very prominent in Ipswich historical societies. He had a special interest in the Ipswich Maritime Trust and he was passionate about keeping the history of Ipswich alive.