A PRINTERS based in Brecon for more than 100 years is closing its doors for the final time today with its final two staff members opting to take retirement.

Peter Bevan, 69, has worked at the printers since the Easter of 1964 with David Quarrell, 68, starting in the summer of 1965.

Peter and David both started on six-year-long apprenticeships straight from leaving school aged 15.

David said: “We used to have six-year apprenticeships in those days – I started when I was 15 because you left school at 15 back then.”

Peter and David, who are both from Brecon, started at the printers, which was then in Danygaer Road, thanks to help from Peter’s father.

Peter said: “My father was the foreman of the B&R Express print works and he got me the job when I left school.”

David said: “My father was big friends with Peter’s father, and so he got me a job as well. I came home from school one day and my dad just said ‘you’ve got a job at the printers and you’re starting on Monday’.”

The Brecon & Radnor Printers was run as part of the newspaper from when it opened in 1889 until August 1992 when the paper passed from the Sayce family to Powys Newspapers. At the same time the printers became a separate company with Peter and David, and their long-time colleague Colin Powell, picked out to run it alongside two members of the Sayce family, Elmer Sayce and Elizabeth Cornish, who were the directors. Colin was eventually to retire in 2016.

After running in the same location for a year, the independent printers moved to their current location at 11 The Bulwark to share the building with their previous owners, The Brecon & Radnor Express newspaper.

During their time at the workshop on Danygaer Road, the printers used the hot metal printing technique which uses molten metal to make phrase, sentence and word stamps to print the words onto the papers.

It included a variety of machinery including a melting pot to reuse the metal for new stamps, a cossar printing press, which is what you often see in films, and four linotype machines which were used to set the newspaper in the days before computers.

David said: “Our cossar wasn’t like you see in films or on the telly where there’s streams of newspapers everywhere – ours came out into one place.

“Everything was heavy and dirty – you were carrying huge rolls of paper every day some of which weighed half a tonne.

“I used to come home in some right states, I’d quite often take the ink home with me on my clothes.”

David said that once they moved to the printer’s new home in the Bulwark, they “became computerised overnight”.

They switched from using hot metal to using a GTO and Thompson Press – which is used to do numbering, perforating and scoring – and computers.

David said: “Hot metal to computers overnight – it was one hell of a learning curve, but once we got the hang of it, it made everything so much easier.”

Following a major outbreak in 2001 of foot and mouth disease, the printers lost a lot of their business as they said all the local shows and events were cancelled.

The general manager of The Brecon & Express at the time, Peter Travis, spoke to the owner of Tindle Newspapers, Sir Ray Tindle. Sir Ray had bought the newspaper from Powys Newspapers in the late 1990s.

Sir Ray agreed to buy the printers so it could continue, and Peter, David and Colin were able to carry on running the business from the same location.

Peter said: “Sir Ray has been very good to us over the years, he’s been like our guardian angel.”

David said following his retirement, he is looking forward to going walking with his wife Morag, who he met when he joined the printers as she also worked there in the book-binding department.

He said: “It’s strange to think I won’t be getting up to do work in the morning any more, but we had to finish some time.

“Morag keeps saying she’s looking forward to having me home, and that I can learn the machinery at home as well as the machinery at work, like how to use an iron.”

Meanwhile Peter said he’s looking forward to spending more time in his allotment and seeing more of his grandchildren.

He said: “I’m looking forward to getting in my allotment, I’m old enough to retire anyway. I’m also looking forward to being able to help with my grandkids.”

The two printers also commented that over the years they’ve seen big changes in both the paper and the town. They said when they started at the printers, Brecon was a very busy and “labour-intense” town, with an electricity board, builders and a slaughter house – most of which offered apprenticeships for 15-year-olds leaving schools.

Since they made their decision to retire, Peter and David said they have been amazed by the reaction. David said: “We’ve had customers almost crying in here when we’ve told them or they’ve seen the notice in the window – they’ve been rushing their work in for us and saying ‘how are we going to manage without you?’ We’ve also had customers bringing presents in for us like chocolate.”

Peter said: “Fair play to them – we’ve had loyal customers, very loyal customers over the years.”