Posters for the people

A furniture maker on New Walk

Willsons began in Leicester in 1864, when William Willson, a furniture maker, found a new use for his woodworking skills: carving the large wooden letters and blocks used to print posters.

It was good timing. Victorian towns were full of travelling theatres, music halls and circuses, and every one of them needed bold, cheap posters to pull in a crowd. Carved wooden type was the only practical way to print letters a foot or more high.

The works stood on New Walk, Leicester's tree-lined promenade, where no carts or carriages were allowed.

William Willson was a larger-than-life character. He was known in London as the "Sporting Printer", went every week to the National Sporting Club, backed local boxers, raced trotting horses and farmed. Staff remembered him as tough but fair, with a generous side. Workmen who fell out were sent to the upper room after hours to settle it with boxing gloves.

Willson & Son, theatrical printers

In May 1888 William's elder son, William Ernest, came of age and joined the firm, which became Willson & Son, Theatrical Printers, New Walk, Leicester. His younger son Herbert, a champion amateur boxer of the Midlands, also worked in the business.

That same year a boy of nearly 13 from Wigston, Joseph Tebbutt, started on a month's trial at three shillings for a 56-hour week. He stayed for 58 years, rising to works manager, and in 1958 he wrote down his memories of the firm. Much of what we know about these years comes from him.

What the works printed

• Two-colour daybills for travelling theatres, listing each night's play, cast and scenes. Favourites included East Lynne, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Maria Marten and Sweeney Todd.
• Circus bills in two, three and four colours.
• Posters for permanent theatres, including the Leicester Opera House and Theatre Royal.
• Everyday work: handbills, programmes, tickets, pantomime books, mourning cards and voting lists.

Everything happened in one large room. The office sat on a raised platform by the door, the presses stood in the middle, and the typesetters for theatre work and commercial work faced each other across the floor. Every letter was set by hand, and every business letter was written by hand by two clerks. The first typewriters arrived in the early 1900s.

The poster boom

Around 1900 two new crazes arrived together: moving pictures and variety theatres. Willsons was ready for both.

Touring "Kinematograph" shows were travelling from town to town with films of the latest events, and they needed huge posters. Joseph Tebbutt, now foreman of the poster department, persuaded young Herbert Willson to invest in a large new stock of wooden poster type from DeLittle of York. The orders soon rolled in. One big 80 by 60 inch press became five, and the team of poster typesetters grew from three to eighteen.

The firm took over the whole block from New Walk through to King Street and became Willsons, New Walk Colour Printing Works. As grand variety palaces opened across Britain, Willsons printed for theatres, fairs, circuses and picture shows all over Britain and Ireland, including several London theatres.

Famous customers

• Sir Oswald Stoll, the theatre owner, came in person to approve the posters before the Leicester Palace opened in May 1901. Willsons won its weekly printing.
• Samuel Cody, showman and pioneer of powered flight in Britain, ordered posters for his stage show The Klondyke Nugget around 1903.
• A 36-sheet poster of The Loss of the Titanic brought many repeat orders after 1912.

When Berry's, the Bradford theatrical printers, suffered a fire, Willsons took on their contract for some twenty variety theatres until they could restart, working late three nights a week to keep up. The firm also bought Day & Collins, wood type makers, so it could make its own type and printing furniture.

Into Nottingham

Around 1900 Willsons bought Stennett's, a Nottingham printer, and ran it alongside Leicester. Stennett's brought a valuable contract for all kinds of printing for the Great Northern Railway. Willsons added theatrical printing to the Nottingham works, and the branch began to prosper.

That Nottingham branch is the root of today's business in Newark.