CULTRA, HOLYWOOD, CO.DOWN BT18 OEU, NORTHERN IRELAND, TEL +44 (0)28 9042 8428
W & G BAIRD PRINTER
Original location: New Row, Coleraine, County Londonderry
Many Ulster towns had a jobbing printer who catered for the needs of local institutions, businesses, politics, religion and local government; printing everything from billheads, dockets and labels for businesses to leaflets and posters for churches and social organisations. In larger towns, where the volume of printed material was greater, jobbing printers provided printed information notices for the police and in some towns a weekly newspaper provided regular work for the printer. By the end of the 19th century printers were also supplying considerable amounts of advertising material for the railways such as notices of special excursions and timetables.
The printing press is a Columbian Eagle, an imported American press which was used for many years for printing the Armagh Guardian , a local weekly newspaper.
The building was designed to support a 17th century roof, rescued during development work in New Row, Coleraine. The roof, which can be seen by passing through the upper floor of the police barracks is a rare survival, displaying the joinery techniques of the Plantation (early 17th century) period.
Part of the upper floor of this building is a Newspaper Reading Room, a common feature of Ulster towns, large and small, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In an age before radio and television newspapers provided the only source of news and up-to-date information. People paid an annual subscription and had access to the main London, Dublin, Belfast and local newspapers. The development of the public libraries and the advent of radio meant that these reading rooms had disappeared by the 1950s.
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