Martin Day worked at Alf Cooke from 1978 to 1982 and was given the book The History of the future: the Bemrose Corporation by its previous owner, a printer at the works Arthur Pennington, as part of Day's induction to the company.
Day contacted the college to offer the book after reading about its new campus in PrintWeek.
The book covers operations at several sites run by Bemrose, which had incorporated Alf Cooke by the late 1970s. It features colour reproductions of work produced in transfer, litho and other print methods for items such as packaging, cigarette cards and wallpaper, as well as images of the main print hall in operation.
Its cover is printed using the transfer process Day worked with at his time at Alf Cooke, a feature he says makes it particularly unique. "That's why it's quite a rare book. That process had its heyday in the 70s but fell out of favour with screen printing becoming more prominent. So I don't know of any other books with that process on the cover," he said.
The book will be displayed as part of an archive display in the new library when this is relocated to the refurbished print hall, due to open in September 2015. Leeds City College is inviting others with connections to the former print works, which closed in 2004, to get in touch with materials for this display.
“We are going to use this book as a starting point and do research to track down some of the items featured in the book, like posters and leaflets. We’d like to make a display of those and any photos people might want to donate,” said marketing assistant at Leeds City College, Zoe Ward.
She added: “At the moment we’re open to anyone contacting us if they’ve got a contact or anything they want to share. The works was so central to the area for so long; we have a few people working here who worked at Alf Cooke.”
Alf Cooke Printworks was built in 1895 with the business starting life as a one-man operation in 1866. At its height, Alf Cooke was described as one of the cleanest and healthiest printing works in the world. Rushbond purchased the site following the closure of MY Cartons in 2004 and sold it to Leeds City College.
Today the site has so far been converted by Leeds City College to house a kitchen, bakery, butchery and hair and beauty teaching facilities, and a refectory and student support centre, with the print hall currently undergoing restoration to maintain its original character.
On donating the book, Day met Leeds City College’s head of learning resources Jan Warner and was given a tour of the new facilities.
“This building is steeped in history and it represents a very enjoyable period in my career, so it’s great to see it being redeveloped and kept as part of the structure of the college,” said Day.
Day worked at Alf Cooke after starting as an apprentice at lithographer Jarvis Porter and working at Jowetts Packaging. He left Alf Cooke in 1982 to work for the newly established Alf Cooke Transfer Print 82 company set up by large transfer print customer RH Lowe.
Those with information and memories to share should contact Zoe Ward on zoe.ward@leedscitycollege.ac.uk.
