While the rest of the country was in the pub or watching Britain's got Talent, at around 9.30pm on Saturday night, PrintWeek bore witness to print history as it saw the final Sunday Times collected off the Wapping press.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a low-key ending for a facility which suffered one of the most inauspicious starts in the history of British manufacturing.

A skeleton-staff of around 30 was on site for a print run of just 60,000 newspapers – most of the printing already having shifted to News International's new super site at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.

In its heyday, the facility would be churning out 1.3m newspapers a night and was staffed by more than 120 workers.

It was an emotional evening for those involved, as many of the employees had been there for the full lifetime of the site, coming in as electricians or plumbers in 1986 with no knowledge of print whatsoever.

For the employees, some of whom came in on Saturday night despite not being on shift, printing is now a way of life.

One employee commented: "If you cut my veins open, ink would come out."

Production manager Brian Sims, one of those that has over 20 Wapping years under his belt, collected up the last newspaper to ever come off the press.

He said: "I don't think it will sink in until we switch the lights off. We have been talking about this for the last three years and it is finally here.

"When I first came up here we didn't know what the job was, now it's a 24-7 job. I am constantly checking screens when I am at home – my wife keeps asking me what I am going to do when I can't look at it all the time."

See this week's PrintWeek for more on Wapping's final print run.