OUP chronology, 1850

(I am indebted to Mick Belson for the following, which is adapted in large part from his forthcoming work On the Press: Through the Eyes of the Craftsmen of Oxford University Press.)

1850 There are 140 employees at the Press, which produces more than a million bibles each year.

1851 The year of the International Exhibition gives Press workers the opportunity to celebrate by going on the first wayzgoose to end up in a local pub.

1852 The Instrument Society is formed.

1853 The Press reduces the hours to a 63-hour week. A Night School is opened with an attendance of 28 boys. The crank on the steam engine breaks, stopping work in the machine room for three weeks.

1856 The first typecasting machines is introduced.

1858 The proposal for the Oxford English Dictionary is laid before the Philological Society.

1859 The South House is occupied by James Wright, the manager of the Learned Side. The Press pays for a chapel to be built in the Radcliffe Infirmary at a cost of Ł6,492 7s. 8d.

1860 The first stereotyping by the paper process is introduced. The Clarendon Press Dramatic Society is formed. The Workhouse, situated on the grounds of Beaumont Palace (later to become the Clarendon Press Institute), is closed when a new one is built on the Cowley Road in Oxford.

1861 The Clarendon Press Dramatic Society gives their first performance, The Merchant of Venice, as a private theatrical.

1863 Electrotyping process is introduced at the Press.

1864 Working hours are further reduced to 61˝-hour week (6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with 45 minutes for breakfast and one hour for lunch). Boys’ wages are increased to 2s. 6d. per week.

1866 The Radcliffe Infirmary Fund (later called the Hospitals Fund) is begun.

1867 George Denton joins the Press as a layer-on (they are later called ‘Feeders’ or ‘Machine Room Assistants’) in the Machine Room; he is 10 years old. The New Wing of the Machine Room North Wing is built.

1869 The Press purchases a bindery in London. (Hitherto all Press titles were sold in sheets.) St Barnabas Church is consecrated; it is built by the Press at a cost of Ł6,500 and painted by members of the Press maintenance staff. The manager of the Bible Side, E. Pickard Hall, announces to the members of the Press that he will deliver a lecture on ‘The Dignity of Labour’. No one turns up.

1872 The paper mill at Wolvercote is purchased by the Delegates of the Press. The Depôt (now the OUP Bookshop) in the High Street is acquired by the Delegates of the Press and wholesale bookselling commences. A Stitchery (the forerunner of the Bindery) is formed by Miss Smith. The first recorded Press cricket match is played against the printers from the University Herald and the Chronicle.

1873 The Provident Society is formed. An annexe to house the steam engine in the Letterpress Machine Room is built. (This is the office that protrudes into the Quadrangle on the side of the South Wing.) Working hours are further reduced to a 57˝-hour week. The Clarendon Arms is built to ‘supply the Press with good wholesome beer’. A sign is erected stating that ‘No beer is allowed to be brought into the Press’. (Before 1873 the ‘beer man’ came to the Press twice a day at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.)

1874 The average age of the printers at the Press is 41.9 years.

1875 The Wolvercote paper mill experiments with India paper. Production is suspended in 1877 owing to pollution problems in the area and the process is moved to Brittains in Staffordshire.

1879 Type Foundry (in the School Room) is demolished to make way for the South Wing of the Letterpress Machine Room. The boys are now paid 4s. 6d. for a 54-hour week (less than the men).

1880 The Press purchases Sandford Paper Mill at Sandford-on-Thames.

1882 The New English Bible on Historical Principles, estimated to make 13,000 pages in ten volumes, is begun. There are 80 compositors and readers on the Learned Side.

1883 Horace Hart is appointed ‘Controller of Oxford University Press’. At this time Press employees still wear tall hats and frock coats to work.

1884 The first fascicle of The New English Dictionary is published. Sixteen girls are now working in the Stitchery. Water mains are laid in the Quad for fire hydrants. The Vocal Society is formed.

1885 The Revised Version of the Old Testament is published; the Revised Apocrypha follows in 1895. The working week is now 58˝ hours. The Strong Room is built with the Stereotype Department above it. The photo-mechanical department is established. The Press Cricket Club and the OUP Fire Brigade are formed.

1886 The Vice-Chancellor of the University forms a committee to investigate the allegations from within the academic community that printing standards have deteriorated at the Press. As a result one Perfector and five Wharfdale letterpress-printing machines are purchased. Internal water mains installed at the Press.

1887 The Press gives the boys (labourers) 6d. and the apprentices 1s. 0d. to spend at that year’s St Giles’ fair.

1888 Russian (Cyrillic) type introduced. The Athletics Club is formed following a cross-country run.

1890 Burmese type acquired. The Collotype Department is formed.

1891 Folding and Stitching machines are installed, but the result is not yet called a ‘Bindery’. The Clarendon Press Minstrel Troupe is formed.

1893 Hart’s Rules is published privately; it is not sold publicly until the 15th edition in 1904. The Clarendon Press Institute is built and opened on 16 September. It is to be known affectionately as the ‘’Stute’ by thousands of Press employees over the years, until it is almalgamated into the main site in the 1990s. (The building now houses the Chinese Institute.)

1894 The cricket, football, and athletic clubs are merged to become the Amalgamated Athletic Clubs (which still exists).

1896 The New York branch of OUP is established. The first fascicle of the English Dialect Dictionary is published. The Mutual Help Society is formed.

1895 The Revised Apocrypha is published.

1897 The Wolvercote Paper Mill produces over 11 tons of paper per week. The Cycling Club is formed.

1899 A bullock breaks away from a small herd of cattle being driven along Walton Street and chases a woman who took refuge in the front lodge of the Press. The bullock continues across the Quad lawn and falls into the pond. Press maintenance staff rescue it.

1900 The Oxford Classical Texts series is launched.

1901 The first Miehle letterpress machine is purchased and installed. Arthur Young starts work at the Press; he is to stay for 60 years.

1902 Steam power discontinued in favour of gas power to drive the printing machines. The Piscatorial Society is formed.

1903 The first Miehle Perfector is installed. ‘Monotype’ printing is introduced in the form of a Monotype Department with two keyboards at the west end of the first floor of the North Wing and two casters in the Type Foundry.

1904 Hart’s Rules (15th edition) goes on sale at 6d. The average life span of printers at the Press rises to 52 years of age. The working week is reduced by an hour to 56˝ hours. OUP Canada opens in Toronto.

1905 First and second edition of Collins’s Author and Printer are published. 1,500,000 examination papers are printed. Female staff number 100; Press secretaries are producing 15,000 letters each year.

1906 Five more Miehle perfectors are installed.

1907 International Phonetics first produced. Oxford Medical Publications is started by a Joint Committee of OUP and Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. The Music Society is formed.

1908 40 girls are taken on in the Bindery. The Monotype Department is enlarged to six keyboards and five casters and moved to the Bible Side in space vacated by the engineers and carpenters. The Melbourne branch opens.

1909 An OUP division of the St John Ambulance Brigade is sanctioned, with 24 members.

1910 Another six Miehle Perfectors are installed with a specially designed ‘fly-delivery’. The Press starts to use the Tower and Eagle Breweries for additional warehouse space.

1911 The first edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary is published.

1912 The Bombay Branch is established. Parker and Son’s printing works closed down. Wolvercote Paper Mill is now producing 1,040 tons of paper each year.

1914 HRH The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), HRH Queen Mary, and HRH Princess Mary visited the Press. A keepsake is printed to mark the occasion—a centuries-old Press tradition. A formal contract is drawn up with a builder to place a roof over the Quad; the outbreak of war with Germany stops the scheme. There are 575 male employees at the outbreak of hostilities, of which 356 served and 45 died. Six men are awarded the Military Medal. The Bible Press produces 4,500,000 copies of the Bible for use in the field. The Press Volunteer Platoon is formed.

1915 The South African branch is established. Horace Hart retires; Frederick Hall is appointed Printer. Mrs B. Denton becomes the first woman ever to be employed on the printing staff. The Mono Parcels Fund started. A Press cricket match is played at the Front in France.

1916 The Bible Side and the Learned Side, managed together since 1883, are finally merged. Women feeders are introduced into the Letterpress Machine Room owing to the lack of men who are at war.

1917 The Dictionary of National Biography is bequeathed to the University by Mr George Smith.

1918 The Gardening Association flower show is held in the Quad. Regular concert parties are started.

1919 The first issue of the Clarendonian is published priced at 3d. A Ł3 minimum wage is introduced. The 48-hour week starts: Winter 7.45 a.m. to 12 noon and 1 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.; Summer 7.15 a.m. to noon (11.30 a.m. on Saturdays) and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Electricity is installed in the Clarendon Press Institute Reading Room and main hall; it will not be introduced at the Press for another six years. One thousand people attend a service in the Quad to commemorate those killed in the First World War. The Book Club is formed. The official annual Press wayzgoose is abolished, but they continue unofficially long after. The first Press Sports Day is held; the Bindery issues the first Interdepartmental games. The Benevolent Fund is inaugurated. The Book Club and Bowls Club are formed. The First annual children’s party is held.

1920 Work starts on building a new bindery. Bindery equipment includes 3 hand-fed folders, 1 case-maker, 3 blockers, 1 three-wing casing-in machine, 3 cutters, 2 nippers, and 6 sewing machines. Keyboards and casters increased from 12 keys and 11 casters to 15 keys and 14 casters. Minstrels are revived and performed at that year’s children’s party. The war memorial, paid for by employees of the Press, is unveiled in the Quad by Admiral Sir Reginald Pall.

1921 The new Bindery is opened in the Nagel Building, with a major extension. Total quantity of types in the Press is estimated at over 1 million pounds of metal, including 550 different fonts in some 150 different characters. The warehouse contains 3,500,000 copies of 4,500 books. The Press’s coal supply almost runs out during a miners’ strike. Short-time working is introduced in the Letterpress machine Room owing to a shortage of work. Children’s dancing classes are begun.

1922 Press employees go on strike for a month after management cut their wages. The Holiday Fund and the Monotype Department Sickness Fund are started. First sports meeting with Cambridge University Press. The Tennis Club is formed.

1923 The Clarendon Press Institute Slate Club is formed with 113 members. The Bindery Women’s Sick Fund is started. The Rowing Club is formed, as is the Art and Crafts Group.

1924 The hands of the clock in the Quad are stolen on 7 February. The first Sports match and return visit is held against Aylesbury printers Hazel, Watson, and Viney. The Folk Dance Society is formed.

1925 John Johnson is appointed Printer. The warehouse at Jordan Hill opens. Electric lighting is at last installed at the Press. The Monotype building is erected, attached to the North Wing. The old ‘shanty’ building that it replaced is taken to Jordan Hill to be used as a sports pavilion. The Swimming Club and Tennis Club are formed. The Sports Club opens at Jordan Hill on Whit Monday.