Taywil Hero Mangle Press

Taywil Hero Machine mangle disassembled and all elements wire-wheeled. Cast iron frame drilled for bolting-in of print bed support, and painted with three coats of red and two coats of black metal paint. Components painted with two coats of black paint, bearings stripped and regreased, and springs replaced. Components test assembled.

































Wooden rollers treated for woodworm, and turned down on a lathe to a reduced diameter. Rollers sheathed with stainless steel tubes of ¼" wall thickness - the most expensive items of the project. Drive and transfer wheels re-fitted and painted as per frame and components, and handle coated with two applications of sealing woodstain.

Print bed support fabricated from 2" wide steel bar, drilled to enable bolting to frame and to take stretchers, and painted as per components. Stretchers made from M10 threaded rod, bolted through steel bar supports, and positioned such that rod tops are just below mid-line between rollers.

Rollers installed and transfer wheels cover fitted. Strips of wood fitted underneath original wooden top board, with a small gap between - to hold printing paper out of the way until nipped by rollers - and treated as per handle. Print bed can be sealed medium density fibreboard (MDF) or sheet steel. Mangle now a printing press, for linocuts, plate engravings and etchings, and woodblocks (up to tooth depth of transfer wheels), to a maximum of 20 inches wide.

Taywil was a brand of Taylor and Wilson, of Clayton, near Accrington, Lancashire. Founded in 1866, they made washing and mangling machines, and step-ladders. Later Taywil's trade listings included gas-heated boilers and garden seats. Their Royal Mill, in Atlas Street, closed in 1962/3, the front demolished to make way for the M65 motorway.

Shot Mill, Southbank, London

Lawrence Josset (YMGW passim), master of the mezzotint and described as a "magnificent anachronism" in his obituary in The Independent, was a prolific drawer and engraver of London scenes. There is no catalogue raisonné of his work, and internet searches keep turning up further items. The latest is Shot Mill, a pen and ink drawing with watercolour wash, 22 x 14½ inches in size, in the hands of Peter Harrington, dealer in rare books and works on paper.

The work is described as circa 1980, but that can't be right. The image shows Waterloo Bridge, designed by our old friend Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and, west of this, on the south side of the river, the Royal Festival Hall under construction. The foundation stone of the RFH was laid in 1949. The shot tower was kept as a feature during the 1951 Festival of Britain, and demolished when the Queen Elizabeth Hall was built in the sixties. So, the scene is sometime between 1949 and 1951, and the drawing is likely to be contemporaneous.