Letter from local letterpress printers about Corporation printing
Caption:
This manuscript petition is one of the few surviving pieces of evidence that suggests all was not rosy in the local booktrades. Vocal printer, James Traffles Tucker marshalled his colleagues to complain about nepotism in the Town Council's tendering system, the lack of fair wages and working conditions. It was co-signed by a who's who of local printers: William Brooks, Nicholas Hort, Henry Cozens, Charles Ball, G.L.Marshall, and Thomas Henry Skelton. Fifty years later, the same arguments were being put to the Mayor through the newly established Southampton branch of the Typographical Association.
