OLD-STYLE printing methods being kept alive in Heybridge are proving popular with the community.

Enthusiast Len Friend, 63, recently moved a rare collection of old printing presses and machines from their former home at Anchor Press, in Tiptree, to the Moat Lodge Industrial Estate, in Heybridge, where he has set up a museum.

Although printing machines from Anchor Press were taken up north, former employee Mr Friend has salvaged machines from companies closing down.

Among them are a typecasting machine from the Daily Telegraph and the last ever working Miehle printer.

The new venture, called the Crescent Card Company, is based next door to Blackwater printing, and Mr Friend has teamed up with the modern company to show visitors how the new, digital-style printing compares to the old methods.

Mr Friend said: “We produce things using lead type. This process is more than 500 years old and was used up until the Seventies.

“Blackwater Printing produces the same job using its equipment, so people can see how it has evolved.

“We get quite a few people coming in. There are items from printing companies all over north Essex.”

Women’s Institute groups have also come to visit the facility, and items from the museum are often taken along to shows.

Mr Friend worked for Anchor Press for 20 years from 1960 and admits he is passionate about the old hot-metal printing methods.

He said: “My wife thinks I’m becoming a bit of an eccentric, but it is the spread of printing that allowed knowledge to spread so quickly.

“It’s the same with the internet, but without the printed word that wouldn’t have come along for another 2,000 years or so.”