Walsall Litho

Walsall Lithographic Co. Ltd. was founded in 1894 by John Aspinall, an enterprising and experienced printer who wanted to branch out on his own and produce quality printing in his home town of Walsall, then in Staffordshire, but later incorporated into the new, West Midlands county, in the U.K.   His speciality was using the lithographic printing process, a relatively new method that was very different to and much more versatile than the accepted, traditional Letterpress process, although he was astute enough to produce work using both technologies.
His first premises were established in a large, double-fronted house in Vicarage Place, Walsall, where, in 1913, he added a then-unique-to-the-UK printing process known as 'Seals'- where small, irregularly-shaped foil labels could be printed and cut-out in one strike using hand-cut letterpress dies.
By the 1930s, Walsall Lithographic Co. Ltd. had moved to much larger, purpose-built factory premises that stretched from Midland Road to Wednesbury Road, Walsall, and was already the biggest printers in the town.
The 1950s and 60s saw it at its peak. By now, under the Managing Directorship of Jack Aspinall, son of John Aspinall, the founder, it had expanded into a new, three-storey extension along Wednesbury Road, with its main, Litho-Department on the ground floor, the now huge Seals Dept. above it and a Bookbinding Department on the top floor.
Other printing processes carried out included Varnishing, Hot-Metal Typesetting, Letterpress printing, 'Cuttercrush' production of point-of-sale showcards, etc., Cutting and Creasing, Die-Cutting, Gold Blocking and the Company's own, patented process known as 'Metcraft' - where small, intricately-designed, embossed plaques were produced on real brass foil and then sprayed with a patented, antique-bronze-effect lacquer.
The Company gained fame in the 1960s by being the first printers to produce the World's First, free-form, self-adhesive postage Stamps for Sierra Leone and the Kingdom of Tonga, among others.
Before that, the Seals Department had been producing hexagonal, paper end-seals for Britain's largest biscuit-producers in such vast quantities that special, rotary seals machines had had to be built, and these had been the Company's 'bread-and-butter' work for a number of years. Suddenly, due to changes in the way that biscuits were packaged, these end-seals were no longer needed and all their orders stopped abruptly, leaving the Company feeling their loss deeply.
Times were changing in many ways in the Printing Industry, and more and more work was being done abroad more cheaply than in the UK. Walsall Lithographic, despite the superb quality of its printing, was struggling to compete, and was looking more and more to its specialised postage-stamp production as its best hope for the future.
A subsidiary Company - Walsall Security Printers - was created in 1966 under the main Company's umbrella, and all stamp production from then on was carried out by them.   In 1987, the first British Stamps were printed for the home market by WSP as that side of the business went from strength to strength.
Eventually, as printing in the UK continued to decline in the face of cheaper, foreign competition, Jack Aspinall's sons, John and Adrian, were forced to make some drastic decisions over the future of their businesses, and one of the casualties was the old, parent Company, Walsall Lithograpic Co. Ltd., which was dissolved in the early 2000s.   All the machinery and equipment was auctioned off and the familiar, old factory buildings were demolished in 2009.  
New houses and flats now occupy the old site, although one, small and particularly handsome part of the old buildings, fronting onto Wednesbury Road, that used to house the old Art Department on the first floor, above the paper warehouse at ground floor level, has been preserved and converted into dwellings.   Above the first floor windows, the stonework still proudly displays, in raised lettering, the words:  WALSALL  LITHOGRAPHIC  COY.  LTD.  
A little piece of Walsall's proud history preserved!
Despite the sad demise of Walsall Litho, happily Walsall Security Printers continued to thrive and was eventually sold by the Aspinalls as a highly successful business.   Now known as International Security Printers, it remains one of only two producers of quality British postage stamps to this day - though it has now relocated elsewhere outside of Walsall.