Norwich Printing Museum
10 Ninhams Road, Norwich, Norfolk, NR2 1NX [ Map ]
Tel: 07580663400 | Email: Click here | Web: https://norwichprintingmuseum.co.uk
The museum was founded in 1982 by Peter Jarrold, then Chairman of the printing company which bore his family name. For many years it was the John Jarrold Printing Museum, named after Peter's father. Although it was in one sense a private museum, it was open to the public, and was always viewed as a working museum, where old and young (especially young) could see the traditional processes of book-production practiced, and could learn to print, and to bind books, to set type, and to use various printmaking techniques themselves. The Museum built up a huge collection of printing presses and equipment, type and books, and by the time it had to close in 2019 it was the second largest printing collection in the country (after the Science Museum collections, which are all in storage).
At this time the Museum became an independent charitable trust and was renamed The Norwich Printing Museum (with the John Jarrold Heritage Collection). It contains presses and equipment which are both beautiful and rare (as well as some which are ugly and rare), and everything needed to teach and practice letterpress, intaglio and lithographic printing, and hand-bookbinding. The Museum in Residence at Blickling contains only about fifteen percent of the Museum's collections, but all that is necessary for it to function both as a traditional museum, illustrating the history of printing, and as a working museum.
The Museum is kept alive by its volunteers, many of whom worked originally at the Jarrold museum, as well as those who have joined, and continue to join, the ranks after the Norwich Printing Museum was founded in 2019. The volunteers greet visitors to the Museum, and demonstrate and pass on the skills of printing, printmaking and bookbinding. New volunteers are being sought all the time, to learn those skills and pass them on to the next generation. Meanwhile, the Trustees who are responsible for the Museum are seeking a new building, ideally in Norwich, to house the collections and show them off to the world, as well as to expand the working and teaching functions of the Museum.
Hours of Business
We never close
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