Until 1981 Westminster Press, the owners of the Hastings Observer, also ran a general printing and publishing trade in the big Observer building at 53 Cambridge Road. But then in June that year they decided to abandon that work and instead focus on being just a newspaper publisher.
About 140 staff were made redundant, and in September 1981 all the printing machinery in No 53 was auctioned. I knew many people who had worked there and knew how important the business had been. So on a viewing day just before the auction I went inside No 53 and took many photos, some of which are here.
In 2007 I wrote and published a book “The Hastings Papers: A History of the Hastings and St Leonards Newspapers”, and I am currently putting together a history of the America Ground, where the Observer had its print works from 1870.