MEMORY LANE: With the Grantham Journal on the move again, we look back in time . . .

With the Grantham Journal on the cusp of a move to new premises this year, we thought we would look back to our office’s long-standing position on the High Street.

The Journal was first published in 1854 by Joseph Rogers, a jobbing printer in Watergate.

The newspaper was taken over by the Escritt family in 1862 and moved to the High Street location four years later.

The first photo, above, shows the rear of the High Street office before it was pulled down.

We are guessing the Riley Pathfinder car on the left of the shot belonged to the editor.

The offices were replaced by a new building (photo three) in 1958 when Woolworth’s moved in.

The second photo shows the front reception of the High Street office pre-1958. The building was formerly the Mail Hotel and the archway was for stagecoaches in the Georgian and early Victorian times.

The third photograph also shows the Journal’s fleet of Hillman and Mini vans lined up outside the rear of the modernised offices in 1969, the same year a new Hoe and Crabtree letterpress printing press was installed behind the folding, sliding rear door.

The press had gone by 1980 by which time the Journal was printed by the offset lithographic process at the Newark Advertiser.

The Journal’s next move will take us back to where we started, in roughly the same place as the original location on Watergate all those years ago.