Publications – The books and magazines produced by The Hotspur Press

There were so many varied magazines, books and other printed works printed at The Hotspur Press. These are some we can remember.

Our Dogs

This was actually a weekly newspaper which was edited just further up Whitworth Street in Manchester, Oxford Road Station Approach. It was printed at the Hotspur Press for many years and was a weekly paper which required some printers to work a night shift and provided quite a lot of the overtime needed to turn a flat wage into a reasonable living. In the Sixties, Our Dogs was edited by Denis Marples who drove a wonderful Mercedes Sports convertible with a chromium dog on the bonnet, a larger than life character. Someone told me he was the brother of Ernest Marples, the Conservative Transport Minister whose career ended in tales of corruption, but this turned out to be false.

My grandfather, Bob Cummings, was the stereotyper who often worked various late shifts for 47 years to ensure the paper went out. At Christmas we produced an Our Dogs Annual which again, required vast amounts of overtime at a rate of time and a half (double time on Sundays!) and came just before Christmas to help us all out with the extra expenses that brought.

Our Dogs – Today

Our Dogs is still alive and well, having moved not very far away from The Hotspur Press at Salford Quays.

Lancashire Life, Cheshire Life

When The Hotspur Press gained the contract for the prestigious Lancashire and Cheshire Life magazines, it was thought that the future of the company was assured. There was a large investment in equipment made in the composing room, including a light table whose use was way beyond my pay grade. The most talented compositors were assigned to the titles, mainly Charlie Penny who had previously worked on the stamp magazines, Philately and Stamp Magazine. However, the rumour was that the sales rep had accepted the jobs for a rate below break even point, the idea to go in with a more profitable figure after a couple of years. However, the publishers at that point decided to go elsewhere – a bit of a disaster all round.