WILLIAM POLLARD

 Thomas Pollard is believed to have first started business as a printer in Exeter in 1791. Details are sparse, but he was probably using letterpress to print stationery, account books, and advertising pamphlets. In the early 1800s William Carss Pollard is known to have continued the family’s printing trade from a factory in 39/40 North Street, Exeter and like most printers at the start of the Victorian provided whatever their clients requested – from advertising posters to timetables and letterbooks.

During the Victorian era and into the early 20th century the business grew substantially under the leadership of William Pollard (son of William Carss) and then his son, Herbert Pollard. They outgrew the premises on North Street and in 1919 opened an impressive new factory at Bampfylde Street. The depression of the 1930s was very tough and during the Second World War trading virtually ceased. On the 4th of May 1942 the factory was completely destroyed in the Exeter Blitz. The company’s insurers would not fully cover the claim and after the war the company had to be rebuilt largely from scratch. The company was gradually rebuilt through the 1950s and 60s. When the country’s largest manufacturers of weighbridges, Avery and Weightron, were frustrated with the quality of tickets supplied for their machines the Pollard company created a specialised production centre to focus on this market and remain the undisputed market leader of weighbridge tickets today.[1]

Although the cover title to the work below is Pollard’s Official History and Guide to Exeter it is clear from both the map itself and the paragraph of comments on the reverse of the map that this booklet was produced in anticipation of the visit of the Church Congress which took place in October 1894. 


Size: 170 x 213.  No Scale. 

Church Congress, 1894. KEY MAP OF THE City and County of the City of Exeter. (Ce). A simple plan of Exeter with the old city wall line marked red with note to that effect below the map. There is a panel outside the right border (forming the third of three folding leaves) with a key to buildings numbered on the plan. No signature or imprint. The right panel on reverse has information for those attending the congress on rail tickets. 

1.   1894    Pollard’s Official Guide to Exeter ......

  Exeter.William Pollard. 1894.   DevA, KB.


NOTES:

[1] Taken from the Pollard website at: http://pollardsprint.co.uk/history.html.

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