Artisans of Dartmoor - Book - Page 181
“We love the freedom of being able to walk where
we want, without being confined to fenced footpaths
and bridleways. Everywhere else in England, the land
seems to have been parcelled up, but here it’s still
wonderfully expansive,” says JP.
While JP set about refurbishing their new home,
Emma continued working as a full-time IT consultant.
A year later, while helping her parents declutter the
basement of their home near Toronto, Canada, Emma
discovered a small printing press that her mother
had used at the start of her career as a self-published
author. “We didn’t have a plan for it, but felt
compelled to take it home, so we stripped it down
and put it in our luggage,” says Emma. Having helped
with her mother’s business as a child, she was already
familiar with printing equipment and techniques.
“We started collecting type from eBay, bought
another press and things grew organically from there.
Princetown Press has become a real passion project.”
LEFT: Vintage drawers – called
type trays or cases – contain
Emma and JP’s collection of
traditional wooden alphabets.
ABOVE LEFT: Lead and wood
spacers (‘leading’) in different
widths are used create to gaps
between lines and paragraphs.
ABOVE RIGHT: The text for
a small poster is locked into a
special metal frame (a ‘forme’)
ready for printing.
The Letterpress Printers • Emma Hogbin & Jon Palmer
181
