Hay-on-Wye Guild of Letterpress Printers (from here on known as Hay Letterpress Guild as the Hay-on-Wye Guild of Letterpress Printers is just too much of a mouthful to keep saying) was founded out of a deep desire to wear robes and creep around castle corridors feeling mysterious and important.
The other reason is the discovery that there are 3 printers practising the dark and dirty art of letterpress in the town of books and they all like each other, so a Guild was formed.
Guild HQ is in the heart of Hay-on-Wye at the Castle and you can see us here in this photograph standing next to the stunning Columbian Press looking suitably aged to be in keeping with the style of this website. We are Francesca Kay, Sarah Lane and Graeme Hobbs.
“We are strong, we are literate and we dare to play dirty”
In the beginning was the word, and the word was printed letterpress...
Letterpress is a method of printing from relief (raised) type and images (also referred to as a forme or plate) which are directly transferred to paper by means of ink and impression. It is one of the oldest methods of printing dating back to the 15th century and widely accredited to Johannes Gutenberg who pioneered printing with moveable type in Europe in the mid 1400s. This was a hugely significant cultural innovation which hailed the dawn of mass communication and the subsequent outflow of ideas, often revolutionary, and communicated through the printed word.
Letterpress printing is a craft and is currently on the Heritage Craft Association’s red list of endangered crafts. So how lucky is Hay-on-Wye to have not one, not two, but three resident Inklings.
UPCOMING EVENTS
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PRINT THE MOON
08/11/2025
10am - 4pm
Hay Castle Great Hall
Hay-on-Wye
HR3 5DG -
CHRISTMAS FAIR
13/12/2025 & 14/12/2025
Print Room
Hay Castle
Hay-on-Wye
HR3 5DG -
WAYZGOOSE
11/04/2026
Join us along with a flock of other printers for our inaugural print fairHay Castle
Hay-on-Wye
HR3 5DG