William Clowes Ltd. is a British

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

company founded in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1803 by William Clowes. It grew from a small, one press firm to one of the world's largest printing companies in the mid-19th century. The company merged with Caxton Press, operated by William Moore in

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fl ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include ...

in the late 19th century and concentrated its business in the town following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It is one of the UK’s largest manufacturers of directories and reference books and continues to operate out of its large printing factory at

Ellough Ellough is a civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk, located approximately south-east of Beccles. The area is sparsely populated with a mid-2005 population estimate of 40. The parish, which has an area of , ...

near Beccles as part of the CPI UK group.William Clowes
CPI UK. Retrieved 2011-06-25.Locations
CPI UK. Retrieved 2011-06-25.

History

Clowes established the firm on 21 October 1803 at 2 Villiers Street, London next to the Strand. The company was small in the beginning, having only one

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

and one assistant.Weedon.A (2004a) 'Clowes, William (1779–1847)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press
available online
, accessed 2011-06-25. Clowes worked for three days and nights to finish his first job, which satisfied the customer. Business soon grew from word of mouth, as customers were impressed with the company's speed and accuracy.

Expansion and steam powered presses

The company expanded in 1823 with the purchase of Northumberland Court and the installation of its first steam-powered presses (made by

Applegath and Cowper Applegath is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Augustus Applegath (1788–1871), English printer and inventor See also * Applegate (surname) {{Short pages monitor