The new Morpeth Herald
Brad - ‘the young man at Mackay’s’
I am walking down Bridge Street in Morpeth to meet Brad, the young man in Mackay’s stationery shop. Here is, looking out for me. He opens the door with its clickety latch.
We go up the steps into the single-room shop. Steps? “Why the steps?” I ask. “To keep the cows out,” he replies. Once upon a time Morpeth market was in Bridge Street, and cattle were being driven along the street.
We enter the Aladdin’s cave of J and JS Mackay Stationers and Printers. Coloured racks of cards fill every space: budget cards for £1, classy £2 local photo cards by Brad, and upmarket cards by Morpeth artist Ivan Webley for £4.50
This is the shop of the former Morpeth Herald, the town’s weekly newspaper between 1854 and 1983. It was printed in the premises behind the shop on the Stanhope Number 9 press.
“It is still here,” Brad tells me with shy pride. “It is the oldest metal printing press in the world.”
Brad is the sixth or seventh descendant - he’s lost count - of James Mackay who founded the Morpeth Herald in 1854 with John Scott. His grandfather Jim Mackay and Great Aunt Margaret published the paper until 1983, at which time they sold the paper to the Tweedale Press. It survives now as an edition of the Northumberland Gazette.
While we are chatting, a young couple comes in. “We are on our honeymoon,” says Sophie. They are from Adelaide in Australia. Her new husband, Jacob Morpeth, says: “We came here because of my surname.” He buys a card of the clock tower and Bridge Street.
They gaze discreetly at the cluttery atmosphere of this former newspaper office, bulldog clips with old receipts pinned to the wall, overflowing wastepaper bin, piles of who-knows-what screeds mingling on the desk and shelf. The stationery rack contains little brown Dinner Money envelopes going back to days when children took actual pennies to school, receipt books with carbon paper and little red cash books. Quite a difference from a stationery shop in Australia!
Brad likes his shop. He graduated with a BA Hons in photography in 2023 and became drawn into the business. “What’s your vision for the future?” I ask.
“I’d like to learn more about modern printing techniques,” he says. “At the same time I want to preserve the family history. Sometimes we have customers who come in and say the last time they were here was 40 or 50 years ago, and it hasn’t changed a bit.”
I say goodbye, pass the Cash Only sign on the door, lift the latch and step down into the street thinking there’s nothing like this shop, anywhere.
Bridget Gubbins
Bridget Gubbins (Bridget Ashton) is a Morpeth writer, www.bridgetgubbins.co.uk. Her latest book, My Mother and the Curate, can be ordered at your local bookshop, or direct from the author at a bargain rate, bridgetgubbins@btinternet.com