My Time Spent With Harrison And Sons Of High Wycombe.

Normally when one is looking for information on a given subject including philately, a specialised book is usually sought.
Most of the information it contains has been gathered over the years and has been compiled in some kind of readable order, this source of information usually comes from records, old magazines, journals and individual reports.

Here is some information with regards to Harrison and sons the renowned security printers of High Wycombe who for many years produced stamps for many different countries throughout the world.

The source comes from part of an autobiography made by John Neville Barcock who worked at the printing works for 10-years between 1956 to 1966, he has been very meticulous taking care to include as much as possible that he can remember relating to his time there.

I sent him an email some time ago, but I have never had any response.
I am sure he would have liked you to read of his escapades which also gives invaluable information of times gone by.
http://jnbarcock.co.uk/My%20Times%2...%20Ltd..html
Here is a picture of the staff at an earlier date (1933), remember that in those days there was no computers!

Imagine the stamps that these people must have produced over the years.

The philatelic part of the autobiography has been stored on the UK web archive and national archives network in order for the need of future reference.

Thank you John for your dedication and a great piece of historical literature appertaining to a brilliant company of the past.

WM.

Thank you for the link to this fascinating story about Mr. Barcock and
his time with Harrison & Sons.

Knowledge is meant for sharing lithograving, otherwise you will never have progress. WM

A section of the UK web archive (UKWA) also consists of the British Postal museum & archive section which can be accessed via the (UKWA).

Here is one of the many locations to be found on the site that shows a picture of a Royal Mail van near Buttermere lake in 1937 with the following captions }

"Photograph of a Royal Mail van by lake Buttermere, 1937
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This photograph appeared in the May 1939 edition of the Post Office Magazine. At the time the prospect of war was clearly looming over the nation. Although the opening article referred to the apprehensiveness of the public about aerial warfare, the rest of the magazine continued more peacefully.

This image accompanied an article by T M Salkeld about the GPO and the romance of the Lake District. The photograph shows how the Post Office presented itself as a quintessential part of British life. Salkeld wrote:

"Keswick Post Office...is one of the most delightful in the north,... it is quite in keeping with the amenities of the district."

Under normal circumstances if you take the time to look, inevitably you will find the answer. This site covers a multitude of interesting articles if you know how to use it.

However, a direct route to the postal museum can be found on this more convenient link.

https://catalogue.postalmuseum.org/...searchquery=

WM.

Hi Wilding mad
My Great uncle H. Cooper (Harold) is in the photo you posted of Harrison and Sons (from John Barcock) Apparently Johns father went to school with my G uncle. Just found this this morning so big surprise
I have a couple of photos with the Queen inside Harrisons looking at stamps if you are interested along with newspaper of the day.
These stamps were the first of the Queen and Harold did the engraving for them. I am very keen to get one or two of these would you have any idea exactly what they are and where I can search for one.
Any help would be appreciated
P.S. I also emailed John Barcock this morning so I hope to hear from him but note his family web page was last updated in 2015. Regards Cooper

Hi Cooper, may I suggest that you enter into your search engine the following "The queen's visit to Harrison and sons" , you should get a few interesting results, this is one that I found on Pinterest. > https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/38843615563500051/

Hoping this helps, and welcome to the forum. WM.