“ Strange how many past connections exist within my lietime, and the Societys ,post re the demolition of Breakspeare House.
My maternal Grandfather,a compositer worked for the Barnet Press, he died in 1918 his Obituary suggests of the Spanish Flu,his daugter Connie was to join John Swain,s and became a loyal menber of their team, returning to Swains after raising four children and fondly speking of Mr Holt by his christian name,she made lielong friends there from the30s to 60s.
Connies mother Edith,worked as a domestic servant,for Birt Acres in Park Rd,prior to her marriage in 1900...Elliots being where Mr Acres then worked, next door to the Barnet Press, where her future husband worked.
Swains brought printers from Clerkenwell to Barnet,one such man John Cooper, was co.opted to the Thatched Barn to do secret War work,his son Barry later became a Printer,who took over Brunswick Press, in the Church Passage, before moving to Nesbitts Alley still running Brunswick Press until recently moving to Potters Bar. This was the same Building that Birt Acres once occupied in the early 1900s
How many Barnet families had Swains reject copies of the Chinese Girl byTrececoff hanging in their front rooms.......l phoned Barry Cooper ago.my old friend, on the day we started work almost 60years ago. ”