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Bristol | Place Names | Legends, Pre-history and the Romans | Birth of the City | 1100 Onwards | Voyages | 1450 Onwards | 1650 Onwards | 1700 Onwards | Riots | The Blitz (Page 1), (Page 2) | The Castle (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3), (Page 4), (Page 5), (Page 6) | Blaise Castle (Page 1), (Page 2) | Castle Green (Page 1), (Page 2) | Union Street | Broadmead | The Old City (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3), (Page 4) | Christmas Steps (Page 1), (Page 2) | St. Mary Redcliffe (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3) | College Green (Page 1), (Page 2) | King Street (Page 1), (Page 2) | Clifton (Page 1), (Page 2) | Avon Gorge (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3) | Hotwells (Page 1), (Page 2) | City Docks (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3) | Bedminster (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3), (Page 4), (Page 5), (Page 6), (Page 7) | Old Market (Page 1), (Page 2) | St. George (Page 1), (Page 2) | Temple (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3) | Arno's Vale Cemetery (Page 1), (Page 2) | Brislington | @ Bristol | Oldest House | I. K. Brunel (Page 1), (Page 2) | Ma Pugsley | Yeamans | Boundaries (Page 1), (Page 2) | Photography | Exhibition (Page 1), (Page 2) | Lead Working | Historical Perspective | Virtute et Industrial | Other Sites | Bibliography (Page 1), (Page 2) | Help Wanted (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3)

Bristol - Bedminster 4

E. A. & A. Robinson moved their paper-bag and printing business to Bedminster in 1887. Their first factory was built on the junction of East Street and St. John's Road. In 1902, due to a lack of space, they took an innitive step of jacking up the roof of this building and inserting two extra floors. The building is still there, but now occupied by the world famous Cameron Balloons.

Cameron Balloons

The old E.S. & A. Robinson building, now occupied by Cameron Balloons.
A great many of the world's hot air balloons are made in this factory.

It's apparant, even in this photograph, that although well matched, there is a difference in the bricks of the ground floor to those of the upper storey's. Or is that because I know it was built at different times?

Nightglow at Bristol Balloon Fiesta

The "Nightglow" at Bristol Balloon Fiesta

Robinson's built a much bigger factory, behind the first in 1897. This building was huge and although now long empty dominates one end of East Street.

East Street - 2001

The huge Robinson's building of 1897

In 1912, Robinson's needed more premises. They bought the site of the old Malago Coal Pit (also known as the Red Cow or West Street Pit) and built another factory. The only trace that there was once a pit here is in the name of a local pub, The Jolly Colliers. It was in this factory that they developed the Colodense printing process, which was an American invention, and as far as I can assertain, is a method of printing on flexible film. Mail Marketing, one of the world's leaders in Direct Marketing later moved into this factory. In 1998 they took on a middle-aged man with no commercial programming experience, and no IT qualifications at all. That man was me and I'm now supervisor of the PReS programming department. PReS is a programing language that allows us to extract information from databases and incorporate it into page layouts for printing.

Mail Marketing International

This is the site of the old West Street, or Red Cow or Malago colliery, later Robinson's Colondense factory and now the home of Mail Marketing International.

Part of Mail Marketing's print hall

Part of Mail Marketing International's print hall

In the 1920's the Colodense factory didn't look so dissimilar, except that power was supplied by the engines of three Model T Fords that were clamped to the floor. Belts were run from these engines to run the machines, the exhausts were run out of the windows and cooling water supplied from the hand washing trough.

Colodense factory - circa 1920

The Colodense factory circa 1920

Netball on the roof - 1919

Netball on the roof of the Colodense building 1919

Mail Marketing Group and Mail Marketing International

The company had a modest start as a mail fulfilment company founded by Vera Hughes in 1950 in an office over a shoe shop in Park Street, Bristol. The company is still family owned and has now offices in various parts of the city. It has greatly expanded and is now involved in all sorts of activities, all mainly concerned with direct multi-media communications. Various parts of the company can now, amongst other things, design and administer websites for you, look after all your tele-marketing needs, supply you with databases of potential customers, and the part that I'm involved in, process databases and design programs for direct mailings. Here are the company websites :-

MM Group

Listbroker

Some of our web client's sites :-

Aardman Animations

Bristol City Football Club

Esprit

Being a large company our suppliers often use us in their advertising :-

Domino Inkjets

Well, I think that's enough free advertising, except to say that we are very, very good at what we do.

Bristol | Place Names | Legends, Pre-history and the Romans | Birth of the City | 1100 Onwards | Voyages | 1450 Onwards | 1650 Onwards | 1700 Onwards | Riots | The Blitz (Page 1), (Page 2) | The Castle (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3), (Page 4), (Page 5), (Page 6) | Blaise Castle (Page 1), (Page 2) | Castle Green (Page 1), (Page 2) | Union Street | Broadmead | The Old City (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3), (Page 4) | Christmas Steps (Page 1), (Page 2) | St. Mary Redcliffe (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3) | College Green (Page 1), (Page 2) | King Street (Page 1), (Page 2) | Clifton (Page 1), (Page 2) | Avon Gorge (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3) | Hotwells (Page 1), (Page 2) | City Docks (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3) | Bedminster (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3), (Page 4), (Page 5), (Page 6), (Page 7) | Old Market (Page 1), (Page 2) | St. George (Page 1), (Page 2) | Temple (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3) | Arno's Vale Cemetery (Page 1), (Page 2) | Brislington | @ Bristol | Oldest House | I. K. Brunel (Page 1), (Page 2) | Ma Pugsley | Yeamans | Boundaries (Page 1), (Page 2) | Photography | Exhibition (Page 1), (Page 2) | Lead Working | Historical Perspective | Virtute et Industrial | Other Sites | Bibliography (Page 1), (Page 2) | Help Wanted (Page 1), (Page 2), (Page 3)

HomePage | Optical Illusions | War Stories | QBasic | Dads Navy Days | Bristol | Bristol, USA | Bristol, Canada | Terre Haute | Miscellany | Web Stuff | About Ray | Site Map | Site Search | Messages | Credits | Links | Web Rings

This page created 25th February 2001, last modified 5th May 2005


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