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This film is part of Free

Going To Press - Montgomeryshire Express and Radnor Times

Combine paper and ink, science and skill, craft and understanding and you produce, according to Geoff Charles, the film-maker, “one of to-day's miracles” - a weekly newspaper.

Amateur film 1949 17 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales

Overview

Pen and ink, science and skill, craft and understanding are the six precious ingredients that combine to produce “one of today’s miracles”, the weekly newspaper. This according to Geoff Charles who was responsible for the photographic section of Woodalls Newspapers and who filmed the production of this paper, each copy printed off a roll 5 ј miles long.

Geoff Charles was born in Brymbo in 1909. He obtained a Diploma (first class) in Journalism from the University of London in 1928 and went on to work on newpapers in south Wales, Surrey and Wrexham. It was in Wrexham that he bought his first camera, where he was appointed manager of Woodalls Newspapers photographic section and from where he went on to photograph life in Wales across a number of decades, culminating in a donation of 120,000 negatives to The National Library of Wales. He also worked for Y Cymro newspaper and produced a number of films in collaboration with its editor, John Roberts Williams (e.g. Yr Etifeddiaeth/The Heritage).