Supporting British Industry & Craftsmanship
Surface Print is a family-run firm and is one of the few British wallpaper manufacturers still operating in a county historically associated with the trade. It prints using a roller-based method that mechanised the earlier practice of hand block printing, alongside flexographic and digital methods. The company produces wallpaper for other brands as well as its own range - 1838 Wallcoverings.
John Watson founded Surface Print in 1990. His father and Grandfather also worked in the wallpaper printing trade and the company is now run by the fourth generation of Watsons, his children James and Abigail. The factory is located ten minutes away from where the first wallpaper printing technique were pioneered in Darwen in 1838 and the roller-based machines used today are over 100 years old. Alongside these traditional printing techniques, the company uses the latest technologies in digital printing and has a state of the art rotary screen which can print up to ten colours at a time.
The company creates a wide range of wallcoverings and can print on grasscloths, silks, linen, cork, sisals and paperweaves.
This large factory just outside Accrington was a hive of activity and full of highly talented staff - their eye for colour and detail was second to none. Surface Print manufacturer the wallpapers for many well known brands so I had heard about it long before my visit. Their hundred year old roller-based machines were legendary and they didn't disappoint - huge in scale and capable of printing up to 12 colours at a time. The textures and quality of wallpaper they create are gorgeous - something not even the highest end digital machines can rival.
