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Driffield is the home of the founder of colour printing, Benjamin Fawcett. Fawcett's work is of great significance and he produced various famed volumes of work at his printing works at East Lodge on Wansford Road. The site is now a small housing development named in his honour, Fawcett Gardens. However a large horse chestnut tree still remains on the site and in conjunction with Shepherd Homes who kindly donated the land, the Town Council have made the Benjamin Fawcett Memorial Garden.

The Gardens were opened by the then Mayor, Cllr John Pougher and his daughter Charlotte in April 2003 in a ceremony attended by the descendants of Benjamin. Relatives travelled from all over the UK, and two great granddaughters, Nola Corpe and Dorothy Gatti travelled from Australia. Benjamin is buried in Driffield Cemetery on Bridlington Road.

BENJAMIN FAWCETT

Benjamin Fawcett was born in Bridlington in December 1808. He served an apprenticeship to the printing and book trade and in 1830 commenced in Middle Street Driffield, as a printer, bookseller and stationer.

Here he brought out a collection of illustrated books for children with pictorial covers at unprecedented low prices. The illustrations for these were all drawn and engraved by Fawcett himself. In 1850 he gave up the retail business and moved to 'East Lodge', where he confined himself to book production. It was here that he perfected a new process, invented by himself, for fine printing in colours.

After the early death of his first wife Fawcett married Morila Porter, whose father was a member of a well known and respected Driffield family. Morila had been a colour girl in his printing establishment. By her he had six sons and four daughters.

Generally speaking all Fawcett's work might be divided into two categories, colour print and outline grey prints, which were then hand coloured. The outline grey prints were taken into the colour room, in sets of one or two hundred, together with a colour copy, which had to be followed as accurately as possible. Fawcett liked the colour girls to join his establishment at fourteen and every one of them received a most careful training.

Fawcett's relationship with the Rev Francis Orpen Morris, at Nafferton, brought national acclaim to both men. F O Morris's work 'History of British Birds', was a work which had a very large circulation. Originally it came out in monthly parts, the first appearing on June 1st 1850, through the publishing firm of Messrs. Groombridge & Son, London. There were four coloured plates in each part with corresponding letter press. It was a great undertaking and took over seven years to complete. The cost of producing a work of that kind was very great even in those days and that part of the undertaking was provided for by Fawcett.
Every one of the three hundred and sixty plates for this work were engraved by Fawcett with his own hand and each specimen plate for the colours was painted by his wife. The nomenclature of the various species described in the volumes formed a rather striking feature at the head of each article. Not only were the scientific Latin names in each case given but the dialect names, where they were known, were given too.The great work that Francis Lydon was involved in at Fawcett's was, 'The Country Seats of Britain and Ireland', by the Rev F O Morris, which contained two hundred and forty coloured plates, for which one thousand nine hundred and twenty blocks had to be used, all being drawn by Lydon. The whole of the engraving was done on Fawcett's premises at East Lodge.
	Taken as a whole the plates produced for this project must be regarded as a triumph of colour printing. Mr Fawcett was the recipient of letters of commendation from the Queen, Prince Albert, and many literary celebrities. He was awarded a medal by the Commissioners of The Fisheries Exhibition in 1881. He also took the medal for excellence in colour printing at the Yorkshire Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition in 1866, and at the North East Coast Exhibition at Tynemouth in 1882.

He was throughout his life a man of a very retiring disposition. He was extremely courteous and unassuming. Whilst his name as an engraver and colour printer was cosmopolitan, he was personally but little known, even in Driffield, where for about three quarters of a century he carried out his work.

He died in 1893 aged eighty four.

By Wally Simpkin Local Historian April 2003 Photo provided by ©Paul Credland