A FORMER compositor of the Tavistock Gazette is on the hunt for his beloved press machine, which he believes may still be in the area.

Ron Hellier, who now lives in Australia, is searching for the ancient machine, which he may have used when he was working as an apprentice with the Tavistock Gazette.

Mr Hellier wrote in a letter: 'At the age of 14 I began an apprenticeship as a compositor with the gazette and often had to use an ancient press, which would not surprise me if it came from the old abbey years ago, for I had been informed that the abbey had the second printing press in England.

'At the end of apprenticeship I left the gazette and moved up country, from Watford over to South Africa where I was in charge of the 76 page weekly newspaper.

'In 1980 it was back to Plymouth — in 1981, over to Australia.

'But in the five printing places I have worked in, I have never seen another press like the one at the gazette.

'I have often wondered what happened to it [the machine], hoping that it was not scrapped — to me that press was an antique.

'Some years ago on television I saw an English gent doing a programme on Gutenburg, how he hand made the first letters. This gent then had a woodworker in England make a copy of the same press Gutenburg used, exactly the same as the one at the gazette, although his was all wood and mine was metal with a figure of a giant eagle as a "mast head".'

If anyone can help Mr Hellier in his search for the ancient press machine, you can email Lindsay Turpin at [email protected]">[email protected] and the information will be passed on to Mr Hellier.