Printers in Worcs 1870?

[spongebob]

Trying to trace one of my relatives with very little to go on, but believe he worked as a Printer Compositor in particular in Balshall Heath or Kings Norton in Worcs. I know that he was there in 1871 as a lodger in Kings Norton (presumably working away from home in Liverpool) and then again in 1874 when his daughter was born in Balshall Heath.

The exact address in 1871 was...

Kings Norton, Worcestershire
Wellington Pl

My question is - what would have brought a print compositor to the West Midlands - was there a lot of printers here and is there any way to trace anything more about him - employers or trade union records for example? Any big local printers in that area in the 1870s?

[Yegvard]

HI,

A point of view is that you needed to be above averagely literate to work in the print industry.  Remember you have to think backwards to put the type face in place.  Every town with it's own newspaper would need compositors.   Printing might range from newspapers to directories and advertising posters.  You might also add books and magazines.  I suspect your relative's intention was to probably escape Liverpool rather than come to Worcestershire.  Perhaps there was some sort of trade journal to advertise compositor jobs. 

Kings Norton was more Worcestershire than the West Midlands (Birmingham).  I believe Trade Union records are held at Warwick University.  Unfortunately I appear to have lost the URL for the site that that lists many newspapers, both old and current.  So do some advanced Google searches on newspapers and look for newspapers of the period.

Cheers

Mike