This week we remember Stephen Shipley, founder of The Midsomer Norton and Radstock Journal, who passed away whilst on holiday in Turkey after a courageous battle with ill health on 17th April. His funeral took place on Wednesday this week.
Steve was born on 28th May 1942 in Midsomer Norton to Eunice and Colwyn, and his brother, Keith, was born in 1947. Steve spent an idyllic childhood growing up in Midsomer Norton in a cottage on the farm in the High Street. He would often reminisce about his time spent there, including the cows walking up and down the High Street to be milked and during the War, he remembered the American GIs and shouting at them: “Give us some gum, chum!” He also talked of his job, which was catching the cart horses and walking them up to Farrington Gurney to the blacksmith to be shod. In his teens, Steve was an angelic looking alter boy!
Steve’s father, Colwyn, was a compositor at Purnells, and following his father’s sudden death when Steve was just twelve-years-old, he was promised an apprenticeship. After completing this, he continued to work at Purnells until 1968, when he left to work for
Fosseway Press, which was then owned by David Wiltshire. Fosseway Press printed work for a wide variety of clients, including the Scouts, the Radstock Co-operative Society, Mulberry and in 1980, decided to diversify into publishing, following newspaper strikes which meant that the local competitor, The Somerset Guardian, was not in print at that time. And so the area’s first and immediately successful free paper, known as The Journal, was born.
In October 2003, The Journal was sold to Tindle Newspapers, but Fosseway Press continued as a printing firm. Steve finally retired in 2006 due to ill health, but was always interested in the business. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends.