THE village of Grassington has witnessed the end of an era with the retirement of Gatelands Printers' owner Colin Wright.

After more than 30 years serving residents and businesses in the upper Wharfedale area with their needs for letterpress printing such as business cards and brochures, Mr Wright has handed over the business portfolio to John Mason Printers, of Skipton.

For almost 20 of those years he has worked alongside his younger son, David, who joined him after leaving Ermysted's Grammar School.

Now David, 36, a support teacher at Kettlewell Primary School, is looking to extend his teaching career while his father, 65 next year, is looking at taking things a little easier while continuing to drive part-time for West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service.

Colin's wife Rose has also helped run the Wood Lane business since its creation in 1970.

He explained: "Over the years we have undertaken general mono and spot colour letterpress printing, including letterheads, business cards and small brochures. Because of my retirement, coupled with the fact that my son is now looking at a different career path, we reluctantly decided to call it a day.

"It's the end of an era. We are sorry to be leaving the Dale and would like to thank all our customers for their past loyalty."

Doubtless semi-retirement will give Colin more time to pursue his many hobbies - or perhaps write his sixth book!

His first and foremost passion is road transportation, particularly working trucks and buses.

The fascination began when he was a youngster and led him to publish five books - the last almost 10 years ago - each containing around 120 photographs, all taken by himself, and captions to go with them.

He also has a model railway set up in a room at home as well as a huge stamp collection of British and shore island stamps, a collection of food and drink labels and many die-cast model vehicles.

Another passion is company history and he has a large collection of books to back this up. One example is a book on the history of Halifax Building Society which was produced in the 1950s.

Colin has lived in Kettlewell since marrying in 1962. Prior to that he served for three years in the RAF, yet managed to continue his courtship with Rose by hitchhiking from Bridgenorth in Shropshire, where he was based, to Kettlewell each weekend to see her.

The business premises in Grassington will not continue as a printer's. The client base has been passed to John Mason's which has been trading in Skipton since 1947.

Colin said he was helped a great deal in the early days by John and does not doubt his former clients will receive an excellent service.

Partner Matthew Mason said: "We are pleased to provide continuity for Gatelands Printers' client base, as well as extending their remit by opening up access to the latest full colour and digital printing technology."