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C.F. Timaeus - Printer, Stationer, Bookseller and Newsagent
90 High Street

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The Timaeus Family

C.F.Timaeus, 90 Bedford High Street, 1891 The Timaeus family came to Bedford in 1780 from the central European State of Moravia. John Timaeus was a master baker and his family were staunch members of the Moravian church.

One of their sons, who was educated at Bedford School, was Charles Frederick who decided not to go into the family business and was apprenticed to a printer in Newport Pagnell. He was the grandson of a bishop and secretary of The Oddfellows. Until his nephew joined the business, he lived on the premises on the High Street, then moved to a house in the Kimbolton Road where he lived until he died in 1875.

The business started off in premises on the corner of Dame Alice Street and the High Street in 1827 and when an old wine merchants shop became available it moved to the corner of Lime Street and High Street in 1829. The shop at the front of the building was a booksellers, stationers and newsagents but a large room at the back of the premises which had a two foot thick wall and had been a wine cellar, was converted into a printers workshop. Timaeus published the Bedfordshire Times from 1847.

When Charles passed away in 1875, his nephew, Alfred Edward who had trained as a printer at Dodd and Peeling of Woburn where he got a sound knowledge of the business, took over the firm. Alfred was a good cricket player and once played for a Northamptonshire side against an All England side. He died in 1895. The business was then run by his son Charles Edward Timaeus until his death in 1930.

Timaeus employed in the early 1900s, 16 printers who would turn up to work in a suit and change into white aprons. They would start work at eight oclock in the morning and finish at seven oclock in the evening. On Saturdays it was a half-day when they would finish at four oclock. On every one of the staffs birthdays, at eleven oclock, there would be a celebration where drinks and food were handed around and they had a sing-song. Charles Edward Timaeus nearly always joined in the celebrations.

In 1946 I did a paper round for the shop: I delivered 20 papers in the Shakespeare Road area, six days a week for the princely sum of four shillings a week (20p in todays money).

The business closed in 1952 after 123 years of trading.

Information from Terry Darlow 2011