Bexhill Rotary Visit Judges of St Leonards

Rotarians from Bexhill recently enjoyed a guided tour of long established local card and souvenir manufacturers Judges.

The tour started with a talk on the history of the company from director Trevor Walford. He told us about the start of the business by Fred Judge in 1902 when Fred set up a shop near the net huts at Rock-A-Nore. Here he sold views of local events which he had photographed. He soon realized that these were of only temporary interest and diversified into cards of local scenes to sell to visitors. Soon he moved to premises at White Rock where he opened a photo shop but continued to sell postcards. From here he expanded the business to open other outlets in tourist destinations around the country. In 1927 Judges moved to it’s current iconic location on Bexhill Road.

The company archives have over 36,000 postcard images but the company has evolved tremendously over the 120 years of its existence. In 1960 the first colour photograph cards were printed; prior to this coloured cards were hand painted . In 1983 the Walford family took over the firm and in 1990 the premises were enlarged to incorporate new machinery. In 2002 they became the official supplier to the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and have since diversified to produce calendars, mugs, tea towels and a diverse range of promotional items. This has meant investing heavily in new machinery and employing enthusiastic and skilled designers and marketing experts, all of whom are recruited locally.

After hearing about the company we were shown around and admired the machinery and the expertise of the people who operated it. However some items, notably mugs, still required a lot of human expertise to apply the pictures and ensure they are of the highest quality.

Over the years Judges have won many accolades including Sussex and Regional Business Awards. Rotary President James thanked Trevor for a very interesting and enlightening tour – we will now Know a little bit more about the operations going on in building we pass as we drive from Bexhill to Hastings.