1837 - William Sinclair sets up his first printing company in Wetherby making hand-made ledgers and pocket books and also undertakes general printing work for the town.

1854 - Sinclair moves to Otley, and starts using the famous Wharfdale Press, which was invented in the town. This new technology enabled Sinclair to increase production.

1865 - Train travel comes to Otley ensuring wider distribution for our products. We seize the opportunity to make guards’ memo books and other items for North Eastern Railways.

1870 - The new education Act for ages 5-12, presents us with a new opportunity to start making school exercise books. We also start producing 'round' books for milk rounds, bread rounds, newsagents etc.

1884 - We expand into Albert Works, a much bigger site, which allows us to expand and automate. We start supplying Marks & Spencer in Leeds Market, with fashionable ‘fancy’ books.

1901 - Queen Victoria dies signalling the start of the Edwardian era. The Silvine name is first trade marked and we become a Limited Company in 1902. We expand our business further, getting involved with Woolworths in the United States.

1914 - The Great War begins meaning strict import restrictions. We develop sketchbooks with naval and military themes - ‘Iron Duke’, ‘All British’, ‘The Entente’ etc - product names that reflected the wartime conditions.

1920s - Now exporting across the Empire, we develop stationery for the mass market, including ‘Novelty’ items such as cigarette card albums, jam-pot covers, greaseproof paper, brown paper & string, draught boards and even toilet rolls!

1939 - The Second World War era sees a lot of Staff on war service. The paper shortage during this time has us making stationery from any kind of paper we can lay our hands on!

1960 - We introduce the familiar red Silvine Exercise book. Millions of  these books are exported to countries around the world, along with the new phenomenon that is the Refill pad!

1970/80 - Innovation continues. The recent moon landings inspire ‘Silvine Sam’ - a spaceman who appeared on a range of products, helping children with their spelling and arithmetic.

2008 - The Silvine laurel wreath is no more. We develop a rebrand, bringing a modern look to our logo and website. We also continue developing new products - all incorporating our new logo.

2013 - We continue to innovate, developing new products that incorporate the ever changing trends and technology of the new decade. We also launch our new look website.



TODAY - Time moves forward and so does Silvine. We develop with the times, in a post COVID-19 world and continue to bring out more new and exciting products. We start Silvine Study Sessions to help people everywhere reach their study goals.