(Article and Photo – Matt Bigwood)
Tributes have been paid to Terry Luker who died suddenly at home last month at the age of 73. He was well known for publishing old pictures of the area from his vast collection on the I Love Wotton Facebook Group.
In his early career, after training at Brunel Technical College, Mr Luker worked as a printer at the Cotswold Collotype in Britannia Mill, Wotton-under-Edge. The site was closed in 1980 and the new buyer briefly ran the company from a premises near Nailsworth. Collotype printing is a continuous-tone process which does not use a screen – and particularly suited for fine-art reproduction.
In 2002 Terry wrote a book The Synwell Side of Town (proceeds from which go to Synwell Playing Fields). He was also a Wotton-under-Edge Town Councillor.
Paul Barton, friend and fellow councillor, said: “The Cotswold Collotype was the last remaining print firm in the country producing Collotype. It demanded the printers have the qualities of an artist with the prints being exact copies of original paintings. Terry was highly skilled and picked to print the exacting job of printing the eyes for artificial eyes where the tints and tones were so exacting.
“The fine-art prints were exact copies so much that, for reproduction of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a customer requested a fault to be included because the prints could be passed on as the real thing.”
Terry was deeply involved in life in Wotton-under-Edge, playing football for Wotton Rovers and taking on a supporting role for Synwell Playing Fields. In his work on the town council, he eventually chaired the town’s planning committee and took special interest in allotments, footpaths and youth services provision.
A spokesperson for the Town Council said: “He was a true Wottonian and loved Wotton-under-Edge and the surrounding area. His local knowledge was invaluable, and he was very well known and approachable, which meant many local residents brought their concerns to him and he would duly raise these.”
Daughter Heidi Amor said: “As a much-loved husband, father, gramp, brother and uncle, he will be truly missed by all his loving family and friends. He was a very popular man with the whole Wotton community, and especially with the love of his old photographs of the place he was born and bred.”
He leaves a wife, Jenny, and two children and two grandchildren.