W. C. Jay & Co. / International Fur Store (I. F. S.)

William Chickall Jay opened the London General Mourning Warehouse at 217 Regent Street in London's West End in 1841. The business was essentially a department store that sold everything that could possibly be necessary for mourning. Mourning attire made from the finest black silks was on offer as well as a range of items such as mourning jewelery, ribbons, hats, shoes, flowers, black sealing wax and black-bordered envelopes and paper.

Victorian funerals were big business. People desired a good funeral as a sign of their social status. Even the very poor would subscribe to funeral funds, to have the comfort of knowing that they would have a respectable send-off and not a shameful pauper's funeral. There was a widespread belief that a brand new mourning dress should be purchased for each death. The rules of mourning were strictly observed in society. Briefly, a widow was expected to wear mourning for two years; the mother of a dead child, twelve months. A dead sibling required six months of mourning. But the etiquette and society magazines argued obsessively about the minor details of even these matters.

W. C. Jay's store supplied fashionable mourning attire for the well-to-do Victorian society. Mourners, despite their grief, still had to keep up with the latest fashion and could certainly not be seen in last year's model. Jay was also careful to offer goods in a wide price range so as to attract the lower classes. The firm's buyers traveled every year to the silk marts of Europe to buy black silk at the most reasonable prices.

The Jays were later involved in another store in Regent Street. In 1882 the International Fur Store was established at 163-165 Regent Street under the management of a certain T. S. Jay, a probable descendant of William Chickall Jay. Advertisements of the time claimed that the store produced “the finest furs in the world” as well as sealskin coats and jackets and articles made from sable, sea otter and silver fox skins. The International Fur Store traded until at least the 1930s.

by Mark Matlach

Hooper & Co.

Hooper & Co. was a coachbuilding company in Haymarket, London, originally founded in 1805 as Adam & Hooper. Following the death of George Adams, one of the founding partners, the business became Hooper & Co. in 1896. The company specialized in the very top end of the market, building coaches and later the most luxurious cars possible without consideration of cost. At one time or another, Hooper & Co. had Royal Warrants granted by virtually every one of the crowned heads of Europe.

The company built top class horse drawn carriages for Queen Victoria and later King Edward VII. In the early 1900s Hooper & Co. began to build custom bodies for automobiles, using mostly British chassis, particularly Daimler and Rolls-Royce. The first royal car, a Hooper body on a Daimler chassis, was delivered to Sandringham on 28th March 1900. It was painted chocolate brown with red lines; a livery which continued for the Royal Family well into the 20th century. By 1904 the company had opened its famous showrooms in Piccadilly, which became a popular London attraction with its fine displays of automobiles and carriages.

During the First World War, Hooper & Co. turned to aircraft manufacture, eventually producing Sopwith Camels at the rate of three a day. After the War a new factory was built in Acton in west London. In the peak year of 1936 over 300 car bodies were made in the factory.
In the late 1930s another factory was opened in Park Royal which made fuselage sections for De Havilland Mosquito bombers, Airspeed Oxfords and gliders. In 1940 Hooper & Co. was taken over by B. S. A. (Birmingham Small Arms). With the advent of the unibody, special coachbuilding diminished and the firm closed in 1959, although B. S. A. transferred the business to a new entity named Hooper Motor Services Ltd. which acted as a sales and service company.

 

Hooper-bodied Bentleys outside the factory in Park Royal

by Mark Matlach

J. C. & J. Field Ltd.

J. C. & J. Field Ltd. was a candle and soap manufacturer in Lambeth, south London. The company was one of the oldest in this part of London; it was established c.1642 and continued on the same site for nearly 300 years. Founded by Thomas Field, the firm continued through a descendant, also named Thomas, who was listed in 1768 as a wax-chandler of Lambeth and by 1800 the company was known as John & Charles Field, candle makers from Lambeth Marshes.

In 1820 another John Field joined the company which became J. C. & J. Field. At this time the firm was producing candles made of spermaceti (the oil from the head cavity of the Sperm Whale). These candles were more expensive than the ordinary tallow candles popular at the time, which were cheap but noxious and sputtered when burned.

In the 1840s the company began to manufacture household and laundry soap. In time this became the company's main production as the demand for candles declined due to the popularity of oil and gas lighting. By 1873 J. C. & J. Field was making Ozkerit Candles for export to British Colonies in Asia and Africa. These candles were made with ozkerite, a naturally occurring mineral wax, and had a higher melting point than regular  types, making Ozkerit candles extremely popular in tropical climates.

In 1887 the firm was incorporated as J.C. & J. Field Ltd. During the early 20th century the firm acquired premises in Rainham, Essex. The company diversified into the manufacture of toiletries and luxury products such as skin and dental creams and talcum powder. In the early 1940s the firm moved to Wimbledon and then onto Amersham, Buckinghamshire. J. C. & J. Field Ltd. was acquired by E. Griffiths Hughes in 1958 and became part of Aspro-Nicholas in 1960.

Soap pressing machine used by J.C. & J. Field in 1886

by Mark Matlach

Turner Brothers Asbestos Company

The business was founded in 1871 in Rochdale, Lancashire as Turner Brothers by John, Robert and Samuel Turner to manufacture cotton cloth based packaging. In 1879 the firm became the first in the UK to weave asbestos cloth with power-driven machinery, and the company name was changed to Turner Brothers Asbestos Co. The factory in Rochdale would grow to become the biggest asbestos plant in the world.

Shortly before the First World War, the company opened an asbestos cement plant at Trafford Park, Manchester. One of its major products was Trafford Tile asbestos cement sheets, which were widely used for roof and wall construction in industrial and agricultural buildings. In 1920 Turner Brothers Asbestos Co. merged with the Washington Chemical Co., Newalls Insulation Co. and J. W. Roberts to become Turner & Newall. In 1929 Turner & Newall set up a distribution and sales arm called Turners Asbestos Cement Co. Ltd. The company grew rapidly in the 1930s and 1940s and operated an asbestos mine at Havelock in Swaziland from 1939 until 2001.

In 1998 the business was acquired by Federal-Mogul, a US based automotive supplier. Federal-Mogul was overwhelmed by asbestos related lawsuits against its new subsidiary and put Turner & Newall into bankruptcy protection in 2001. The company emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2007 with a trust created by Federal-Mogul to pay for future asbestos liabilities.

Today the site of the heavily-contaminated Rochdale site is derelict although new owners plan to build 600 homes there.

There are four different overprints related to the company:

• Turner Brothers // Asbestos Co. Ltd. (style v2a) recorded on: SG 573, 726, 727
• Turners / Asbestos Cement / Co. Ltd. (style hv3a) recorded on: SG 506, 573
• Received for // Turners Asbestos / Cement Co. (style h3f) recorded on: SG 488
• Received for // Turners Asbestos / Cement Co. (style h3f) recorded on: SG 465

by Mark Matlach

G. & T. Earle Ltd.

G. & T. Earle Ltd. was a cement manufacturing company in Hull. The firm served as a significant employer in the city over the course of its 157 year history, providing work for several hundred people and by the end of the 19th century it had become one of the premier cement manufacturers in Britain.

The business has its origins in 1809 when brothers George and Thomas founded a company to sell various imported goods from Russia. In 1821 the brothers established a cement company on the banks of the River Humber. The company relocated to larger premises at Wilmington in 1866. Three kilns were set up for cement production at the new site, making a total of around 45 tons of cement per week. A fourth kiln was added in 1869 and production of cement peaked in the early 1870s at around 3000 tons per year.

In 1912, G. & T. Earle amalgamated with other cement companies to form the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd. Earles was able to make an exceptionally good deal in the merger, keeping its own identity and preserving a degree of independence.

The company marketed its Pelican brand cement right up until 1966 when the business was wound up. The Wilmington Cement Works was closed down in 1969 and has since been demolished.

Earle's Cement Works, Wilmington, Hull in 1924
 

by Mark Matlach

A. & R. Tod, Ltd.

Leith has been a port for more than a thousand years and Edinburgh's official port since 1329. Originally Leith was a little more than a mile from Edinburgh, but now the two areas are one urban center.

Over the past decade, the port area has become more upscale as the shipping industry moves to docks on the north side. However, as the picture below shows it was a rougher place during the 1920s.

One of the industries in Leith was the Leith Flour Mills, owned by A. & R. Tod, Ltd. Most of the flour for the mill came from outside the UK—particularly from Canada—as the local wheat was too "soft".

The A. & R. Tod, Ltd. overprint appears to be surprisingly scarce, considering how many customers a large flour mill would have.

 
Leith Mills c. 1922

Resources

• The Story of Leith
• Undiscovered Scotland: Leith
• Leith

Originally published July 1, 2006.

I. J. & G. Cooper Ltd.

I. J. & G. Cooper Ltd. was a manufacturer and wholesaler of children's clothing established in 1823 in Manchester. From 1906 the company had a warehouse at 7 Dale Street which was known as the Children's Fashion House. The company produced children's clothing, baby linen, infant's knitwear and frocks. The business was in operation into the 1950s.

I. J. & G. Cooper Ltd. warehouse at 7 Dale Street, Manchester, built in 1906

by Mark Matlach