R. Whytock & Co.

R. Whytock & Co. was a carpet manufacturing company established by Richard Whytock in 1807 at 9/11 George Street, Edinburgh. The original business of the company was making upholstery and decorative fringes for furniture. In the 1830s Richard Whytock became interested in the process of carpet manufacture which led him to invent and patent the Tapestry Carpet Loom in 1832. This was basically a new, mechanised method of weaving carpets with an unlimited number of colours possible. The carpets made using Whytock's invention were much more affordable to the general public and became known as Tapestry or Tapestry Brussels carpets.

In 1834 R. Whytock & Co. purchased a disused distillery in Lasswade and converted it into a carpet factory employing 100 people. It was here that the company produced Persian and Turkish style hand-knotted carpets. In 1838 Whytock received his first Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria and in the mid-1840s the factory was producing 10,000 yards of carpet per day.

In 1846 Richard Whytock retired from the business in order to concentrate on the development of fabrics, leaving the company to his son Alexander. In 1876 Alexander Whytock became partners with John Reid, a successful upholsterer and cabinet maker, and the company became Whytock, Reid & Co. Alexander died six years later and was succeeded by his son William. However, William Whytock had no interest in the business and sold his grandfather's carpet weaving invention for around £7 million. Whytock, Reid & Co. continued to trade until 2004 as a furniture manufacturer and later as an antiques restoration business.

by Mark Matlach

P. Phipps & Co. Limited

The brewing company of P. Phipps & Co. was established by Pickering Phipps in the West Northamptonshire town of Towcester in 1801. A second brewery was opened in Bridge Street, Northampton in 1817. Pickering Phipps clearly prospered as he became mayor of Northampton in 1821. His two sons, Richard and Thomas, inherited the business on his death in 1830. All beer production was moved to Northampton in 1900 following a fire that destroyed the original brewery.

P. Phipps & Co. continued to expand under the stewardship of various family members. By the end of the 19th century the company had grown to become the largest brewer in the Midlands. It continued to expand in the first half of the 20th century, absorbing a number of other regional brewers.

In 1957, P. Phipps & Co. Ltd. merged with neighbours Northampton Brewery Co. Ltd. to become Phipps Northampton Brewery Co. Ltd. The newly merged company now owned a total of 1131 tied houses. In 1960, London based brewer Watney Mann launched a successful bid for the business. The new owners' key bitter “Red Bitter” was soon brewed in Northampton alongside the local beers. By 1968 all traditional draught bitters were axed and the company was renamed Watney Mann (Midland).

A 19th century poster for Phipps India Pale Ale showing the Northampton Brewery in Bridge Street, now the site of Carlsberg UK.

 

by Mark Matlach

London and India Docks Joint Committee, Port of London Authority

The London and India Docks Joint Committee was a dock company formed in 1888 by the merger of the East and West India Co. with the London and Katherine's Co. The merger enabled the company to take control of all the north bank docks in the Port of London. The docks at this time were not under one authority; there were four competing dock companies and over 150 wharves and granaries, all in the Port of London.

By 1900 the Port of London had a substantial surfeit of dock space, a significant portion of which was unsuitable for the steamships that were becoming larger by the year. In 1900 the Government set up a Royal Commission to look into the problems of the port such as poor facilities, high charges, poor land communications and delays. The Royal Commission's main recommendation was for the creation of a new port authority, the first major act of 20th century nationalisation in the UK. In 1908 the Port of London Authority was established to maintain and supervise the Port of London. The new authority spent the years up to the First World War improving the efficiency of the docks. However, it soon built itself an impressively grand headquarters suggesting that the principle of economy was not always uppermost in its strategies. The Authority originally operated all the enclosed dock systems on the River Thames, but all these have since been closed to commercial traffic, with the exception of the Port of Tilbury which was privatised in 1992. Today, the Port of London Authority is responsible for river traffic control, security, navigational safety and conservation of the River Thames.

Former Port of London Authority Building, built in 1912

by Mark Matlach

F. Ry. Co. (Furness Railway Company)

 The Furness Railway Company was an independent railway operating between 1846 and 1923. Originally conceived as a mineral railway, it later played a major role in the development of the Lancashire town of Barrow-in-Furness, and in the development of the Lake District tourist industry. The Furness area was traditionally very isolated. The local landowners wanted to get their high quality slate and iron ore to their markets and they looked to build a railway down the coast, using ships for the onward journey.

The railway opened in 1846 – first to goods trains and then later in the year to passenger trains. In its early years the line slowly expanded, extending north from Kirkby to the market town of Broughton-in-Furness in 1848. An extension to Ulverston was completed in 1854. The Furness Railway Co. bought out the Ulverston & Lancaster Railway Co. in 1862. For the first time the people of Furness had easy access to the rest of the country. The Furness Railway Co. also owned the slate and iron ore mines in the area. The company built a steelworks in Barrow to process the local ore and built a shipyard that used the steel from the steelworks.

Throughout the second half of the 19th century the Furness Railway Co. consolidated its position and expanded. However, by the early years of the 20th century railway traffic was falling and under new management the Furness Railway was transformed into a tourist line.

The Railway Act 1921 signaled the end of the plethora of interlinking independent railway companies in Britain. Four massive companies were to be created, and the Furness Railway was absorbed into the London Midland & Scottish Railway on 1st January 1923. London Midland & Scottish operated the network through to the nationalisation of the railways in 1948. The Furness Railway main line survives to this day as part of the national network.

Image of “Coppernob", the nickname given to Furness Railway Number 3, which hauled the first passenger train on the Furness Railway. It is now a valued exhibit at the National Railway Museum in York.

by Mark Matlach

D. Hulett & Co.

 D. Hulett & Co. was a lamp manufacturing company in London from at least 1874 until at least 1914. The company had show rooms at 55 and 56 High Holborn and a factory at Harpur Mews that produced lights, hall lamps, chandeliers, street gas lamps and gas-meters.


Gas hall lamps seem to have been a specialty of the firm. These types of lamps with metal frames supporting colored and beveled glass were typically used in entrance halls of homes in the last two decades of the 19th century.

As far as I am aware, D. Hullet overprints can be found only on the two stamp issues shown.

by Mark Matlach

Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company

Prior to the mid-19th century, drinking milk was considered a health risk. Milk straight from the cow was loaded with bacteria. Milk not consumed within a matter of hours in the summer soon spoiled in the heat. Illness allegedly derived from contaminated milk consumption was referred to as “milksick”, milk poison” and the “milk evil”. The idea for a portable canned milk product that would not spoil came from an American called Gail Borden in 1852. His company began production of condensed milk in the United States in 1856.

The Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company was founded in 1866 by Charles Page, the American Consul in Zurich, who had witnessed the success of Gail Borden's condensed milk business in his homeland. The company established the first European condensed milk factory in Cham, Switzerland, where large supplies of milk existed, although the bulk of the product was intended for England. Anglo-Swiss broadened its product line in the mid-1870s to include cheese and infant formulas. In 1881 the company opened a factory in New York and was soon competing successfully with Gail Borden in the United States.

In 1905 Anglo-Swiss merged with Nestlé, its fiercest competitor in Europe at this time. The new company was called Nestlé & Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co. The company's current name of Nestlé S.A. was adopted in 1977. Today, Nestlé is a multinational nutritional and health-related consumer goods company and is the largest food company in the world measured by revenues.

The Anglo-Swiss overprint appears on the Queen Victoria 1d Inland Revenue stamp (type of 1868) and the 1d Lilac stamp (1881).

by Mark Matlach

Agra Bank Limited

The Agra & United Services Bank was an Indian-based British overseas bank established in London in 1833. The bank was originally formed to cater to military personnel and government employees. The popularity of the bank increased steadily throughout India with branches opened in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Agra, Cawnpore, Delhi, Simla, Benares and Dacca.

In 1862 the Agra & United Services Bank merged with Masterman & Co. to form the Agra & Masterman's Bank. The bank became heavily involved in the financing of railway construction in Australia, however it collapsed following the banking crisis of 1866.

In 1867 the bank was resuscitated under the name Agra Bank Limited and continued for the next twenty years before going into liquidation in 1887.



The Agra Bank Limited overprint can be found on the Queen Victoria Inland Revenue 1d stamp (shown on receipt) and the 1d Lilac stamp.

The Agra Bank building in Calcutta, now called the Currency Building and  occupied by the Indian Government's Currency Department

by Mark Matlach