Norwich manufacturing history

The second largest city in Britain at the start of the eighteen century made wealthy by wool, Norwich, with a population of 30,000, was a city of spinners, wool-combers and weavers.

The principal product was worsted cloth. To this were added worsted made of wool and silk to make it softer and so offer competition to Indian cashmere, and later wool and cotton worsted. Norwich won business from Exeter through its lower wages, but then Yorkshire won over Norwich for the same reason. By the end of the century Norwich was dependent upon export sales via the East India company and, when these ceased in the early nineteenth century, Norwich's wool workers were destitute. They had long resisted mechanisation but eventually relented. The trade did revive but never to its former level. In 1961, there were 10,000 employed in the clothing trade around about the same number as in shoe making.

In 1800, there had been cordwainers making shoes and boots in the city for decades, but wool had always been the dominant trade. With wool's decline and increased demand for shoes from London, the colonies and the growing industrial towns, Norwich began its journey to become a centre of shoemaking, particularly for women. The earliest recorded shoe manufacturer was James Southall & Co in 1792. In terms of other activity, Gurney's Bank (later part of Barclays) was founded 1775 and Hills and Underwood vinegar maker in 1762.

In 1846 Norwich became the last major city to be connected to the growing railway net work. This facilitated further growth in shoe making, with Norwich becoming, so Frank Meeres suggests in his A History of Norwich, the fourth largest shoe city in Britain. Norvic shoes was a celebrated brand for women's footwear and one of the first to embrace advertising. This company, formed by the older Howlett and White, made many thousand of boots and shoes for the armed forces in both world wars. One Norvic speciality was sports shoes including running spikes.

The commercial strength of Norwich was in the diversity of its industry. Boulton and Paul manufactured all manner of product from wood including aircraft, at one time employing 1,300. Jewson Timber Merchants were founded in Norwich. Barnard, Bishop and Barnard invented a machine for making wire netting which sold all over the world. The company later became part of Tinsley Wire of Sheffield. Laurence, Scott and Electromotors embraced electricity and made dynamos and electric motors with a workforce at one time of 3,500. The company still manufactures in the city but was bought by the Austrian ATB in 2007 and now is financed by the Chinese Wolong. Coleman's mustard business was founded in 1804 and by 1900 had 2,000 employees. Coleman merged with the Recketts of Hull in 1938. As I told in my blog on Halifax, Mackintosh bought the Norwich chocolate maker, AJ Caley. Elsewhere the Norwich Union insurance company was founded in 1806. HMSO moved to Norwich in 1968 but closed in 1996. The publisher Jarrold moved to Norwich in 1823 and still publishes from the city.

Further reading

Frank Meers, A History of Norwich (Stroud: Phillimore, 1998)

Halifax Manufacturing History

 Halifax was known as a town of an hundred trades, yet its origins were similar to many other Yorkshire wool towns; it was the place that weavers from the large parish of Halifax and beyond would bring their work for sale. The urban area of Halifax was but a small part of a large rural parish in the West Riding. It was in hilly country which offered the advantage of fast running water to power machines but also the disadvantage of making the town less accessible than others by canal and railway.

In 1779 the wool traders built the beautiful Piece Hall which had the capacity to house a significant trade in woollen goods. With accessible water power the new inventions in spinning and weaving could readily be applied in a small but growing number of factories in the town. Coal was expensive to transport and so steam was late in coming to Halifax by which time Bradford had secured a lead in worsted production. Nonetheless the worsted trade prospered in the town as growing urban areas in Britain and abroad sought woollen goods. The Akroyd family stood out in the first part of the nineteenth century. John Holdsworth were noted as providing khaki and navy cloth for the armed forces.

A distinctive trade in the town was the manufacture of carpets. The Crossley family took a lease on Dean Clough Mill in 1801. The business was successful, with many thousands of employees over the years, and continued through to 1987 having joined with two Kidderminster companies to form Carpets International. Production of fine Brussels Wilton carpets continued into the 21st century.

Wool factories needed engineers and Hailfax produced a rather special breed of engineer, the maker of machine tools. I write of machine tools elsewhere in relation to London, Manchester and Coventry. Halifax and Keighley became another centre of the industry. William Asquith was founded in 1865 and became famous for their revolutionary radial drilling machine which replaced the practice of punching in constructional engineering. James Butler, a former apprentice as Crossleys, developed specialist planing machines. Butlers were instrumental in the formation of the British Tool Manufacturers Association in 1917. Cornelius Redman formed another machine tool firm which was bought by the London tool maker Charles Churchill in 1935 to form Churchill Redman.

The fine skills required for machine tool making were equally applicable to jewellery and the firm of Charles Horner became well known. Working with metal extended to boiler making and and heating apparatus. James Royston produced tons of charcoal wire for the first transatlantic cable in 1856.

John Mackintosh left Bowman's cotton mill in 1890 to open a pastrycook business with his popular product, a blend of butterscotch and American caramel. The business grew and soon employed hundreds of women wrapping toffee. Halifax became known as 'toffee town'. In the mid 1920s Mackintosh acquired A.J. Caley chocolate manufacturing business in Norwich, a marriage which produced 'Quality Street'. A fire destroyed the Norwich premises and the whole business moved to Halifax. Mackinstosh joined with Rowntree of York in 1969.

Halifax is perhaps best known now for mortgages. The building society movement began in the nineteenth century and in Halifax two main societies emerged, the Halifax Permanent and the Halifax Equitable which merged in the 1920s. The societies and indeed the local banks which were founded to finance local business attracted to their boards the great and the good of the town and wider parish.

Halifax contributed to the national effort in both world wars. Machine tool companies made all manner of war materiel and textile manufacturers were busy clothing the forces. In the interwar years, Percy Shaw invented 'cats eyes' and founded Reflecting Roadstuds Ltd to manufacture them, enjoying particularly strong demand in the blackout of the war years. In the Second World War Harold Mackinstosh became much involved in National Savings raising money to pay the cost of war. My father was invited by Sir Harold to speak in Halifax in Salute the Soldier Week in June 1944. Here is a link to what he said. The image was taken when he was being introduced.

In the years following the war, textiles enjoyed strong demand for fabric for buses and railway carriage seats. This continues within the Camira Group. Marshalls manufactured paving, but machine tools suffered the decline I described elsewhere with fierce foreign competition which also later decimated the textile industry. Nestle now manufacture Quality Street in Halifax.

Further reading:

John A. Hargreaves, Halifax (Lancaster: Carnegie, 2003)