Engineering

Engine of growth: Richardsons Westgarth

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Richardsons Westgarth was the largest builder of marine engines in the world.

Thomas Richardson & Sons
Thomas Richardson (1793 -1850), a timber merchant turned shipbuilder, established an iron foundry in the village of Castle Eden, Durham in 1838.

Richardson relocated to more spacious premises at Middleton, situated between West Hartlepool and Old Hartlepool, from 1846. The Hartlepool Iron Works was used to build colliery engines, and employed around 300 people.

Thomas Richardson was succeeded by his son, also called Thomas Richardson (1821 -1890), from 1850. The first marine engine was built in 1851.

Thomas Richardson & Sons, engineers and ironfounders, entered into receivership in 1875, after amassing debts of £280,000.

Thomas Richardson & Sons built its 636th pair of steamer engines in 1879.

Thomas Richardson & Sons produced twelve marine engines in 1886; the second largest total of any firm in Britain that year.

Donald Barns Morison (1860 -1925), a skilled engineer, became general manager of the business from 1888. The works could produce 30 to 40 sets of engines every year by 1890

Thomas Richardson died in 1890, and was succeeded as proprietor by his son, also called Thomas Richardson (1846 – 1906). By this time Richardsons was one of the leading marine engineering works in the world, and employed around 2,000 people.

Thomas Richardson was knighted in 1897. The Hartlepool Mail reported, “Sir Thomas is a Varsity man, but that has by no means damaged his capabilities as a man of business”.

The Hartlepool Engine Works covered over nine acres by 1900.

Richardson Westgarth & Co
T Richardson & Sons merged with Furness Westgarth & Co of Middlesbrough and W Allan & Co of Sunderland to form Richardson Westgarth & Co in 1900. The company employed thousands of people and had a share capital of £700,000.

Sir Christopher Furness was chairman, Sir Thomas Richardson was vice-chairman, and William John Richardson (1852 – 1918), W Allan and Stephen Furness were directors. Tom Westgarth (1852 – 1934) and D B Morison were joint-managing directors.

Christopher Furness (1852 – 1912) in 1902

Sir Christopher Furness was the largest single shareholder, and between them, the Furness and Richardson families had £450,000 to £500,000 invested in the company.

The merger allowed Richardson Westgarth to diversify its product range and combine its research and development talent. Some manufacturing was consolidated at Hartlepool. The affiliation with Christopher Furness also gave the company a ready market with his shipbuilding firms of Furness Withy and Irvine & Co.

Richardson Westgarth & Co built 55 engines with a combined horsepower of 106,300 in 1901; more than any other business in the world that year.

Tom Westgarth toured American and Continental iron, steel and engineering works in 1901. Upon his return, he warned that foreign competitors were gaining on British manufacturers. He called upon British workers to lose less time, take fewer holidays and to be more adaptable to changing conditions in order to ensure that indigenous industry remained competitive.

In 1911 Sir Christopher Furness criticised the irresponsibility of trade union leaders who identified foremost with political theories over practical business sense.

Richardson Westgarth employed 3,500 people in 1911, well within the top 100 largest British manufacturing employers.

Tom Westgarth retired from active control of the company in 1912 due to illness, but remained as a director.

Richardson Westgarth had never built an engine for the Admiralty, and at the beginning of the First World War, orders were slack. So the company wrote a letter to the government advertising its services, and war orders began from 1915. Between that time and the end of 1920, the firm engined 202 vessels, including 59 for the Admiralty, 57 for the Ministry of Shipping and 86 for the Mercantile Marine, with a total horsepower of 685,000. 51 ships were engined in 52 weeks in 1917 alone.

Richardson Westgarth built its first turbine engines during this period. The company also built 28 turbines for generating electric power onshore.

At the request of the Admiralty, Richardson Westgarth opened a shell manufacturing plant at Middlesbrough in 1915. Tom Westgarth supervised the project, and eventually, 4, 6 and 8 inch shells were being produced at the rate of 1,000 a week.

Investment in plant and machinery amounted to over £300,000 between 1915 and 1920.

D B Morison became chairman and managing director following the death of W J Richardson in 1918.

Richardson Westgarth produced the largest number of marine engines in Britain in 1920, with a total horsepower of 96,000. Worldwide, the company ranked sixth among marine engine builders, behind five American firms. However, the profitability of the marine engines business had declined substantially since the pre-War period.

Richardson Westgarth constructed its first diesel engine in 1923.

D B Morison retired in 1924, and was succeeded as chairman by Tom Westgarth.

Merger and recent history
A trade depression affected shipping particularly badly, and Richardson Westgarth merged with North-Eastern Marine Engineering Co of Wallsend and George Clark Ltd of Sunderland in 1938. The new venture took on the Richardsons Westgarth name, but North-Eastern Marine Engineering held the largest stake, and company headquarters were transferred to Wallsend.

Richardsons Westgarth and Weir Group of Glasgow merged their seawater desalination businesses as Weir Westgarth to create a world leader in the field in 1962. Weir Westgarth offices were relocated from West Hartlepool to Glasgow from 1964. Weir Group bought out the Richardsons Westgarth stake in the venture in 1967, although the Weir Westgarth name was retained.

Turbine and generator production came to an end in Hartlepool in 1967, with the closure of the South Works, and the loss of around 400 jobs.

Richardsons Westgarth was the largest manufacturer of slow-speed marine diesel engines in Britain in 1973.

North-Eastern Marine Engineering and George Clark, which were profitable, were subject to compulsory nationalisation by the British Government in 1977.

Throughout the early to mid-1980s, Richardsons Westgarth divested all of its remaining engineering operations, which had become loss-making, and focused on its steel stockholding business, which remained profitable.

The nationalised boilermaking operations in Hartlepool were closed with the loss of 250 jobs in 1982.

RW Transmissions of Hebburn, a loss-making subsidiary engaged in gear manufacturing, was divested in 1984. This marked the end of Richardsons Westgarth’s association with the North East of England.

Richardsons Westgarth was acquired by Klockner, a German metals trader, for £25 million in 2000 to create the second largest steel distributor in Britain.

Meanwhile Weir Westgarth was acquired by Veolia Water in 2005 and offices were relocated to East Kilbride.

Retail

Thomas Furness & Co

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Thomas Furness & Co was one of the largest grocers and provisions merchants in Britain.

John Furness (1808 – 1885) was a coal trimmer from Boroughbridge, Yorkshire. He married the daughter of a colliery owner, Averill Easter Wilson, and established a grocer’s shop in Hartlepool in 1850.

His son, Thomas Furness (1834 – 1905), served apprenticeships in Stockton and Manchester before opening his own grocery business on Church Street, Hartlepool in 1854. In 1861 the business employed two men and one boy. It was normal for grocers to work 90 hours per week.

A trade was soon established between Hartlepool and wholesalers in Denmark and Sweden. This venture was to prove immensely profitable.

In 1870 his brother Christopher (1852 – 1912) joined the firm as a sales representative. He was made partner in 1872.

Christopher Furness (1852 – 1912) in 1902

In 1877 the firm bought its own ships. By 1878 the firm had become the first in the North East of England to directly import produce from America, initially with Boston, and also later New York.

Christopher left the partnership in 1883, in order to develop the shipping side of the business.

John Furness died in 1885, and his Northern Daily Mail obituary hailed him as “one of the fathers of West Hartlepool”.

Thomas Furness was a Methodist and a temperance advocate. A staunch Liberal, in 1891 he became the first native of the borough to become Mayor of Hartlepool. He was not considered a particularly gifted man, but he was hard-working, conscientious and shrewd.

By 1891 the business was one of the largest provisions merchants in Britain.

In the mid 1890s the firm acquired the Shipowners’ Stores Supply Association of London.

In 1895 the firm was established as a limited company called Thomas Furness & Company’s Stores Ltd, with a capital of £200,000. Sir Christopher Furness was chairman of the directors, and Thomas and John Thomas Furness (1861 – 1932) were joint managing directors.

By this time the firm had offices at West Hartlepool and Newcastle upon Tyne, and shops at West Hartlepool, Darlington, Stockton, Saltburn, Thornaby and Richmond. In 1899 a branch was opened at Castleton, North Yorkshire.

In 1897 the firm established a small manufacturing arm called Northern Counties Manufacturing Co. Based at Mainsforth Terrace, it produced jams, cakes and biscuits. Plant, machinery and edifice cost £15,000.

Thomas Furness & Co sales in 1902 were a “disappointing” £477,116.

In 1903 James Newton Reid (1876 – 1923) of Liverpool joined the firm, which from 1909 began trading as Furness Brothers & Reid.

Thomas Furness died in 1905 and his estate was valued at £26,478.

Northern Counties Manufacturing Co was liquidated in 1908. The Castleton branch closed in 1909.

J T Furness’s only son, Guy Haswell Furness (1887 – 1952) was placed in charge of the business.

In 1924 Furness Brothers & Reid was entered into voluntary liquidation.

Shipping

Head of steam: William Gray & Co

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William Gray & Co was the largest shipbuilder in the world. The founder, Sir William Gray, was largely responsible for the growth of the town of Hartlepool.

Denton & Gray is established
William Gray (1823 – 1898) was born in Blyth, Northumberland. He established himself as a draper in the growing port town of Hartlepool, in the North East of England, from 1843.

Gray made a success of the drapery business, and reinvested his profits into sailing ships built by John Punshon Denton (1800 -1871), a well-established Hartlepool shipbuilder. Gray had become the largest owner of wooden ship tonnage in Hartlepool by 1863.

Sir William Gray
Sir William Gray (1823 – 1898)

Gray decided to enter into shipbuilding for himself, and entered into partnership with Denton to form Denton & Gray in 1862. Wooden vessels were becoming increasingly obsolete, and Denton & Gray launched their first iron ship in 1864.

Pile Spence & Co had pioneered iron steamship construction in Hartlepool in 1855. The failure of the Overend Gurney bank saw the shipbuilder enter into administration, and Denton & Gray acquired its three shipyards in 1869.

William Gray & Co becomes the largest shipbuilder in the world
John Denton died in 1871 and Gray took full control of the business to form William Gray & Co. By this time the firm was established as the largest shipbuilder in West Hartlepool, with an annual production of 16,490 tons.

William Gray & Co became the largest shipbuilder in the world, as measured by tonnage, for the first time in 1879. The ships were largely mid-sized cargo steamers.

The yard had produced 157 iron vessels with an aggregate value of £3.1 million by 1880. William Gray & Co was indisputably the largest industrial business in Hartlepool, and employed 1,400 workmen.

Gray established the Central Marine Engineering Works to manufacture steam engines from 1884. The chairman was G H Baines and the managing director was Thomas Mudd (1852 – 1898), one of the most talented engineers in the country.

William Gray & Co launched its first steel ship in 1884. All ships were built from steel from 1886.

Gray was a man known for his energy, perseverance and integrity. A large factor in his success was his willingness to extend credit to ship owners, or to take stakes in the ships themselves.

A warm and amiable man, Gray was a staunch Presbyterian. He donated thousands of pounds to the non-conformist chapels of Hartlepool in 1881. He was appointed the first Mayor of West Hartlepool in 1887.

William Gray & Co becomes a limited company
William Gray & Co became a limited company with a capital of £350,000 from 1888.

Weekly pay for employees amounted to over £8,000 in 1889.

William Gray & Co was quick to respond to an increasing demand for oil tankers. The yard built Bakuin (1886), the first oil tanker for a British owner. The Murex (1892) was the first of a number of oil tankers built for Shell, and became the first oil tanker to navigate the Suez Canal.

William Gray & Co had launched around 350 vessels, almost all steamships, by 1890. William Gray was also one of the largest shipowners in the United Kingdom. William Gray & Co employed 4,000 to 4,500 men and boys; a third of the population of Hartlepool. It was reported in an American newspaper that William Gray “almost owned the town”.

William Gray received a knighthood in 1890. He was appointed president of the Chamber of Shipping for the United Kingdom in 1891. Gray became High Sheriff of Durham in 1892.

For most of his life a Liberal, Gray stood as the Unionist parliamentary candidate for Hartlepool in 1891. He lost to fellow Hartlepool industrialist Christopher Furness (1852 – 1912), and was said to have been “beside himself with rage and disappointment” that his own employees helped to elect a rival. Gray was a good employer, but the electorate preferred the rival Liberal policies. It was alleged that Furness had promised his employees to only hire union labour if he was elected.

A statue of William Gray, paid for by public subscription, was erected in Hartlepool in 1898. Gray died later that year with an estate valued at over £1.5 million.

William Cresswell Gray takes over the business
William Gray was succeeded in business by his only surviving son, William Cresswell Gray (1867 – 1924).

William C Gray spent £9,000 to clear the debts of all the churches and chapels of Hartlepool in 1899.

William Gray & Co employed over 2,000 men in 1897. The company was the largest shipbuilder in the world in 1898, as measured by tonnage, and the second largest the following year. In 1900 it again won the title of the largest shipbuilder in the world. The business employed 2,000 to 3,000 workers by 1901.

Gray & Co launched the sixth largest aggregate tonnage of shipping in Britain between 1901 and 1909.

Gray & Co was the fourth largest shipbuilder in the world in 1915.

William Gray visited the Harland & Wolff yard in Belfast and was impressed by the amount of orders received for ship-repair work. He established a ship-repairing yard at Graythorp, Hartlepool, in 1916.

Following the First World War there was a rise in demand for new ships. To meet demand, a new shipyard was established at Pallion on the River Wear.

Despite a failed attempt by Christopher Furness, it was William Gray & Co that successfully introduced the first large-scale profit-sharing scheme for shipbuilding industry workers from 1919. Every employee received a 20 percent share of net profits.

William Gray & Co gifted a park and a worker’s institute to the people of Hartlepool at a cost of £35,000 in 1920. The company also established a convalescent home at the cost of £10,000.

The profit-sharing scheme saw William Gray & Co distribute £31,784 to 4,262 employees in 1921.

Sir William Gray and the demise of the business
Sir William Cresswell Gray died in 1924 and left a net estate valued at £279,069. He was succeeded by his son, Sir William Gray (1895 – 1978), as company chairman.

17 vessels with a total tonnage of 107,393 were launched in 1928.

William Gray & Co launched its thousandth ship in 1929. By this time the business had built 774 marine engines, and 2,196 boilers. 3,500 men were employed.

The Wearside yard was closed in 1930, and sold to National Shipbuilders Security in 1936.

William Gray & Co was the second largest British shipbuilder in 1932.

Frederick Cresswell Pyman (1889 – 1966) had been appointed managing director of William Gray & Co by 1939.

William Gray & Co had the second largest output of any shipbuilder in the North East of England during the Second World War, constructing 90 vessels. At its peak, the company employed 3,545 men in the shipyard and 1,400 in the engine works.

William Gray & Co had fallen to eleventh place in the region by 1950. The company received no orders in 1952 or 1953.

F C Pyman suggested that the post-war shipbuilding industry lacked sufficient managers and foremen. Many experienced men had been lost to the two World Wars, and the trade depression between the conflicts had seen an underinvestment in training. The industry was also hampered by the fact that trade unions had secured large increases in pay for their workers, but that this was not accompanied by a rise in productivity.

In order to meet capacity for oil tankers, £2 million was invested at the Graythorp site to make it the main shipbuilding centre from the mid-1950s.

Pyman stepped down as managing director in 1955, and was replaced by Stephen Furness and William Talbot Gray as joint-managing directors.

300 men were laid off in 1959.

William Gray & Co launched its last ship in 1961, after which the company was solely engaged in repair work. Amid a trade recession in the early 1960s the company was forced to take on conversion work at a loss in order to provide employment for its workers. 450 men were made redundant in 1962, leaving a workforce of just under 1,000. The firm entered into voluntary liquidation in 1963.

Company director Nicholas Anthony Gray (born 1934) explained:

The main reason for the company disbanding was that it was situated in an enclosed docks system with a limited entrance which restricted the company to building ships of no more than 16,000 tons deadweight and in these days it is really necessary to be able to build much larger ships than this if you are in the market of ocean-going vessels. The final decision to close was accelerated by the UK shipbuilding slump.

In one hundred years the yard had built around 1,400 ships.

The ship-repairing business at Graythorp was sold to Smith’s Dock Company in 1963.

The Graythorp site was acquired by Laing Offshore in 1969, and used to construct North Sea oil rigs. The site became the largest dry dock in the world. It is now operated by Able UK.

Shipping

Ship shape: Furness Withy

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How did Furness Withy become the third largest shipping company in the world?

The origins of the shipping business
John Furness (1808 – 1885) was a coal trimmer who lived in West Hartlepool, Durham. He married the daughter of his employer, Averil Wilson, and established a provisions and grocery business.

Under the leadership of his eldest son Thomas Furness (1834 – 1905), the provisions business developed into one of the largest of its kind in the North of England.

Christopher Furness (1852 – 1912) joined the family business from an early age. He was instrumental in developing a trade in goods from the United States and Northern Europe.

Christopher Furness became frustrated by freight costs, and acquired his first ship in 1876. Further ships were acquired from William Gray & Co of West Hartlepool, and the firm assumed full responsibility for its own shipping. A regular service between West Hartlepool and Boston, Massachusetts was inaugurated in 1877.

Christopher Furness develops Furness Withy
Differences of opinion in 1882 saw Thomas Furness retain control of the provisions concern, with Christopher Furness gaining responsibility for the shipping business, which by this time included seven vessels. Christopher Furness & Co was established as a private company with a capital of £100,000.

A portrait of Christopher Furness
A portrait of Christopher Furness (1852 – 1912)

Frederick William Lewis (1870 – 1944) joined the business as an office boy in 1883.

Christopher Furness & Co, with 18 wholly-owned steamers and stakes in 21 other ships, merged with the West Hartlepool shipbuilding firm of Edward Withy & Co in 1891. The new concern, Furness Withy & Co, had a capital of £700,000.

The Edward Withy shipyard machinery was electrified and the yard was tripled in size. The yard built the largest vessels in England.

Christopher Furness was a restless man with a keen eye for opportunity. He received a knighthood in 1895. When asked the reason behind his success in life, he replied, “putting two days work into one”.

The British Maritime Trust, with 26 ships, was acquired in 1896.

A stake in the marine engineering business of Richardsons, Westgarth & Co of West Hartlepool was acquired in 1900.

The Gulf Line, with seven ships, was acquired in 1902.

Furness Withy becomes one of the largest shipping companies in the world
Furness Withy was one of the largest shipping companies in Britain by 1907, with control of tonnage of 504,582. The Furness Withy interests were largely in the cargo trade, as opposed to mail and passenger steamers. Company capital had increased to £3.5 million.

Irvine’s shipyard at West Hartlepool was acquired in 1907. Furness Withy became one of the largest shipbuilders in Britain.

Furness Withy ranked as one of the Big Five of British shipping by 1910, alongside Cunard, Royal Mail, P&O and Ellerman. The business ranked among the hundred largest publicly-quoted companies in Britain.

A large interest in Houlder Brothers & Co was acquired in 1911.

Christopher Furness was a Methodist, and enjoyed good relations with his workforce. A radical Liberal, he was a Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from the 1890s. Furness was raised to the Peerage as Baron Furness of Grantley in 1910. He had eleven live-in servants by 1911.

Furness died with an estate valued at £1.8 million in 1912. An obituary in The Straits Times commented, “to his energy and industry a great deal of the unparalleled success of West Hartlepool is due.” Christopher Furness was succeeded as company chairman by his nephew, Sir Stephen Furness (1872 – 1914).

The Warren Line of Liverpool was acquired in 1912

Furness Withy was the third largest British shipping line, as measured by tonnage, by 1913. Furness Withy controlled over one million gross tons of shipping by 1914.

Sir Stephen Furness died after a fall from a window in 1914, and Lord Furness (1883 – 1940) was appointed chairman. Frederick William Lewis was appointed to the newly-created role of deputy chairman.

The head office was transferred from Hartlepool to Liverpool in 1915.

Furness Withy acquired full control of the Johnston Line of Liverpool, with 17 vessels of 73,000 tons, in 1916.

Furness Withy owned 200 vessels by August 1916.

The Prince Line of Newcastle, with 38 ships, was acquired for £3.3 million in 1916.

Furness Withy lost 97 vessels to enemy action during the First World War.

Furness Withy largely controlled the North Atlantic cargo trade by 1918, through its ownership of the Furness, Manchester and Johnston lines. It also had an interest in the Argentine meat trade through the Houlder line. The Prince line ran boats to South America and South Africa from New York.

End of family control
A clash in strategy between Lewis and Lord Furness saw the family interest in Furness Withy sold to the management, led by Frederick William Lewis, for £10.2 million in 1919. The deal saw the Furness family take control of the the shipbuilding and industrial interests.

Frederick William Lewis was appointed chairman of Furness Withy. By this time group assets were valued at £34 million. Company capital was increased to £5.5 million.

Frederick William Lewis (1870 – 1944) in 1932. Image used with permission from the National Portrait Gallery.

Furness Withy was the third largest shipping company in the world by 1921, with a fleet of 168 vessels.

Company headquarters were transferred to London in 1931.

Lewis was awarded a barony in 1932 and became Lord Essendon.

The Shaw, Savill & Albion Co, with 22 passenger liners and freighters, was acquired in 1933 to make Furness Withy the largest British shipowner.

The company lost 42 vessels and 1,078 men to enemy action during the Second World War.

Lord Essendon died in 1944, and was succeeded as chairman by Ernest Henry Murrant (1889 – 1974).

The firm took time to regain the number of ships lost during the war. In 1951 it controlled 81 ships with an aggregate of 680,000 gross tons.

Royal Mail Lines was acquired in 1965. Following the acquisition Furness Withy operated 64 ships with a tonnage of 600,000.

The Furness repair yard in Hartlepool was sold to Swan Hunter in 1967.

Sale of the business
Furness Withy had a fleet of just over 100 vessels by 1970, with a tonnage of over one million. The company employed 9,500 people in Britain.

In response to rising costs and declining revenues, Furness Withy sold 23 ships in 1971.

Furness Withy operated 50 vessels with a tonnage of one million, and was the third largest merchant shipping group in Britain in 1980.

Furness Withy was acquired by Orient Overseas Container (Holdings) of Hong Kong, controlled by C Y Tung (1912 – 1982), for nearly £112.5 million in 1980.

Tung introduced dramatic cutbacks, and had reduced the Furness Withy fleet to 24 vessels by 1982. He was accused of asset-stripping the business. The entire Furness Withy fleet had been registered under flags of convenience in countries such as Panama and Liberia by the mid-1980s.

Furness Withy was sold to Oetker Group of Germany in 1990.

Furness Withy returned to British control when Swire Group acquired the bulk shipping interests of the Oetker Group in 2019.

Leisure

A history of Thomas Cook & Son (1841 – 2000)

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Thomas Cook & Son pioneered popular tourism, and has ranked among the largest travel agencies in the world for much of its history.

Early life of Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook (1808 – 1892) was born in modest circumstances in Melbourne, Derbyshire. He was raised as a New Connexion Baptist. Thomas Cook was just four years old when his father died.

Cook went to work as a gardener in Melbourne from the age of ten. His employer was a heavy drinker, and Cook noticed the detrimental effect this had on his business.

Cook was apprenticed to a wood turner in Market Harborough, Leicestershire from the age of 14. He would sometimes begin work at two or three o’clock in the morning so that he could finish work early and indulge in his passion of fishing on the River Trent.

Cook did not complete his apprenticeship, and instead went to work for a printer and publisher in Loughborough. His employer was a keen Baptist. Cook became a Baptist preacher from 1828.

Cook entered into business for himself from 1832, as a wood turner and cabinet market in Market Harborough. Cook became closely associated with the temperance movement from this time.

The travel agency business is born
Cook organised an excursion from Leicester to Loughborough for 570 temperance supporters in 1841. It was the first time a British train had been chartered by a member of the public.

Cook relocated to Leicester later in 1841, where he worked as a printer and publisher.

Meanwhile, his travel agency business continued to grow. 300 people were taken to Scotland in 1846.

Statue of Thomas Cook (1808 – 1892) in Leicester

The growth of the railways had made travel more affordable, and Thomas Cook was quick to identify and exploit this potential market.

The Great Exhibition was held in London in 1851, and Cook arranged for 165,000 people to visit the capital. Profits were such that Cook was able to abandon the printing trade at this stage in order to devote himself to his travel agency business.

John Mason Cook
John Mason Cook (1834 – 1899), son of Thomas Cook, was appointed head of a new office at Fleet Street, London from 1865. An energetic man, he made an immediate impact, and the subsequent growth of the business was due as much to the son as the father.

John Mason Cook entered into full partnership with his father from 1871, and the firm became known as Thomas Cook & Son, with an invested capital of over £250,000.

Formerly the Thomas Cook head office in Leicester
The former Thomas Cook head office in Leicester

Business saw J M Cook travel an average of 50,000 miles a year between 1855 and 1873.

Thomas Cook retired in 1878, and John Mason Cook took full control of the firm.

Under the leadership of John Mason Cook, the business continued to expand until it had 84 offices and 2,962 staff (978 of them in Egypt) by 1891.

J M Cook died in 1899, and the gross value of his estate was assessed at £390,000. He was succeeded in business by his three sons; Frank Henry Cook (1862 – 1931), Ernest Edward Cook (1866 – 1955) and Thomas Albert Cook (1867 – 1914).

Conversion into a private limited company and successive owners
Thomas Cook & Son became a private limited company with a capital of £800,000 in 1924.

The head office was relocated to larger premises at Berkeley Street, Piccadilly, in 1926.

Thomas Cook & Son was sold to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits of Belgium, operators of the Orient Express, for £3.5 million in 1927. The merger created the largest travel agency in the world, with scope for considerable efficiencies of scale.

The sale of the business allowed Frank Henry Cook to retire as chairman in 1929. He died in 1932, with a gross estate valued at £1,054,769.

Thomas Cook & Son had operations in 300 locations, and employed over 4,000 people by 1939. The head office at Berkeley Street employed 1,500 people at peak periods.

Wagons-Lits came under German control during the Second World War, and Thomas Cook & Son had it’s assets seized by the British government and handed to the four major railway companies.

The British railways, and Thomas Cook & Son with it, were nationalised in 1948.

Thomas Cook & Son claimed to be the largest travel company in the world in 1971. 10,000 people were employed across 420 offices.

The British government sold Thomas Cook & Son to a consortium of businesses headed by Midland Bank for £22.5 million in 1972.

Midland Bank sold Thomas Cook & Son to LTU, the third largest German travel agency, for £200 million in 1992. Westdeutsche Landesbank acquired Thomas Cook & Son the following year.

Preussag, the owner of TUI, the largest travel group in the world, acquired control of Thomas Cook & Son in 1999.

Carlson acquired Thomas Cook & Son in 2000.

Confectionery

Needlers confectionery

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Needler’s was one of the largest regional confectionery firms in Britain.

Fred Needler
Fred Needler (1865 – 1932) was born in Arnold, a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, about nine miles outside Hull.

Needler became general assistant to a small confectioner on Osborne Street, Hull from 1881. His employer was an alcoholic, an unreliable, blustering and bullying man. Conditions were bad, and the hours were long.

The business failed in 1886, and Needler borrowed £100 to buy the equipment and establish his own confectionery business at nearby Hanover Square. Needler manufactured chocolate and boiled sweets, and initially worked 15.5 hour days.

A Needler's delivery van
A Needler’s delivery van

Needler relocated to larger premises on Brook Street in 1890. By this time around ten people were employed.

The growing business removed to a larger site at Spring Street from 1896.

The business was registered as Fred Needler Ltd in 1902. The company directors were recruited from Needler’s staff of 50.

The company relocated to a new factory on Sculcoates Lane from 1906, and changed its name to Needlers Ltd.

Fred Needler was a charming man, and highly principled and scrupulous. He was a staunch Primitive Methodist, and was guided by three principles: honesty, quality and fair treatment of his workforce. From the beginning there was an extensive profit-sharing scheme for staff. The company also covered sick pay and early retirement due to illness. Two holiday homes were established in seaside resorts. Newly-wed female employees were awarded a “dowry”.

The company employed over 1,400 people by 1924. The Prince of Wales toured the factory in 1926. Sales outlets were opened in Newcastle and London in 1929. Needlers opened a 6.5 acre recreation ground adjacent to its works for the use of its staff in 1930.

Fred Needler died in 1932 with an estate valued at £147,596. He had donated generously to local charities throughout his life. By this time Needlers was one of the largest businesses in Hull, with 2,000 employees.

Arthur and Raymond Needler
Fred Needler was succeeded by his son,  Arthur Percival Needler (1900 – 1976). The company struggled during the Great Depression.

Needler chemists discovered a method to produce clear (or glace) fruit drops by adding lactic acid in 1938. The glace drop was to prove a major success for the company.

A P Needler retired in 1970 and was succeeded by his son, Raymond F Needler. Needler immediately acquired Batger & Co, a London toffee manufacturer, and centralised all production at Hull. Following the acquisition, Needlers employed 750 people.

Needlers experienced mixed success throughout the 1970s, and was steadily loss-making by the early 1980s. The problems were blamed on a shift in public taste from sugar confectionery to chocolate, and the decline of the traditional corner sweet shop due to the growth of the supermarkets. In order to reduce costs, a large number of low-margin, low-volume product lines were discontinued in 1977, and the workforce was downsized from 750 to 400.

Increased exports and private-label contracts allowed Needler to re-enter profitability in 1984.

Loss of independence and closure of the factory
Needler was acquired by Hillsdown Holdings for £3.4 million the following year.

Needler failed to invest in modern machinery, and entered a period of steady decline.

Needler was acquired by Blue Bird Confectionery for £3.85 million in 1996.

Blue Bird Confectionery had an annual turnover of $66 million and 120 employees in 2000.

Ashbury Confectionery of Corby, a leading own-label chocolate manufacturer, acquired Blue Bird in 2001. The Hull factory was closed the following year.

Ashbury Confectionery entered administration in 2015, and was acquired by Baronie, a Belgian chocolate manufacturer.

Needler branded chocolates are still produced as of 2018.

Confectionery

By gum: Wrigley’s in the UK

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Wrigley’s pioneered sales of chewing gum in Britain. The business held 93 percent of the British gum market in 2016.

Establishment of the business
William Wrigley Jr (1861 – 1932), an American chewing gum manufacturer, formed a British subsidiary in 1911. With a capital of £2,000 he established a warehouse on Lambeth Palace Road and an office at 164 Piccadilly. Heppell’s, a Piccadilly chemist, made the first sales of Wrigley’s chewing gum.

Wrigley found it difficult to convince Edwardian Britons to chew gum at a time when sucking on a boiled sweet in public was against the social norm. The big change came with the First World War;

British soldiers began to chew gum as a relief from boredom during the First World War, and brought the habit back home.

Murison and Wembley
Stanley Lorimer Murison (1881 – 1932), a salesman, was appointed managing director from 1921. A quiet and determined man, he invested heavily on advertising, and the company grew under his leadership.

Murison relocated the warehouse and office operations to Tottenham Court Road.

Wrigley advertised that their chewing gum was manufactured using only refined chicle, pure sugar and flavouring. The main two flavour varieties sold were Spearmint and “P.K.” (triple-distilled peppermint).

Eleven acres of former British Empire Exhibition land at Wembley were acquired in order to establish a factory in 1925. The site was chosen due to its strong transport links. Build, land and equipment costs totalled £200,000. The factory was opened in 1927 with 350 employees. A large proportion of Wembley production was exported overseas; to Europe, India, Egypt and South Africa.

Over 109 million packets of Wrigley gum were sold in Great Britain in 1929. Wrigley’s was the only sugar-coated chewing gum produced in Britain.

Company capital was reduced from £200,000 to £150,000 in 1930. Wrigley claimed that due to high sales of its product, it required less capital.

Wrigley produced several tons of chewing gum in Britain every day by 1933. Its factory had a capacity of 300,000 sticks of gum a day.

wrigley1940s

The Second World War saw production levels soar, largely fuelled by British and Empire military consumption. Britain was the second largest exporter of chewing gum in the world by 1940, largely due to the Wrigley factory.

American GIs stationed in Britain also helped to promote the habit of chewing gum. Coupled with extensive advertising, sales reached the mass market level in the post-war period.

The business relocates to Plymouth
Expanding sales saw the company outgrow the Wembley facility. The factory and head office were relocated to a 39 acre site outside Plymouth in 1970. 25 percent of Wembley employees relocated to Plymouth. The 3.5 acre Wembley site was sold for £500,000.

Orbit, Britain’s first sugar-free gum, was launched in 1977. Wrigley’s Extra was introduced from 1989. Airwaves was launched in 1997. Extra Mints were launched in 2004.

Wrigley was acquired by Mars, the chocolate manufacturer, in 2008.

Wrigley employed nearly 500 people in Britain and Ireland in 2015, including 230 people at the Plymouth factory. Around 25 percent of Plymouth production is exported overseas. Wrigley held 90 percent of the British chewing gum market in 2017.

Confectionery

All in their hands: Walters’ Palm Toffee

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Walters’ Palm Toffee was one of the largest toffee manufacturers in Britain.

Nathan Walters establishes the business
Nathan Baraf Walters (1867 – 1957) was a Jewish Romanian from Botosani. He established a toffee manufacturing business at Poplar, London in 1887. Palm Toffee was the main product, so-called because it was made from palm butter.

Walters was naturalised as a British subject in 1899.

Walters’ enters into mass production
Production was relocated to a former aircraft factory at Westfields Road, Acton from 1926. Located on a 1.5 acre site, it was one of the largest toffee manufacturing plants in Britain.

Walters’ Palm Toffee Ltd had a share capital of £240,000 in 1928. That year, export sales to Europe and the British Empire began.

Palm Toffee was a high quality product available at a reasonable price. It appears to have been mainly produced for the working class market.

Around 800 people were employed at the Acton factory by 1935, including 200 night workers.

The factory was destroyed by fire in 1935. The colossal blaze could be witnessed from miles away. Major Arthur Baraf Walters (1892 – 1973), a director of the company and son of the founder, collapsed at the scene from shock and had to be hospitalised. The factory was rebuilt.

Nathan Walters died in 1957. He left the entirety of his estate to Jewish charities, and his four sons received nothing. The Walters family unsuccessfully contested the last will in the Probate Court.

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The end of sugar rationing in 1954 saw a boom in confectionery sales. However by the end of the 1950s this boom was over, as an increasingly prosperous society began to favour chocolate. As a result of this financial pressure and stagnation, the industry began to consolidate.

Walters’ is acquired by J & P Holland
Walters’ Palm Toffee became loss-making, and was acquired by J & P Holland of Southport, the largest toffee manufacturers in the world, in a friendly takeover which valued the business at £385,000 in 1960.

J A & P Holland closed the Acton factory in 1961. Production of Palm confectionery was transferred to Holland factories in Southport and Birmingham.

Palm Toffee remained in production as late as the 1970s.

Does anyone remember Palm Toffee? Did one of your relatives work at the Acton factory? Feel free to leave comments below.

 

Confectionery

On point: Edward Sharp & Sons

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Edward Sharp & Sons was the largest toffee manufacturer in the world.

Edward Sharp establishes a confectionery factory
Edward Sharp (1854 – 1931) was born in Maidstone, Kent. He was a dedicated Congregationalist.

After attending the local grammar school, Sharp became an apprentice at the Springfield Mill, a Maidstone paper factory where his father was manager.

Sharp was dismissed after he declined to raise his cap to the managing director, Richard James Balston. Sharp later referred to the incident as, “the finest day’s work I have ever done in my life”.

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Sharp established a grocery business on Week Street, Maidstone. His wife began to make homemade sweets, principally toffee and nougat, which Sharp sold in his shop from 1878.

The business was initially modest, and Sharp employed one man and one boy in 1881. Sharp acted as his own salesman, and travelled around Kent on his bicycle.

The confectionery sideline was to prosper, and Sharp divested his grocery business in 1898 and established a dedicated toffee factory in a former roller skating rink on Sandling Road, Maidstone.

Kreemy Toffee helps to establish sales, and a new factory is built
Sharp introduced a new type of creamy nougat. It was recast by the works manager, Alfred Edward Malins (1867 – 1933), to create a creamy toffee, which was branded as “Kreemy Toffee” from 1910.

A new factory, the Kreemy Works, was established at St Peter’s Street, Maidstone, from 1912. Increased capacity allowed Edward Sharp to begin to distribute Kreemy Toffee nationwide.

Sharp’s success was credited to improved methods of manufacture, careful advertising and a national increase in toffee sales during and following the First World War. The business claimed to be the largest toffee manufacturer in the world in 1922, and Sharp was made a baronet.

Sharp’s wife died in 1925, and to widespread surprise he married his secretary when he was 74 years old in 1928. Sharp died in 1931 and left an estate valued at £156,367.

Sharp’s sons Herbert Edward Sharp (1879 – 1936) and Wilfred James Sharp (1880 – 1945) became joint-managing directors of the company.

Edward Sharp & Sons toffee sales continued to grow, and it was the largest toffee manufacturer in the world in 1933. The company owed its success to heavy advertising and a quality product.

H E Sharp died in 1936 and left an estate valued at £79,943.

Restricted supplies of raw materials forced Sharps to concentrate on the export trade during the Second World War and up to the early 1950s.

W J Sharp died in 1945 and left an estate valued at £194,219. John Rayner Edgar Sharp (1917 – 1994) and Harold Sharp, grandsons of the founder, became joint-managing directors.

An illustrated Sharps toffee tin

Sharps was one of the foremost sugar confectionery manufacturers in Britain in 1951. The business targeted the high-quality market. Super Kreem toffee was the highest-selling product line. The factory could produce 600 wrapped sweets a minute.

Employees were allowed to consume as much confectionery as they could eat on the premises, but were not permitted to take produce home.

Sugar rationing ended in 1953, and butter rationing ended in 1954. To cope with increasing sales, 24-hour production was introduced, and 350 men were employed on the night shift alone by 1954.

Edward Sharp & Sons loses its independence, the brand is withdrawn and the factory is closed
Following the post-rationing boom, an increasingly affluent society began to favour chocolate over sugar confectionery. Edward Sharp & Sons was acquired by Trebor, a privately-owned London confectionery manufacturer, in 1961. The sales forces were merged in 1968, and the company became known as Trebor Sharp.

The Maidstone plant focused on Easter eggs, toffee, fudge and chocolate-coated products by 1980.

Trebor Sharp was acquired by Cadbury in 1989.

Sharp’s toffee was discontinued in 1998.

The Maidstone factory was closed as part of an efficiency drive in 2000, with the loss of over 300 jobs. The factory had produced Softmints, toffee and fudge. Manufacturing was relocated to Chesterfield and Sheffield. The factory was demolished and replaced by housing in 2002.

The brand was relaunched as Sharps of York from 2004. The Sharps brand was acquired by Tangerine Confectionery in 2008 and products were rebranded under the Taveners name.

Confectionery, Spreads & sauces

Machinations: Batger & Co

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Batger & Co was the largest jam manufacturer in Britain by the 1870s, and became one of the largest employers in East London, with a workforce of 2,000 people.

Batger & Co was acquired by Needlers in 1970. Is last-surviving product, Chinese Figs, was discontinued around the turn of the 21st century.

Origins
The Batger (pronounced Batch-er) family had a background in the London sugar refining trade. The business claimed that it was established by a Miss Batger in 1748.

John Batger (1754 – 1825), a Quaker, had established a grocery business at 16 Bishopsgate Street, London by 1783. He was manufacturing confectionery by at least 1813.

Batger & Co had a four-storey factory at 15-16 Bishopsgate Street by 1847.

Samuel Hanson & Son acquire Batger & Co
Batger & Co was acquired by Samuel Hanson & Son, wholesale grocers of Botolph Lane in Eastcheap, in 1856. There were around twelve employees.

An annual, expenses-paid excursion for staff was introduced from 1856. About 25 people were employed by around 1860.

A new factory was established at 103 Broad Street, Ratcliff, London from 1863.

Frederick Machin enters the business
Frederick Machin (1826 – 1902) and Samuel Hanson (1804 – 1882) had control of Batger & Co by 1864. Machin was responsible for the subsequent growth of a relatively small and declining business.

The Bishopsgate premises were divested in 1867.

Batger & Co employed 200 people by 1871. “Harlequin” Christmas crackers began to be produced from 1872.

Batger & Co was described as the largest jam manufacturer in Britain in 1873.

The Batger & Co factory covered two acres, all built upon, by 1875. 450 people were employed; rising to 550 at Christmas and 700 during the English fruit season, when jam was made. Around 2,000 tons of sugar and 1,000 tons of English fruits were used each year. Machinery was used extensively.

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Frederick Machin had assumed full control of Batger & Co by 1880.

Batger & Co employed 400 people (250 men, 100 women and 50 boys) by 1881. The company was one of the largest manufacturers of jam and confectionery in London.

Batger & Co employed a workforce of 500 to 600 people during peak periods by 1887.

Batger & Co was one of the largest confectionery manufacturers in Britain by the turn of the 20th century. Nearly 1,000 workers were employed. Batger & Co was credited as the longest-established confectionery business in Britain.

Frederick Machin died in 1902 with a net personalty valued at £48,995. Control of the firm passed to his son, Stanley Machin (1861 – 1939).

Sir Stanley Machin (1861 – 1939) in 1932

Batger had introduced Chinese Figs by 1903. They were oval sweets consisting of real figs, fruit jelly and a sugar coating.

Christmas crackers were a major part of the Batger & Co business, and proved popular due to their high quality and low price.

A healthy export trade saw Batger & Co enjoy record sales in 1906, and the factory was extended.

Batger & Co was the largest ratepayer in East London by 1910.

Batger & Co employed a workforce of up to 2,000 people during peak periods by 1912. Joseph Hetherington (1873 – 1937) was manager of the confectionery factory by this time.

Batger & Co won a lucrative contract to supply the Army with jam during the First World War.

Chinese Figs were well-established as the most important confectionery line by 1920, with thousands of boxes sold during the festive period.

Batger & Co is acquired by Crosse & Blackwell
Batger & Co was acquired by Crosse & Blackwell for £522,902 in 1920. Batger retained its old management, and Stanley Machin was appointed a director of Crosse & Blackwell.

Batger & Co was the sole profitable Crosse & Blackwell subsidiary in 1923. However Crosse & Blackwell directors discovered that a confectionery business lacked synergies with a company largely concerned with preserves.

Machin and Hetherington family ownership
Crosse & Blackwell divested Batger & Co Ltd as a private company under the sole control of Stanley Machin and Joseph Hetherington in 1926.

Stanley Machin died in 1939. An obituary hailed him as one of the “leaders of commercial life in the City of London”.

Harold Stanley Machin (1891 – 1979) succeeded his father as managing director of Batger & Co.

The Broad Street factories were destroyed during the Blitz in 1940. A new factory was opened at 44 Southside, Clapham Common.

Batger & Co held a valuable contract to supply the J Sainsbury supermarket chain with own-label confectionery by the early 1960s.

Christmas cracker production is believed to have ended in around the late 1960s.

Sale to Needlers
Batger & Co was sold to Needlers Ltd of Hull, a rival confectionery manufacturer, for £263,000 in cash in 1970. John Hetherington and Colin Machin joined the Needlers board of directors.

The Batger factory in Clapham was sold for £330,000 in 1971, and production was relocated to Hull.

The last remaining Batger’s product, Chinese Figs, was discontinued around the year 2000. Its demise represented the end for one of the longest-established confectionery brands in Britain.

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