Industrial Great Britain: A Commercial Review of Leading Firms 1894

T. E. THIRTLE, GENERAL AND FURNISHING IRON-MONGER, AND BELLHANGER,45, HIGH STREET, LOWESTOFT. 

AMONG the men who have done much, and are still doing much, for the development and welfare of Lowestoft, a position of prominence is duo to Mr. T. E. Thirtle, who for many years has been closely mixed up with the progress of the town, and whose family has been influentially connected with the borough for the last hundred years. The business carried on, that of general and furnishing ironmonger and bellhanger, was founded by the father of the present proprietor between fifty and sixty years ago, and from its commencement has been controlled with exemplary energy and ability. Mr. T. E. Thirtle is one of the best-known men in Lowestoft, both as an enterprising tradesman and as a citizen indefatigable in the discharge of his public duties. The premises occupied are situated at 46, High Street, and were, in all probability, built for the private residence of some rich burgess about the time when Queen Anne ruled over the destinies of England. According to antiquarians, there is no doubt that George II. slept in the house, and a tablet is erected to that effect. The shop has a good frontage and a very considerable depth, and has been fitted up in the best possible manner for the control of a business of this description. There is a large well-appointed show-room, together with warehouse and store-rooms, all filled to repletion with the superior and varied goods offered by the firm. The stocks have been carefully selected from the best-known makers, and comprise general and household ironmongery, artificers’ tools of every description, patent kitchener, register, and other stoves; guns, ammunition, and a special display of Sheffield cutlery. The goods are invariably offered at the most moderate prices, and can always be fully relied upon to be the best of their kind procurable.  

Special regard is paid to the requirements of the fishing trade. Mr. Thirtle has had a very valuable experience in this branch of the business, and can offer a selection of goods, coupled with advantageous inducements in price, which cannot be equalled elsewhere. He owns a large and well-equipped smithy in Whipload Road, where a number of hands is employed in repairing fishing gear. He is the owner, also, of a veterinary forge in the Old Market Place, where a good business is in operation. The sum of Mr. Thirtle’s business occupations is not complete yet He is the proprietor of four first-class smacks now fishing off Penzance, and of others engaged in the North Sea. His connection is widespread and valuable, and by his straightforward and honourable business methods and thorough reliability he commands the respect and esteem of all with whom he comes into business connection.  

Mr. Thirtle, although so extensively and diversely occupied in industrial and commercial life, like most of our busiest men, finds time to engage largely in the municipal, charitable, and social affairs of the town. He has filled many important public offices with credit and distinction, gaining the admiration of his fellow-townsmen for his wonderful energy and disinterested labours. He is a member of the Town Council of Lowestoft, also of the School Board; he has been captain of the fire brigade for twenty-six years, and the vicar’s warden for Christ Church for fifteen years; he is, also, a member of the Burial Board and the Charity Board, and is prominent in every good cause where example, influence, support, and work are wanted. J. FLOOD & SON, ARTISTIC AND GENERAL PRINTERS, STATIONERS, PAPER MERCHANTS, BOOKBINDERS, AND ACCOUNT-BOOK MANUFACTURERS,93 HIGH STREET, AND “THE GROVE,” LOWESTOFT. 

WHILE seeking to point out the chief industrial and commercial resources of Lowestoft, special attention must be directed to the business of Messrs. J. Flood & Son. It represents a branch of trade that is of prime importance in every community, and, as artistic and general printers, stationers, paper merchants, bookbinders, account-book manufacturers, &c., Messrs. Flood & Son enjoy a reputation which extends far beyond the limits of Lowestoft, and which is the result of a consistent endeavour on their part to produce high-class work, extending over a long period of years. There are few crafts that require more continuous study and care than printing. Every day something new is required from the typefounders, and each new fount of type or style of paper bristles with possibilities for improved work. The public will always find that the best printer is he who takes a delight in adding one more to his own special designs, and this will, in a measure, account for the pre-eminent position gained by the firm under notice, who are pregnant with new suggestions, and who exert themselves to the utmost for the elevation of the tone of the trade in general.  

The business is the oldest of its kind in the town, and was established upwards of forty years ago by Mr. J. Flood. For many years it was conducted by him entirely, but although the founder still takes an active interest in its welfare, the management is principally in the hands of his son. Mr. W. Frank Flood has gained his knowledge of the trade in the best of schools. He is thoroughly practical in every branch of the trade, and besides his technical ability, acquired under the best conditions, he possesses in a marked degree a capacity for internal administration. That his management is of an energetic and enterprising character is manifest in every department, and it must be a matter of deep personal gratification to Mr. Flood, senior, to know that the business he has laboured at for so many years, may be safely left in the hands of one so capable of its proprietorship and of upholding its best traditions. 

The chief department of the business is, undoubtedly, that set apart for artistic and general printing, and it is the continued object of the firm to excel in producing the highest class of work. In old and in new styles of printing, in contrasts and in similes, in gold and colour printing, and in suggestions for genuine trade improvements, their productions are of a very superior kind, and all bear the impression of having emanated from a leading house. The premises at The Grove are utilised exclusively for the mechanical departments of the business. They are almost new, having only been erected about three years ago. They are extensive and commodious, and having been purposely built for the firm, are admirably adapted to the special requirements of the trade. On the ground floor are the machine-room — a large department measuring seventy feet by twenty-two feet — the offices, and the general warehouse; while the upper floor has been well arranged into composing-room and paper-warehouse. A keen appreciation of the requirements of a high-class business is noticeable in the general arrangements of the works. In the first place, in order to ensure the best results in printing, the machinery must be perfectly rigid, absolutely free from vibration or oscillation of any kind, and in order to gain this rigidity, the floor of the machine-room is of solid concrete. 

Practical printers will at once see the benefit of this, and it at once ceases to be a matter of surprise that the firm have gained a reputation as high-class printers. They have spared no pains to obtain the best class of machinery in the trade, and at the time of writing this (May, 1894) they are engaged preparing an illustrated trade circular, setting forth the principles upon which their business is conducted, and giving a full description of the mechanical appliances in use at the works. We have been favoured with proof- sheets of this circular, and may, perhaps, without encroaching upon the favours already extended to us by Messrs. Flood & Son, obtain from it some assistance in describing a few of the special machines in use, and in referring to the resources of the various departments of the business. It may be well to notice by way of preface that each department is conducted on quite an independent basis, as, for instance, the composing-room is entirely separate from the machine-room, and the account-book making department is altogether another branch of the business. Light is a very important matter, and each room has been well considered and supplied in this direction.  The motive power for the general machinery is derived from a two-horse power gas-engine, by Furnival & Co. Messrs. Flood & Son displayed good judgment in the selection of this engine, as, producing neither smoke nor dust, it is particularly clean in working — an obvious necessity to ensure the turning out of high-class printing. The same firm — Furnival & Co., of Redditch and London — supplied one of their well-known large “Wharfedale” cylinder machines, weighing over five tons, fitted with an automatic double-inking motion, rendering it admirably adapted to poster work and illustrations. Messrs. Flood & Son use their “Wharfedale” principally for illustrated and other catalogues, posters, bookwork, price lists, annual reports, magazines, and similar classes of work, in each of which they operate largely. There is also another “Wharfedale” in use at the Borough Works, by the same makers, although smaller, and this has been specially designed to meet the requirements of the best commercial and artistic work. Dioramic and concert programmes, balance sheets, year books, trade lists, artistic colour circulars, and account-book headings are largely produced on this machine, while for the rapid production of hand-bills, bags, fish tallies, tobacco-papers, tickets, bottle-labels, wrappers, manilla-tags, invoices, &c., the firm find their two “Minerva” platen machines — otherwise the “Cropper,” named after its makers, H. S. Cropper & Co., of Nottingham — of great service. There is another platen machine in use at the works, from the works of Messrs. Furnival & Co., named the “Express.” which has many advantages and improvements, and this is reserved exclusively for the better class of colour and high-class work, such as ball programmes, menu cards, toast lists, trade and visiting cards, fancy labels, &c. The Guillotine cutting machine, fitted with a thirty-eight-inch knife, having an instantaneous diagonal cut, is a notable “implement” in the machine-room. and Messrs. Flood & Son find constant use for their treadle perforating machine, for perforating cheque-books, &c., by means of a series of small steel punches; their numbering and paging machine, an ingenious contrivance for numbering and paging cheque-books, tickets, &c., in any manner, changing automatically; treadle wire stitcher, for stitching pamphlets, magazines, and books of various thicknesses; and their Albion and Columbian hand presses. which are now used chiefly for the production of show-cards, window-bills, &c., when ordered in small quantities. From this brief reference to the mechanical resources of the Borough Works, it will be seen that the firm have laid themselves out to cover practically the whole ground of artistic and general printing, and that they have achieved a distinct success in this respect is evidenced from the fact of the constant and increasing demand that is being made upon the capacities of the establishment. A very special department of the business is that set aside for the manufacture of account books, ledgers, day, and cash-books of all kinds, and to this the firm pay a close and constant attention. They produce their books in a variety of bindings and styles, the paper being, in every instance, of a superior quality, and the workmanship careful and well finished to a degree. Copperplate engraving is undertaken, and for this work a staff of capable and experienced artists has been engaged. Much attention is also given to bookbinding, the productions of this department showing evidences of careful handling, a superior class of work being produced at moderate charges. In each branch of work at the “Grove” establishment, a large and efficient staff of workmen is employed, and by exercising a constant supervision over the execution of all orders, Mr. W. F. Flood accepts the personal responsibility for the quality of their productions. At the High Street establishment a large and flourishing trade has been built up in fancy and general stationery. Here will be found an extensive and well-selected stock of the account-books made at the works, official, commercial, and court envelopes, ruled, note, and blotting papers, and — without attempting a detailed list — every description of commercial and general stationery, a high standard of excellence being maintained in each connection. In addition to these goods, which are comprised under the “eminently useful” class, there are several fancy articles, both for use and ornament, as well as a varied assortment of leather goods, view souvenirs, Bibles, Prayer-books, Church Services, wools and ladies' needlework.  From the foregoing remarks it will be at once seen that the business is of a very comprehensive kind, and it is a strong testimony to the principles that govern the proprietorship, that the members of the firm have the details of every branch “at their fingers’ ends” as it were. That a large and influential connection has been gained goes without saying, and Messrs. Flood & Son spare no pains to render the establishment worthy of a continuance of the gratifying support that has for so long been remuneratively enjoyed. They are well known locally, and in their different spheres — the distinction of age creating the difference — they are held in the highest respect and esteem, Mr. Flood, junior, reflecting the honourable and praiseworthy character, and the business-like and enterprising habits that has always been his father's chief characteristics. RICHARD LEACH, HOUSE FURNISHER, ETC.60 and 61 HIGH STREET, AND HARBOUR STORES, LOWESTOFT. MR. LEACH is a native of Surrey, and his connection with the commerce of Lowestoft dates back for twenty-one years, when he established the business which in his hands has since grown and developed until it has become one of the largest, not only in the town, but probably throughout the entire county. It is of so comprehensive a character that to conduct it properly two separate establishments are necessary, and it is divided between premises at 60 & 61, High Street, and others, known as the Harbour Stores. The latter place comprises a large four-storey building, overlooking the outer harbour and adjoining the entrance to the inner harbour, or what is known as the Bridge. Here are the principal stores for carpets and general furnishing requisites. On the ground floor is a large and lofty double-fronted shop, containing a very choice assortment of all kinds of furnishing and household requisites, and amongst the many goods on hand are several specialities of which more than passing mention must be made. The floor-cloths on view here comprise a very extensive and comprehensive stock, and Mr. Leach has a great variety of stair coverings, oilcloths, linoleums, &o., in various widths, suitable for passages, halls, and rooms. On the same floor will be found a choice assortment of table, standard, and other lamps, in which are carried out the most recent inventions for increasing light and at the same time minimising the risk in use. Cane and wicker chairs in many designs are on hand, and the display of lace curtains is extensive and very valuable, the goods having been obtained from the leading manufacturers. On the first floor will be found a further supply of lace curtains, all kinds of carpets, mats, hearthrugs, linoleums, and every description of flooring material. In carpets Mr. Leach has been successful in obtaining many new and choice designs. Wilton, Brussels, Tapestry, Kidderminster, and other makes are on hand, and in every instance Mr. Leach is enabled to guarantee sound durable quality; various kinds of Persian, Indian, antique, bison, sheep, goatskin, and other hearthrugs are on hand, for dining-room, drawing-room, breakfast-room, and bedroom, at very low prices. The second floor contains a good assortment of bedsteads in all sizes in brass and iron, and a feature of the department is that cots, bedsteads, mattresses, &c., are lent on hire. These goods also come direct from the chief sources of supply, and are strong and well made in every particular. The third floor is partially occupied by a very special department of the business, viz., carpet-planning. All kinds of mats are made, and carpet-sewing is extensively carried on, for which purpose Mr. Leach has an ingenious machine in use, thereby saving a large amount of hand labour. On this floor also is a large stock of wall-papers, there being upwards of one thousand patterns in pulps, grounds, washables, satins, siennas, gold, &c., to select from. Household tinware of all kinds is also stored here, and a large miscellaneous stock of goods.  The High Street premises are extensive, and occupy a prominent corner position. They are principally stocked with oils of all kinds of a superior quality, colours, white lead, varnishes, sheet glass, brooms, brushes, and tinware, &c. At the rear are large warehouses extending some one hundred and fifty feet from High Street, in which very extensive stocks are held of the articles already enumerated. Mr. Leach is the leading cork merchant in Lowestoft, and he has warehouses for storing cork and facilities for manufacturing floats for fishing nets, in which branch of trade he operates largely. The entire business is conducted under the personal supervision of the proprietor, to whose energy and enterprise the marked success that has been achieved is directly traceable. In their combination the two businesses comprise the largest of its kind in Lowestoft. The system of management is simple and the appointments of each department enable the assistants and workpeople to do their work expeditiously, and to the satisfaction of the numerous and influential patrons of the establishment.  Apart from his position among the leading tradesmen of the town, Mr. Leach is a prominent mover in the public life of Lowestoft. He is a member of the Town Council, and has done much valuable work in that capacity. He is also a lover of the fine arts, and is the fortunate possessor of some fine examples of Crome, Vincent, Stark, Barker, distinguished artists of the Norwich school. The phase of his character which most directly appeals to us is his aptitude for all business matters. He has the faculty of confining his attention to any object immediately in hand to the exclusion of everything else, and by developing this gift — for gift it undoubtedly is — he has built up a very large business, with every detail of which he has the closest acquaintance. He is well known in Lowestoft, and commands the respect and esteem of all with whom he comes into contact. MESSRS. L. WREN & SON, SADDLERS AND HARNESS MAKERS, AND MANUFACTURERS OF BEE APPLIANCES, 189, HIGH STREET, LOWESTOFT. THE saddlery and harness-making industry is represented in Lowestoft, under the best possible conditions, in the well-ordered establishment of Messrs. L. Wren & Son, which is not only the most important, but the oldest established, of its class in the district. Its record dates back for about forty years, and has been of one steady and unbroken progress. The fine old-fashioned double frontage of the premises, which occupy a commanding position in the High Street, is altogether in keeping with the substantial character of the connection which the firm enjoy. The interior is ample enough to admit of the effective display, and the systematic classification and arrangement of the large and thoroughly representative stocks which are always held of saddlery and harness. The firm have gained a high and widespread reputation for the excellence of the workmanship which characterises all the harness which they produce, whether light or heavy, and whether for horses or for ponies. The collars which they manufacture are, in particular, regarded as of specially high quality. The stocks, too, include a splendid assortment of hunting and other saddles for special purposes; whips of the most approved descriptions, and in great variety; all sorts of bits, spurs, and other lorinary goods, rugs and aprons; together with brushes and other requisites for the harness-room and the stable. Here, too, are to be found all descriptions of harness compositions, oils, varnishes, blacking, &c.  A very considerable amount of business is controlled, also, in the supply of tanned garden netting, and raffia grass of the very best descriptions. As manufacturers of, or dealers in, all these classes of goods, Messrs. Wren & Son have gained the unreserved confidence of a very wide circle of customers, including many of the most influential traders in the Lowestoft district, as well as a large number of the most distinguished county families. Mr. Luke Wren, the senior partner, has gained renown all throughout East Anglia as an eminent bee-keeper, who has, with notable success, done much to popularise this occupation, and practically to recommend its adoption on a sound basis. He is the owner of an extensive apiary at Somerleyton, which is regarded throughout a wide area as a model establishment. It is thus that the firm have naturally added to their original industrial business, that of manufacturers, on an extensive scale, of bee appliances. In this department they conduct a very considerable trade, which is rapidly increasing in proportion as the profitable character of bee-keeping becomes known amongst agriculturists generally. “Bees, Hives, and Honey” is the title of the copiously illustrated catalogue of bee-keepers’ supplies, which is issued by Messrs. Wren & Son. A glance at its pages will convey some idea of the vast resources of the establishment in this department which, as already indicated, is under the special control of the senior partner. His son, Mr. Alfred William Wren, devotes his attention to the saddlery business, and in this respect fully maintains all the best traditions of the house. Mr. Luke Wren is gifted with strongly developed administrative powers, and he is thus enabled, notwithstanding the heavy claims which his own business makes upon his attention, to devote much of his valuable time and energies to the service of the public. Thus he is an active Director of the Lowestoft Building Society; Treasurer of the British Schools; and one of the Managers of the Lowestoft Savings Bank SOURCE:Industrial Great Britain: A Commercial Review of Leading Firms 1894