To Ye Comforte Loving Publicke
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At Ye Colde Tyme of Wynter,
In Ye Present Yeere of Grace
1880
Original 1880 clothing & fabric catalogue produced by Richard Stanway of Newcastle-Under-Lyme in Staffordshire. The majority of the text being presented in a mock Old English Anglo-Saxon style richly embellished with illuminated initials, decorative borders and vignettes etc. Printed in letterpress by the printers George Faulkner & son* of Manchester.
Richard Stanway, active 1870s -1905, was a retailer who bought designs from many leading designers and commissioned manufacturers to make them for him. He had briefly been a partner of Benjamin Warner** in 1878 but by 1880 he was trading from his own premises in London and through representatives across the country. Stanway stocked velvets, velveteens, cretonnes, silks and laces, often reselling designs to other retailers both in England and in France. He was a leading supplier of fabrics in the 1890s.
Catalogue measures 22 x 28 cm (roughly 8 3/4 x 11 inches) and consists of brown paper covers and 2 leaves (4 sides) of thick watermarked laid paper.
Old vertical fold to catalogue (to fit into envelope) and edgewear to top & bottom edges.
Envelope worn and a little discoloured.
Half Penny stamp & 'NEWCASTLE STAFF A NO27 80' postmark to envelope.
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*George Falkner and Sons, also known as the Deansgate Press, was a firm of printers founded in Manchester in 1843. From 1873 to 1941, their main print works was at 170, Deansgate, Manchester. By the 1890s, they also had offices in London and Liverpool. During the First World War, they designed and printed recruiting posters and Christmas cards for the British forces.
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Enderley Mills were established by Richard Stanway in 1881 on Liverpool Road in Newcastle-under-Lyme. It was contracted by the British Government for the supply of army uniforms.
At the time of their erection the Mills were a “state of the art” facility with both high operating and safety standards being put in place. In recognition of this, and other progressive attributes as noted below, the Mills won the approval of Government Inspectors as being a model factory. No doubt this further helped them in the award of additional uniform supply contracts for the British Army.
Like most other works of the time the Mills’ machinery and banks of sewing machines were run off central drive shafts using a myriad of drive belts. However, unlike many other similar mills, the latter were all “boxed in” making for a much safer working environment for the Mills’ employees.
It appears that garments were produced using an early form of production line with partly finished products from one area being collected and then pushed by girls on a tramway carriages to the next phase of production. As a final production stage each set of garments were sent to “finishers” for final completion of their details before being passed to an “old soldier” who had been purposely trained at the Government’s Clothing Factory in Pimlico, London. He acted as a final product quality control inspector before passing each garment as being fit for dispatch into the work’s stores.
Under Richard Stanway the Mills employed approximately 700 staff. Most of these were women. They were paid on “piece-work” rates. During the early 1880s the Mills’ employees typically earned from 15 to 20 shillings a week, depending on their skill levels and individual productivity.
As a testimony to Richard Stanway’s progressive thinking and care for his work force he furnished his Mills’ with a staff canteen capable of seating 300 workers which provided excellent meals at cost price. Additionally each worker paid a penny per week for the provision of a works’ doctor and medical surgery. The Mills also offered its employees a savings bank and reading room. In 1883 the works even opened a creche run by a matron. Here female employees could leave their children while at work for the nominal sum of a shilling per week. This facility comprised a “cot room”, for babies, and a play room for older pre-school children. The babies cribs were connected to the Mills’ central drive shaft system from which specialised machinery gently rocked each one of them.
In 1883 there were plans by a group of British Army officers to register Enderley Mills as a public limited company with Richard Stanway as its managing director. However, nothing came of the project owing to Stanway’s bankruptcy in 1884. Therafter, the business was acquired by John Hammond & Company of Manchester. The Mills provided British military uniforms during both World Wars and in the post war period greatly expanded their product range by additionally making uniforms for police forces and fire brigades for both the British and overseas governments.
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** Warner & Sons (also Warner and Sons) was a British textile manufacturer specialising in silk for the furnishing industry. It wove the coronation robes for both Edward VII and Elizabeth II and had associations with some of the leading textile designers and artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The firm was established in the historic silk weaving neighbourhood of Spitalfields, London in 1870 and was known under a variety of different names – including Warner, Sillet & Ramm – during its early years. Founder Benjamin Warner, a jacquard weaver, was from a family that had been in the silk industry since at least the 17th century.
Warner wove high quality silks using traditional designs and began supplying royalty around 1880.Some five years earlier, the company had diversified into popular fabrics such as worsted, lampas, brocade and velvet – the move into velvet production was particularly useful for building its reputation. It acquired the company of Charles Norris & Co in 1885, which meant Warner held a royal warrant as supplier of silks and velvets to the royal households; it also supplied stately homes, palaces and embassies internationally. It became known formally as Warner & Sons in 1891, when Benjamin Warner's sons Alfred and Frank joined the business.
Warner & Sons moved to Braintree, Essex in 1895, joining other well known companies located in the town such as Courtaulds, and taking over buildings already used by the silk industry.
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