tarboat's photos with the keyword: ephemera

Gas bill for 1850-51 issued by the Macclesfield Gas Light Company. 5s 0d per 1,000 cubic feet used. I note that it was not paid until October 1851; would they would have been cut off these days for delaying payment for so long?

Water rates for a number of houses on Lord Street and George Street, Macclesfield in 1854. A bit less than it would be today.

Peter Lowe's draper's shop was at the top end of Mill Street in Macclesfield close to where Burton's now stands. He is listed in the 1841 census aged 33 along with his wife and daughter who were both called Amelia. By 1851 he was dead.

Poster seen at the East Lancashire Railway.

Fynney Bowers ran his corn business on Mill Street, Macclesfield, in the premises that are now Bonmarché opposite Queen Victoria Street and Lloyds Bank. He died in 1854 and the shop was continued by his son David Shaw Bowers.

1910 Letterhead for Richard Johnson, Clapham & Morris Ltd manufacturers of a wide range of metal goods at their works in Newton Heath, Manchester. In 1934 the firm relocated to Trafford Park and by the 1950s seems to have been acting as a wholesaler of household goods. The business also seems to have been connected to the ironfounders and wire manufacturer Richard Johnson and Nephew Ltd.

10s 10d for 1 ton of coal sold in June 1857 by H. Ford, Coal merchant based at the coal wharf on the canal side in Macclesfield. Large quantities were transported to Macclesfield by the canal from collieries a few miles north and also from the Potteries. Rail transport eventually took over much of this trade and many merchants moved to coal yards near the main goods yards.

Advert from Modern Gasworks Practice 1921. Lewis Cockey came to Frome about 1685 from Warminster and established a bell foundry. The family business diversified in the 18th century and in the early 19th century began casting for the Gas Industry. Edward Cockey (1781-1860) became a successful iron-founder and in 1816 founded the firm which by 1851 was employing 76 men and boys in the Palmer Street foundry as Edward Cockey & Sons Ltd. In 1886 this became a limited company and in 1893 the works moved to the Garston area of the town. The Frome Gas Company was founded by Cockey and the town had had gas street liqhting as early as 1831. They made ‘art nouveau’ gas light standards with a leaf pattern were made by Cockey. The firm was wound up voluntarily in April 1960 leaving a legacy of bollards, drain covers and lamp standards, many displaying the name.

1909 advert for a company specialising in materials handling equipment. The firm, which was established in 1889, continues in business at Grange Works, Wellington Street in Accrington.

The New Conveyor Company specialised in conveyors and elevators but also operated as general mechanical engineers. In 1914 the company was listed as proprietors of the Midland Engineering Company. It was acquired by Tube Investments, Ltd in 1951. In 1961 the firm employed 800 people and in 1968 it supplied the coal handling plant for Cottam Power Station. This 1907 advert was published in the Journal of Gas Lighting.

The maker's mark on corrugated iron produced by the American Rolling Mill Company of Middletown, Ohio.

Board of Health Rates, 1852, for a dwelling house on George Street, Macclesfield. These days you wouldn't get away with waiting until the middle of next year before paying up!

Invoice for candles and tallow dips supplied by Richard Hine of Mill Lane, Sutton, Macclesfield. The business operated for many years becoming Richard Hine & Son by the 1850s. A William Hine was trading as a grocer in Macclesfield in 1878 but I am unsure if this business was related. The image on the billhead concentrates on the sourcing of tea from China.

Invoice for 5½ yards of flannel supplied in 1852 from the woollen mill on the River Cadnant close to Menai Bridge. I suspect that the engraved image represents a rather grander affair than this mill actually was. More information and old images can be found here. www.anglesey.info/menai-bridge-woolen-mill.htm

A butcher's ticket from June 1864. John Wragg's shop was at 45 Mill Lane, the site of which later became the Sun Inn, now long gone too. Sadly the document is rather faded and I haven't managed to decipher what the product was of which 3oz was purchased for 1s 9½d. Got to love those prize beasts on the header.

Receipt for burnt lime from the limekilns at Hardingswood adjacent to the Trent & Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove. Thomas Kinnersly was the founder of the Birchenwood Ironworks in 1833 and had inherited a range of industrial concerns, including a number of collieries,and the family bank at Newcastle-under-Lyne from his father Thomas senior. His limeworks supplied lime to farms and estates as far away as Eaton near Congleton. His three kilns were situated at Hardingswood, just below the top lock on the offside.

Invoice from the Anderton Carrying Company (late J. P. Swanwick & Co) for boxes of soap brought by canal from Liverpool to Macclesfield in 1840. It is notable that this was not paid for a year and I suspect that this was quite normal at the time.

The Macclesfield Courier of January 1832 states: The advantages of water communication are daily manifesting themselves in the instance of the Macclesfield Canal. It is well known that for many years past this town has been mainly dependent upon the Stockport millers for its supply of flour; but since the formation of the canal and the consequent erection of the extensive steam mill of Messrs J. P. Swanwick & Co. not only is the town and neighbourhood chiefly supplied thereby, but flour is now exported from Macclesfield to Stockport; a cargo of 150 loads was dispatched on Thursday to a respectable flour dealer in the latter town from the Macclesfield steam mill. The mills, on the site of the later Hovis Mill were owned by Joseph Powell Swanwick & Co and leased to Francis Brindley & Co, corn millers and merchants. Swanwicks had an extensive carrying business on the canal but sold this to what became the Anderton Carrying Company in 1838. By 1854 the mill was described as in the occupation of Messrs. Brindley & Company, and the carrying department of the Duke of Bridgewater's Trustees and the Anderton Company. This invoice covers a delivery of bricks in Macclesfield in 1835.