Draft of proposed revamp of William Schaw Lindsay Wiki
Early life
Lindsay was born in Ayr in south-west Scotland during a violent nocturnal storm in the early hours of 19 December 1815. [1] His parents were Joseph Lindsay, a merchant of Ayr, and his wife Mary, née Belch. Willie, as he was known in childhood, was the youngest of their five children by five years. Joseph was a failed merchant who had succumbed to drink leaving Mary and the children destitute. When Willie was born his eldest sibling, Peter, was 14. The family was homeless so Mary spent the period of the birth at the manse of her childless elder sister Janet and her husband the Rev William Schaw. It was the Rev Schaw, as Minister of the local Burgher Secession Church, who baptised the Willie on New Year’s Day, 1816. However, all the time Mary had had the feeling that she was not welcome in the manse so, soon after the baptism, she travelled with her family to the Gorbals in Glasgow. There she rented a property and, for ten years, eked out a living by taking lodgers. Joseph, the father whom Lindsay never met, died in 1819. Lindsay’s most enduring memory of his time in the Gorbals was of the visit of his only cousin, midshipman Peter Belches. In full naval uniform, he lifted the delighted seven-year-old Willie high above his shoulders.
When Mary died three years later, the near-illiterate, 10-year-old Willie Lindsay became an orphan. However, by good fortune, William and Janet Schaw took him into the manse and looked after him for over four years. They sent him to Ayr Academy, a reputable school that had, some 30 years earlier, been briefly attended by Ayr’s most famous son, Robert Burns. A few months after Lindsay had started at the school, the talented Dr John Memes was appointed to the post of Rector. Though he would never admit it, Ayr Academy and John Memes were the making of William Schaw Lindsay. A very important influence was also the uncle after whom he had been named and whom he revered throughout his life. Indeed, the Rev William Schaw was as a father to Lindsay throughout his life. In fact, the Rev Schaw nurtured a hope that his nephew would follow him in his calling. Although that hope was never realised Lindsay did, after his time at sea, become a regular church-goer throughout his life.
In 1830, shamed by having played a foolish teenage prank on his uncle, Lindsay left the comfortable ambience of Ayr and went back to the Gorbals. There he stayed in the homes first of his brother, Peter, and then of his sister, Helen. In the spring of 1834, neither abode being congenial, Lindsay decided on a life at sea. He made the short journey from the house of his sister and brother-in-law to the Broomielaw Quay on the north bank of the Clyde. Jingling in his pocket was a measly four and sixpence from his mean-spirited brother-in-law and wrapped loosely in a bundle he carried, were a few pitiful odds and ends. Waiting at the Quay was the Glasgow, a packet-steamer that Messrs G and J Burns had recently introduced on their service to Liverpool. To his chagrin, four and sixpence was not sufficient for the fare. However, the kindly captain allowed him to work his passage to as a stoker. On reaching Liverpool, he set about trudging the docks in search of a job. It was two months before he found employment as an apprentice aboard the Isabella, a West Indiaman owned by George Anderson, the Scottish proprietor of two sizeable sugar plantations in Demerara.
Sea boy
During the ensuing two and a half years, Lindsay sailed to and from Demerara several times on the Isabella. For the final 18 months of that time the master of the ship was a man whom, in the Journal that he kept over most of his life, Lindsay referred to as “a bully and a petty tyrant”. His name was Malcolm M’Caskill and the regular unwarranted flogging of crew members was one of his pastimes. He was the spoilt second son of a locker at the Greenock custom house and was only four years older than Lindsay himself. By the autumn of 1836 the eight-year-old Isabella was badly in need of repairs. These were duly carried out on the Clyde during the winter months. During the December Lindsay was given leave of absence and he spent a happy four weeks staying with his aunt and uncle in Ayr. On returning to the Isabella he was pleased to find that M’Caskill had been transferred to another ship and that his new captain was the affable John Dinning. Furthermore, though still an apprentice, he had been appointed second mate. Repairs were still continuing and it was not until mid-February that the Isabella set sail for Demerara.
The weather during the first three months of 1837 was exceptionally severe both in terms of temperature and the strength of the wind. The gales during the last week of February were of near hurricane strength and it was during one of those gales that Lindsay met with an accident which nearly cost him his life and shortened his right leg by over an inch. Lindsay was in charge of the Isabella as she cleared land off the west coast of Ireland. He was alone on deck when the gale welled up when one of a row of water-casks lashed to a rail broke loose. After rolling across the deck, it struck Lindsay. Two ribs were broken and his right leg was doubled up to the extent that his foot rested upon his chest and a bone was protruding from the flesh. There being no medical officer on board, his wounds were dressed by a black steward using an improvised splint. As can be imagined the operation was excruciatingly painful. Beset by continuing rough weather, the remaining journey to Demerara took close on two months. For most of that time the incapacitated Lindsay was lying on his back. On reaching Bridgetown, assisted by the black steward, he made his way to the hospital. A doctor there complemented the steward on the job he had done and assured Lindsay that there was no need for further medical attention.
It was not until the end of June that the Isabella, with her cargo of sugar, reached London. George Anderson was there to meet the vessel and, when he heard of Lindsay’s accident, he took him to Guy’s Hospital to have the bone reset. However when they got there, the eminent consultant, Sir Astley Cooper, said there was no need for a reset. He could not have done a better job himself. However, Anderson allowed Lindsay a couple of months leave for him to regain his strength. Meanwhile the Isabella departed from London without him.
In mid-September 1837, Lindsay was appointed second officer of another of Anderson’s vessels, the Georgetown. The master was Michael McCarthy Keane and the first officer was Thomas Walker Millman. In his Journal, Lindsay pronounced Keane as “one of the most extraordinary personages which it was my lot to meet in my diversified career through life”. He had been born in Derby in 1800, the son of a talented Irish painter called Michael Kean. Kean had married into the Duesbury family who ran the pottery that was later to become known as Royal Crown Derby. From 1797-1811, Kean had actually run the firm.
After a short spell as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, Michael Kean’s son, also named Michael, became estate manager of Hopton Hall in Derbyshire. To make himself more acceptable to the gentry, added an ‘e’ to his surname. Not only was Georgetown his first command but it may well have been the first time he had been on an ocean-going ship for any length of time since his service in the Navy. Fortunately, however, his lack of experience was not a problem because, as Lindsay wrote in his Journal, “Keane’s deficiency in respect of both navigation and seamanship was of little importance as he had a first officer on board who was proficient in both these qualifications”. In effect, Thomas Millman was the master and Keane merely the gentleman commander who attended to the needs of the five cabin passengers who were on board.
The Georgetown arrived in Demerara at the height of the yellow fever epidemic that raged through the Guianas during 1837-38. Within 24 hours of arrival one of the passengers was dead and, before they left the colony, half of the crew had succumbed. Keane caught the disease and came so close to death that he expressed the wish to be buried with full naval honours – but he survived! Lindsay himself escaped the malady. The reduction in crew numbers and the shortage of on-shore labour lengthened the turnaround time considerably. On one occasion whilst there Lindsay, who could do little to help loading the cargo, went on deck to find a Negro lighting a fire. He remonstrated him sharply and the Negro left with his tail between his legs. After narrating this episode in his Journal Lindsay took the opportunity to set down his views on slavery. By the summer of 1838 the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 had been in force for four years. He stated in his journal that a minority of Negroes contended that freedom meant not having to work. Viewed in the context of his later support for the Confederate States of America, it may seem surprising, but nevertheless Lindsay loathed slavery. He wrote in his Journal: “no one could abhor more than I do the system or custom or legislative enactment by which Man is empowered to sell his fellow Man”. However, he also believed that the slaves should have been better prepared for the transition to freedom – that it would have been better for all children of slaves born after a certain time to be given their freedom. On the other hand he believed that the £20,000,000 that was given as compensation to the slave-owners was also ill-advised.
The return of the Georgetown to London in May 1838 marked the end of Lindsay’s apprenticeship. As is normal in such cases Lindsay asked his captain for a written testimony. Keane was reluctant to do this but, after repeated entreaties from Lindsay, he succumbed. But he could never do anything straightforwardly for what he wrote was:
This is to certify that Mr. W.S. Lindsay has served under me as second officer, one voyage to and from Demerara, in the ship Georgetown. He is a thorough sailor, knows his duty, and does it. But more I cannot say in his favour, for though he is sober and attentive, he is without exception the sauciest scamp that ever trod a deck, and is certain to finish his career either on the gallows, or at the Admiralty as First Lord.
As he walked down the gangplank of the Georgetown for the last time, Lindsay saw that George Anderson was waiting for him. Wishing him well, Anderson slipped a five pound into his pocket.
By then a respected mariner, Lindsay had no difficulty in finding employment as first mate on the Richard Bell, a vessel owned by Richard Bell himself. After a year on the vessel he returned to Scotland and spent time with his much-loved uncle and aunt in Ayr. There he met Helen Stewart, a sister of Robert Stewart, a wealthy Glasgow ironmaster who, in the early 1850s, was to become a respected Lord Provost of the City.
Master of the Olive Branch
In February 1840 he was appointed master of the Olive Branch. His employer was Richard Greenwell who was an associate of the company that owned the Castle Eden Colliery in County Durham. He spent an adventurous two years at sea visiting Bombay and the Gulf. . . (more detail to come)
Coal agent and shipbroker
In the autumn of 1841 Lindsay was offered a job by Greenwell as a coal agent in Hartlepool and he took up the job on the 11th of October of that year. During his three years in the town, Lindsay not only made a good job selling coals for his employers, but also sold a fair quantity of pig-iron on behalf of Robert Stewart. Furthermore, in November 1843, he married Robert’s sister Helen. Whilst in Hartlepool he got involved in local affairs and was instrumental, amongst other things, in getting a lighthouse built on the Heugh.
Towards the end of 1844 Lindsay decided to work full-time selling his brother-in-law’s iron. He therefore wrote a letter of resignation to his employers. Their unexpected response was to offer him a job in London at £400 per annum, twice what he was earning in Hartlepool. He accepted and, early in 1845, moved south. By the application of hard work over long hours, Lindsay managed to build up a circle of clients to whom he sold a goodly amount of Castle Eden’s coals in spite of their inferior quality. Since his clients included both merchants and shipowners it was but a small step to act as a link between them and thereby, in effect, to operate as a shipbroker. His methods were revolutionary but very remunerative indeed – so much so that, by 1850, he had accumulated enough capital to commence building up a fleet of his own. Furthermore, while other shipbrokers went down, he was able to ride out the tough economic conditions of the 1848 depression.
It was during that depression that a client entered his office in a state of distress. Lindsay recognised him immediately, but the knowledge was not reciprocated. The client had what amounted to a cash flow problem. As he explained to Lindsay, the only way to solve it was for the owner of the ship which held a cargo of his sugar, to release it before payment. This contravened Lindsay’s unbending rules. However, whilst telling his client that “one good turn deserves another”, he gave him a cheque for £1500 as a loan. When he told his client the circumstances in which they had met before, in his own words, “alternate looks of surprise, wonder and delight successively passed over George Anderson’s countenance”. The loan was soon repaid.
Lindsay’s love and respect for his uncle had helped him become a lifelong believer and, except for his six years at sea, a regular church-goer. Whenever in Scotland he had always made a point of travelling to Ayr to pay his respects to his uncle and aunt. Lindsay would have dearly loved his uncle to have baptised his only son, William Stewart Lindsay, who was born in January 1849. But it was not to be. On 19 September 1847, the Rev William Schaw died. It was probably the unhappiest time Lindsay’s life. By another four years his beloved aunt was also dead.
During the 1850s, Lindsay continued to commission vessels adding iron-Built, screw-assisted sailing ships to his fleet. He also commissioned a large number of ships and, although he never owned more than twenty at any one time, by 1860 he probably controlled the more vessels than anyone else in the country. The fleet included both passenger ships and cargo ships. They took emigrants and coal to the colonies, troops to New Zealand during the Maori wars and mail to the Cape and to India. They also brought sugar from the West Indies, tea from China and cotton from the United States and India.
Parliament
At the General Election of March 1854, after two unsuccessful attempts, he won a seat in Parliament. He became the Liberal MP for Tynemouth and North Shields. By commissioning his ships to the Government for use as troop carriers during the Crimean war he made a lot more money. As an MP he was prevented from doing this, but he got round the problem by transferring ownership to a trusted colleague. He also commissioned ships to the French Navy for the same purpose.
On 3 April 1854, Lindsay received a letter from King Georges Sound, Western Australia – now the city of Albany. Six months later he received a second letter. They were business letters asking Lindsay to arrange for the transport of wool. But it was not their content that was significant but rather the name of the sender. He was P Belches. The name rang a bell with Lindsay but he could not at first place it. Then he remembered the midshipman who had held him high above his shoulders over 40 years ago – his only cousin, Peter Belches. He had been a member of the party led by James Stirling who explored the Swan River in southwest Australia in the 1820s. In a short correspondence, the two men exchanged reminiscences.
In Parliament, he was a radical and befriended the likes of Richard Cobden, John Bright and John Arthur Roebuck. In most respects he was, like them, a free trader. However, unlike them, he opposed the wholesale repeal of the protectionist Navigation Laws. He knew that other nations would not reciprocate and that British shipping interests would therefore be damaged. Although he usually toed the party line, he was no respecter of The Liberal leaders Lords Palmerston or John Russell whose administrations he believed were incompetent. He was a moderniser and an opponent of corruption. As such, he lent support to campaigns such as those advocating administrative reform, a widening of the franchise and the introduction of decimal coinage.
During the Crimean War, like many other shipowners, Lindsay contracted to supply ships to carry Men and equipment to the field of battle. As a member of Parliament he was prescribed from doing this but he got round the problem by assigning nominal ownership of the vessels used to a trusted business colleague. In December 1854, one of Lindsay’s vessels, the Robert Lowe, transported a party led by the diver John Deane. In the hold of the vessel were about 25 number of Deane’s watertight cylinders. or early mines. They were charged with gunpowder and could be detonated electrically. It was intended that they should be used to blow up the ships that the Russian Navy had scuttled across the harbour of Sebastopol to prevent an invasion by the Allies. In fact the cylinders remained in the hold of the ship for about six months before they were actually put to use and by that time the war was virtually over. Meanwhile, with the cylinder still in her hold, the Robert Lowe sailed to and fro between Portsmouth and Black Sea carrying about 900 troops at the time. It was the Robert Lowe that, in May 1855 and with the cylinders still in her hold, carried Florence Nightingale across the Black Sea from Scutari to Balaclava. Questions were asked in Parliament about the whole episode and Lindsay frequently found himself on the defensive. But much of the blame lay with the chaotic administrative processes that prevailed in Whitehall and the Admiralty. Lindsay’s response was to take a leading part in the campaign for Administrative Reform that was conducted during the mid-eighteen fifties. On 10 July 1855, Lindsay spoke at length when the subject was discussed in Parliament.
During the American Civil War, Cobden and Bright vigorously supported the North. However, whilst maintaining his close friendship with both men, Lindsay was sympathetic to and, on occasion, actively supported, the Confederate States of America. He often spoke on their behalf in the British Parliament. The extent of his support may be measured by the fact that he was often dubbed the member for the Confederacy! His correspondence on the topic with future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and the Confederate diplomats John Slidell and James Murray Mason is held at the University of Missouri Library.
An example of Lindsay’s support for the Confederacy occurred during the so-called Trent Affair. In November 1861, the British mail packet Trent was carrying the Mason and Slidell to England. It was their intention to put the Confederate case to the British Government but, on the open sea, the vessel was intercepted by the USS San Jacinto Mason and Slidell were arrested and conveyed to the Jacinto. However, their wives were allowed to stay on the Trent and, when they reached England, Lindsay gave them asylum at his home in Shepperton. Mason and Slidell were eventually allowed to travel to England where they were reunited with their wives, probably at Shepperton. A more serious accusation against Lindsay was that his ships ran the blockade. There was probably some truth in that, but the accusation that he contributed a large sum to the Confederate Cotton Loan was probably untrue.
Though far from being an out-and-out pacifist, Lindsay had a general distaste for war and would only defend it if he considered it both justifiable and winnable. His reason for supporting the southern states was his belief that the war was unwinnable and, by giving them help, a negotiated settlement could be reached. He was certainly proved wrong on that count. However, on another count, he may well have been right. He believed that, left to their own devices, the South would eventually bring about emancipation. As has been shown, his experiences in Demerara, where the slaves had been freed only shortly before his visits there, gave him an abhorrence of slavery. He firmly believed that, if it was handled carefully, the process of granting of freedom to the slaves could be achieved without damaging the economy.
Lindsay’s sympathy for the Confederacy was not unlike that held by William Ewart Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Palmerston Administration during the early years of the war. Gladstone’s views were expressed at Newcastle on 6 November 1862:
We may have our own opinions about slavery: we may be for or against the South, but there is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army; they are making, it appears, a Navy; and they have made what is more difficult than either, they have made a nation.
It should be remembered that, like George Anderson, WE’s father Sir John Gladstone owned several plantations in Demerara. In fact he was by far the biggest plantation owner in the colony. As the war progressed, WE changed his tune – or had it changed for him. But Lindsay, like Louis Bonaparte, the French Emperor, maintained his sympathy for the South during the entire war. Furthermore, receiving tacit approval from Foreign Secretary Russell, Lindsay visited France and had a number of discussions on the matter with the Emperor. During at least one of them he was accompanied by James Mason. The aim was to put pressure on the North to sue for peace. However, Lindsay’s diplomatic efforts came to nothing. He, like most of the other interested parties, had underestimated the determination of Lincoln to preserve the Union.
Shepperton
In 1864 – about a year before the war came to an end – Lindsay suffered a paralytic stroke. Though his mind was unaffected he was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He quitted Parliament and gave up all his business interests. In 1856 he had purchased the Manor House at Shepperton in the south-west corner of Middlesex and, after his stroke, he and Helen lived out their lives there. For Lindsay himself, writing became a full-time occupation. His preference, whenever possible, was to wheel his chair onto the lawns of the Manor House that stretch down to the Thames. Seated there he would write books, newspaper articles and letters to friends and relations. Sometimes he was assisted by a scribe. His many works included the massive four-volume History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce and a much smaller single-volume history of the village of Shepperton. His writings also included a Journal in which he set down many of the incidences in his life. This and much else may be found in the W.S. Lindsay Collection at the Caird Library of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
Lindsay’s stroke was probably brought on by overwork. Had he not been thus afflicted he may well have fulfilled the prophecy of his last captain and become First Sea Lord. As it was, he died at the age of 61 on 28 August 1877. His sizable memorial can be seen in Shepperton Cemetery. His wife, Helen, died at the Manor House in 1890.
Draft of proposed replacement of Elliott Brothers (builders merchant) Wiki.
Elliott Brothers Ltd is a builders’ merchant based in Southampton with a chain of outlets in and around Southampton, UK. The company operates an online tool warehouse which serves the whole of the UK.0 Elliott Brothers Ltd, and Elliotts Premier Roofing Ltd [?], constitute the two components of the holding company, Elliott Brothers (Builders Merchants) Limited.1
Elliotts in the 19th century
The company can trace its origins to October 1840 when the 26-year-old Thomas Christopher Elliott succeeded to the business of Robert Young of the parish of St Mary’s in the burgeoning town of Southampton.2 Young was a slater and builder whose stores and wharf were at Crab Niton just northeast of the gasworks on the west bank of the River Itchen (grid ref SU 431120).3 He had died the previous August,4 and Elliott had taken lodgings with his widow, Charlotte.5
Thomas Elliott had been born in 1814 in Lewes, in the neighbouring county of Sussex.6 His father, John, was a grocer and wine merchant with a shop at 49 High Street, Lewes.7 In July 1939, while Thomas was still living with his parents in Lewes, he had inserted an advertisement in the Sussex Advertiser announcing that people wishing to emigrate to New Zealand should contact him. 907
Thomas’s elder brother was born in 1811 and, like his father, was named John.8 He became an architect, builder and writer on architectural subjects. In the mid-1830s he moved to Chichester.9 There he designed the Corn Exchange that was erected in 1837.10 Also in 1837 he designed the east wing and ballroom of Goodwood House near Chichester.11 By 1841 he had moved to Southampton and was cooperating with Thomas on a number of building projects.12
On 4 October 1847, Thomas Elliott married Mary Jane Mason, the second daughter of Thomas Mason, town clerk of Doncaster in Yorkshire.13 Over the first twenty years of their marriage, Mary was to bear Thomas ten children three of whom, Frank, Walter and Frederick, were to play important parts in the family firm. Mary’s surname was later used in the given names of about 15 descendants of Thomas and Mary. Three of them feature in the history of the firm. Newlyn Mason Elliott (1890-1968, known as Mason), George Edgar Newlyn Mason Elliott (1924 to 2007, known as Newlyn Mason) and Stuart Graham Mason Elliott (born 1951 and known as Stuart Elliott).14 The full ancestry of the Elliott family of Sussex can be traced back to a Thomas Elliott who died in Bury in 1551.15
On 17 September 1842, an advertisement appeared in the Hampshire Advertiser announcing that T. C. Elliott had taken over the business of the London Cement Works. As well as slate, he could now supply Roman cement, plaster of Paris, various types of lime, gypsum. The advertisement also stated that he was an agent to her Majesty’s Colonisation Commissioners for the sale of colonial lands and selection of emigrants. This was presumably a continuation of the work that he had been practising in Lewes. However, that activity did not continue beyond 1845.16 The cement works were situated on the banks of the Itchen adjacent to Millbank Wharf, Northam, only 400 m north of the Crab Niton stores that Elliott had purchased from Robert Young.17
By 1843, Thomas had taken the lease out on a property just across the river at 2 Bridge Road, Itchen. For a time the property served as a home for Thomas, and for his brother John and his wife Maria. It was also used as an office by both brothers.18 To get to the Millbank site, Thomas would have crossed the River by means of the Itchen Ferry and the Woolston Floating Bridge that had been constructed in 1836.19 By the time of his marriage in 1847 Elliott had moved to Portswood Villa in Portswood leaving John and his wife Maria the use of the Bridge Road property.20
By 1849 Thomas Elliott had extended his business to the sale of bricks, tiles, chimney pieces, dairy fittings, baths, wash-stands, cattle troughs and paint.21 Meanwhile John was heavily engaged in a survey of old churches for the diocese of Chichester. He had become honorary architect to the Sussex Diocesan Association and had already been participated in the rebuilding of several churches in Sussex.22
In the late 1840s, Thomas was involved in the building of about 30 houses on Millbank Street, a road that ran north-east from the wharf.23 It is very likely John too partook in the project as he had already published an essay on the construction of cottages.24 Also in the late 1840s, by taking out leases on adjoining land, Thomas doubled its original acreage of the Millbank site.25 In the 1850s and 1860s both Thomas and John Elliott were involved in the sale and rent of property.26
By 1864 Thomas Elliott and Robert Young before him had been manufacturing Roman cement on the banks of the Itchen for over 40 years. Roman cement is a natural product and its manufacture does not generate particularly obnoxious fumes. However, in 1864, Elliott started producing Portland cement, the manufacture of which releases pollutants, notably sulphur dioxide. As a result of complaints from neighbours, Elliott was taken to court. Whilst three hearings were taking place in late 1865 Elliott implemented measures designed to reduce the nuisance. These were found sufficient for the case to be dismissed. However, at the same time, a further summons was taken out against him and, this time, he was fined £5 with costs that amounted to about £150.27
For Thomas Elliott the 1860s and 1870s would have been a period of consolidation. He no longer needed to advertise regularly. A few small classified advertisements appeared from time to time but no large display advertisements placed. Also there were occasional advertisements for the sale or let of houses.28 In 1871 Thomas Elliott’s firm had over 30 employees including his sons, Frank and Walter.29 At about same time, in partnership with Henry Vincent, he acquired a Southampton brewery along with four public houses.30
In January 1883 Thomas transferred as a gift the whole of his business to Frank and Walter who gave it the name of Elliott Brothers.31 When Thomas himself died aged 71 on 26 April 1886 his estate amounted to close on £84,000 – a very considerable sum for the time.32 the state included a house at Bassett Mount with stabling, gardens, meadows, land and all household effects plus his interests both in the Millbank Works and the brewery.33 By comparison, his brother John, who died in 1891 in Uckfield, Sussex, left only £583.34
Frank and Walter Elliott gave new life to a firm that had perhaps stagnated somewhat during the last 20 years of their father’s life. They acquired of the freehold of Millbank Wharf, started advertising again and extended the range of products. Even include coal was included amongst the commodities for sale.35 In fact, in an 1891 display advertisement, coal and slate featured as the most prominent products.36
At around this time, a 74 ton sailing vessel, the Alice Moor, was acquired or commissioned by the firm to transport the slates from Porthmadog to Millbank Wharf. But, unfortunately, in January 1901, the vessel was driven ashore and badly damaged at whilst leaving Porthmadog. Although the damage was repaired, Elliott’s no longer used the schooner.37 She met her end in 1904 in a spectacular fire off Yarmouth.38
In a comprehensive article published in 1893 the firm was for the first time referred to as “General Builders’ Merchants”. Mention was made of their large showroom, their wharf from which they could dispatch goods to all parts of the country and the fact that they had become agents for Beaulieu white and red bricks.39 Elliott Brothers continued to operate the brickworks on Lord Montagu’s estate at Beaulieu until 1918.40
A report of the building at Millbank Wharf was drawn up by professional valuers in December 1900 in anticipation of the proposed incorporation of the company following year. The report stated that the main building comprised a three-room office, two storerooms, five cement kilns, two plaster ovens, a lime mill, a rending store, a circular saw bench, an iron store, a cement store and two engine room complete with boilers. Other buildings included lime kilns, coal stores, cement sheds, brick sheds, iron stores, slurry pits, a cement-drying building, a lime house and a chimney shed. The yard had a frontage to the River Itchen of nearly 400 feet and a rear frontage of 460 feet. The value of the whole property was estimated at £6670 freehold.41
Elliott Brothers Ltd
In 1901 Elliott Brothers became a limited company and, as shown in the Articles of Association, the firm’s activities were manifold. The products supplied included coal, coke, cement, lime, plaster, whiting, bricks, tiles, pottery, ironmongery and timber. Nevertheless, the sale of Welsh slates continued to be a speciality as it had been since Robert Young’s time. In addition to the property mentioned in the report of the previous year the company owned a number of ships and barges. The shareholders were the brothers Frank, Walter, Frederick Elliott, their mother, Mary, and their only sister, Lillian. Frederick had previously been running a timber company in London and brought his business with him to Southampton. At the first board meeting, held at Millbank Wharf, Frank and Walter Elliott were appointed joint managing directors.42 Meanwhile, another brother, Edgar, was running the Southampton brewery that he had inherited from his father. He had married Emily Gale in 1888 and their first son, Mason Elliott, was born in 1890.43
It was during the 30 years from 1891 to 1921 that Southampton's saw its steepest rise in population, increasing from 85,000 in 1891 to 160,000 in 1921.44 The consequent expansion in house-building during those 30 years – particularly in the town's northern suburbs – stimulated a proportionate increase in Elliotts’ business, particularly after its incorporation in 1901.45
In 1908 Edgar Elliott’s son, Mason, joined the company.46 On 14 May 1918, Frank Elliott died and his younger brother, Walter, became sole managing director of Elliott Brothers Ltd 47 and, in 1920, Mason was elected to the board.48 One of Walter’s first decisions was to terminate manufacture of cement and lime, an occupation that had been carried on from the earliest days of the company.49 In the December of the same year, the company purchased the Bishop's Waltham Brickworks of Blanchard & Co Ltd.50 The Blanchard episode is related in a separate section.
During the 1920s, about 9,400 new houses were built in Southampton. To meet the resulting demand for building materials, Elliotts extended their Millbank premises and acquired an adjacent corn store.51 In 1924, the firm took a controlling interest in the Guernsey slate and cement dealers, Valpied Ltd.52 But their presence in Guernsey was not to last long.
The wharf adjacent to the Millbank premises had been a useful asset to the company, particularly for the import coal, slates, sea-sand and timber and of coal and coke. Although the sale of coal was discontinued in 1923,53 the need for a wharf remained as great as ever. In 1925, after a proposal to enlarge it proved too costly, a small jetty was built to extend it.54
On the night of 14 June 1927 a fire broke out in the Milbank timber sheds. The fire it did not extend to the other building but the firm's only lorry was destroyed. Losses for buildings, the lorry and stock amounted to over £10,000. Four new timber sheds were soon built and, during the next few years, several lorries were purchased to replace not only the burnt out one but also the horse-drawn carts that had previously been used.55
The 26th of October 1928 saw the death of Frederick Elliott.56 At a subsequent meeting of the board it was decided that the chairmanship which, since 1918 had rotated amongst members, should in future be held permanently by Walter Elliott. At the same meeting Mason Elliott’s brother, Christopher, was elected to the board.57
During the 1930s, by acting as agents to various companies, the company added to the range of products it supplied. New items included wood-fibre sheets, bitumen damp courses, steel scaffolding, and clay roofing tiles from France and Belgium. 58 items such as these contributed to annual sales figures that, during the years 1934-39, annual sales regularly exceeded £50,000.59
On 23 May 1935 Walter Elliott died.60 His 51 years of service with the company had only been interrupted by his wartime service in the Territorial Army during which he had reached the rank of Major.61 At a board meeting during the following month his nephew, Mason Elliott, was elected managing director.62 Like his uncle, he had served in the Territorial Army, commanding the 72nd (Hampshire) Anti-aircraft Brigade.63 It was probably he who persuaded the directors to allow Elliott employees joining the Territorials to be paid full wages whilst attending their two-weeks annual training.64 During his subsequent wartime service he reached the rank of Brigadier.65
The advent of war put an end to the buoyant pre-war sales. Averaged sales plummeted to about £20,000. Anticipating war, the company had amassed a large stock of timber but, in October 1939, almost all of it was requisitioned by the government.66 In later years the Admiralty took over part of the stores on Millbank Street and the Ministry of Food took possession of another part of the premises for the storage of eggs.67 In 1941, incendiary bombs destroyed the original company offices. After five years of running the company from improvised offices, a new purpose-built office block was built in Millbank Street in 1950.68
In 1933, Mason Elliott's brother, Christopher, had taken charge of a new roofing section. In 1945 this became the basis of a new subsidiary company, Elliott Brothers (Roofing) Ltd. The annual income of the company increased from £15,000 in 1945 to £90,000 in 1966. Following the Christopher’s death in 1969, Newlyn Mason Elliott took over as managing director. In 1973 the company was reintegrated into the main company and became first Elliotts High Performance Roofing and, in 1986, Elliotts Premier Roofing, Ltd.69
In 1947, Mason Elliott's son, Newlyn Mason, returned from five years army service and, in the following year, was appointed to the board.70 During the 1950s the company's turnover rose from £110,000 to £364,000.71 But the sale of timber sales was contributing such a small proportion of the total output that, in 1954, it was discontinued. However, thirty years later the fact that timber was not supplied by the company was putting it at a competitive disadvantage, so it was resumed.72
After the closure of the Blanchard brick works at Bishop's Waltham in 1956, Elliotts turned to the London Brick Company for the supply of most of their bricks.73 The sales of bricks from them and other sources grew until, by the 1990s, it accounted for one third of total sales.74 Transportation of bricks within the premises was the main beneficiary of the purchase by the company of fork-lift trucks in the mid-1960s. Shortly after the delivery of heavy materials to customers was eased by the acquisition of a fleet of crane trucks.75
In March 1966, after 45 years of service, 30 of which were as managing director, Mason Elliott handed over the reins of the company to his son, Newlyn Mason. A notable achievement in his final years was to more than double the turnover between 1960 and 1964 in which year it stood at £787,000. Sadly, however, his retirement was not long. He died in 1966 and, in the following year, his brother Christopher also died.76
In 1967 a kitchen and bathroom showroom was opened at Millbank and, after erratic growth during the 1960s, turnover topped £1M for the first time in 1970.77 During the mid-1970s Elliott Brothers became the first point-of-sale computerised builders' merchant in the country.78 Both computerisation and mechanical handling contributed to increased efficiency. Although staff numbers only increased from 40 in 1938 to 90 in 1973, turnover over the same period increased 25-fold.79
By 1970, as result of its continuing expansion, the company needed to find more space at its Millbank headquarters. Half a hectare of tidal mud-land was therefore purchased from Southampton Council and a £75,000 scheme of land reclamation was put into operation. The reclaimed area was concreted over and the project work, which was completed in 1973, nearly doubled the area of the Millbank site.80
To facilitate overseas trade, a new company, EB (International) Ltd was formed in 1974. Furthermore a holding company, Elliott Brothers (Builders’ Merchants) Ltd was established to which all the assets of Elliott Brothers Ltd and EB international were transferred.81 In fact the year had not been a good one the firm, or indeed for builders merchants nationally. Nevertheless Elliott Brothers’ annual group sales reached £2M for the first time.82 Growth during the rest of the decade was spectacular and in 1980 turnover topped £5M.83 Meanwhile market conditions for builders’ merchants were changing. Medium-sized and small builders had always been a stock in trade of the company. But such companies were turning to the provision of extensions and rebuilding work rather than undertaking new-builds. Furthermore the DIY market was expanding rapidly. To meet these requirements the warehouse that fronted Millbank Street was converted into a 1200-m² self-selection store.84
During the 1980s, using the Millbank Street store as a template, branches were opened at Ringwood, Fareham, Chandler's Ford and Fordingbridge. With the headquarters at Millbank and the established branch at Bishop's Waltham, that brought the totals number of outlets to six. In the period 1990-2015 a further eight outlets were opened. The last of these, in Christchurch is the biggest so far and, being in Dorset, the first outside the county of Hampshire.85
During 1982-3 Newlyn Mason Elliott served as President of the Builders’ Merchants Federation. Subsequently he served in other important capacities before, in May 1985, he stepped down as managing director. He was succeeded by his son, Stuart Mason Elliott.86 However, Newlyn Mason Elliott continued as chairman until his death on 28 May 2007.
At the awards meeting of Family Business United held in London on 11 June 2015, Elliott Brothers was named the Property and Construction Family Business of the Year [Builders’ Merchants News, 16 June 2015].
As at 2015, the managing director of the holding company, Elliott Brothers (Builders Merchants) Ltd, is Stuart Graham Mason Elliott. Managing director of the operating company, Elliott Brothers Ltd, is Thomas Edward Mason Elliott. The company employs almost 300 people at their 13 locations in Hampshire and Dorset. In 2014 the holding company, Elliott Brothers (Builders Merchants) Limited, returned assets of £31.2M and liabilities of £15.1M.
Blanchards
Brick building at Bishop's Waltham dated back to the 1860s. The founder, Mark Blanchard, had died in 1892 [p 77] and his son, also named Mark, took over the business. However, by 1818, he decided to retire and, as he there was no successor in the family, he decided to sell the business. Elliotts paid £8,000 for the brickworks, stock and railway sidings. A new company was formed with Walter Elliott as managing director. [p 78]. The works were extended and equipment was renewed where necessary. Amongst other local buildings, the bricks were used for extensions to Southampton University College, the institution that was to become Southampton University in 1952. On the death of Walter Elliot in 1935, his nephew, Mason Elliott became chairman. [p 81] During a bombing raid in the summer of 1941 the works were extensively damaged. The raid halted brick-making operations and it was not until 1947 that production was resumed. [pp 79-81] However, even by 1956 production was uneconomic with an annual output of only 1,500,000 bricks and 650,000 tiles. [p 83] The site was therefore put up for auction but, there being no acceptable offers, it was withdrawn and, after redevelopment, became Elliotts' first branch sales and distribution depot [p 87]. It served in this capacity until the early 1980s when Elliotts purchased the Bishop's Waltham depot of Ben Turner and Son in Claylands Road, a supplier of agricultural machinery [p 88, Ben Turner & Son History]. The premises still serves as the Bishop's Waltham branch of Elliott Brothers [Elliott Brothers corporate website].
References
0 Elliott Brothers corporate website.
1 DueDil.
2 Hampshire Advertiser, 17/10/1840.
3 Ibid; The Southampton Guide, T. Baker, 1840, p 45; 6-inch 1871 Ordnance Survey map of Hampshire & Isle of Wight LXV.
4 Parish records, St Mary’s, Southampton.
5 1841 census return for Charlotte Young.
6 Elliott family tree at http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/20381080/.
7 Pigot’s Directory for Sussex, 1839, p 669.
8 Elliott family tree.
9 Hampshire Advertiser, 14/03/1835.
10 A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis, 1842, p 582.
11 West Sussex history: journal and newsletter of the West Sussex Archives Society, 1980, p 38.
12 The House of Elliotts, ed John McIlwain, 1992, pp 11-12.
13 Hampshire Advertiser, 09-10-1847; Law Times, and Journal of property, vol 10, p 47.
14 Elliott family tree; The House of Elliotts, passim.
15 Elliott family tree.
16 Hampshire Advertiser, 17/09/1842; Post Office Southampton Directories, 1843, 1845 & 1847.
17 1871 Ordnance Survey map.
18 The Post Office Southampton Directory, 1849, Householders List, p xlii.
19 Woolston Floating Bridge Wikipedia article.
20 The Post Office Southampton Directory, 1845, Householders List, p xxxxviii.
21 The Post Office Southampton Directory 1849, Advertising Section, p 38.
22 Sotonopedia, Sussex Parish Churches.
23 The House of Elliotts, p 16.
24 The Farmers Magazine, March 1850, pp 192-195.
25 The House of Elliotts, p 18.
26 Ibid, passim.
27 Ibid, pp 22-26.
28 Hampshire Advertiser, passim.
29 1871 census return for Thomas C Elliott.
30 The House of Elliotts, p 21.
31 Ibid, p 29; Hampshire Advertiser, 06/01/1883.
32 Thomas Christopher Elliott probate, 09/07/1886.
33 The House of Elliotts, p 33.
34 Hampshire Advertiser, 22/04/1891.
35 The House of Elliotts, pp 33-37.
36 Kelly’s Southampton Directory, 1891.
37 The House of Elliotts, pp 28-29.
38 Shields Daily Gazette, 22/12/1904.
39 Illustrated Southampton, George Buxey, 1893.
40 The House of Elliotts, p 35.
41 Ibid, p 37.
42 Ibid, p 38-40.
43 Elliott family tree.
44 Census statistics 1801-2001.
45 The House of Elliotts, pp 45-48.
46 Ibid, p 48.
47 Ibid, p 53; Elliott family tree.
48 The House of Elliotts, p 56.
49 Ibid, p 54.
50 Ibid, p 55.
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid, p 56-57.
53 Ibid, p 35.
54 Ibid, p 59.
55 Ibid, p 64-65.
56 Elliott family tree.
57 The House of Elliotts, pp 57 60.
58 Ibid, p 65.
59 Ibid, 71.
60 Elliott family tree.
61 The House of Elliotts, p 68; London Gazette, 01/09/1916, p 8607.
62 Ibid, p 69.
63 London Gazette, Supplement no 34518, 07/06/1938, p 3693.
64 The House of Elliotts, p 71.
65 Ibid, p 70.
66 Ibid, pp 72-73.
67 Ibid, p 74.
68 Ibid, pp 92-93.
69 Ibid, pp 119-123; Elliott Premier Roofing website.
70 The House of Elliotts, p 92.
71 Ibid, p 94.
72 Ibid, pp 94-95.
73 Ibid, p 88.
74 Ibid, p 89.
75 Ibid, p 96.
76 Ibid, pp 97-99.
77 Ibid, p 100.
78 Ibid, p 101.
79 Ibid, p 102.
80 Ibid, pp 103-104.
81 Ibid, p 104.
82 Ibid, p 107.
83 Ibid, p 108.
84 Ibid, p 110.
85 Elliott Brothers corporate website.
Robert Cutts, February 2016 Bristol Filer (talk) 12:54, 21 February 2016 (UTC) Bristol Filer (talk) 08:01, 22 February 2016 (UTC)