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The history of the raincoat |
Generous information in Leyland Historical Society's invaluable website (LHS)
The
Leyland and Birmingham Co.
There is a reference to one W. Smith as a manufacturer of 'waterproof cloths, pipings, and washers' in the Mannex Directory of Mid-Lancashire of 1854 (published in that year). The address is given as 'Golded hill works', which I think must be read as "Golden Hill Works". (Was this the old Leyland Workhouse? LHS says Yes.) Remember though this need not mean rubber waterproofing.
LHS says one James Quin brought the rubber industry to Leyland when he opened a factory in East Street in 1862.
By that time, vulcanisation had been discovered (once or twice!) and the leading firms were establishing improvements in product and efficiency of process (through the use of carbon black as a toughening agent in the manufacture of tyres (Woodruff, p.75), accelerants which speeded up the vulcanisation process and enabled it to be conducted at a lower temperature (Woodruff, p.75) and 'fillers', which made more/better product to be made with the same quantity/quality of raw rubber. One of the leading firms in 1862 was Thomas Hancock's, which by that time had passed into the hands of James Lyne Hancock. There was a connection of some kind between James Quin and the Hancock firm, allowing James to acquire the cutting-edge techniques which were in practice there, and then making possible some kind of transfer or 'secondment' of staff from the Hancock factory in London to the new venture in Leyland. (LHS)
This practice of workers from an established factory transferring permanently or on a temporary basis to a newly set-up concern was the standard thing where the rubber industry was concerned. The required techniques were most of them new and workers used to working with cotton or wool in the ordinary way had to learn them.
The Bradford-on-Avon mill of Stephen Moulton's recruited experienced workers from America for this purpose. His American contact wrote in 1848 'we have engaged [for you] the best callender man in the country ... and have engaged a first rate girl who Emory thinks will be better than a man to learn other girls...' (quoted in Woodruff p. 112)
The
business flourished, and in 1868 moved into Leyland's old workhouse (right)
in Golden Hill Lane, where it occupied the site of the old Leyland Workhouse,
including the building itself. (Thus displacing W.
Smith.) [LHS]
James Quin's business became a public company in 1873 with the title James Quin & Co Ltd. Less formally it was then Mr Quin's Indian Rubber & Hosepipe Works and described itself thus:
' manufacturers of all kinds of india rubber articles, valves, sheets, buffers, washers, rings, cylinders, steam packing, hose tubing, india rubber machinery, belting, woven linen hose pipes for agricultural, fire brigade and mill purposes, and all india rubber articles used for engineering purposes, elastic steam rope, round or square, with core in the centre, and all kinds of water proof covers made to order, also water proof horse cloths etc.' (Quoted given in LHS, but no citation given there.)
LHS bring the chronology to the end of the 19th Century thus:
'Following the death of Mr Quin in 1883, the works then became the Leyland Rubber Company in 1886, while the amalgamation with the Birmingham Rubber Company in 1898, led to the company we now know as The Leyland & Birmingham Rubber Company.
The early 1900's witnessed a steady expansion of the product range to include solid and pneumatic tyres, hoses, belting, waterproof clothing and a range of surgical products that was later to become the foundation of Leyland Medical International.
Following the fire at " Th'owd Rubber " on January 18th 1913, the rebuilding of the three-storey frontage to Golden Hill Lane enabled the company to reach new heights with the two world wars making it ever busier. In 1962, the take over of J.E. Baxter & Co, (Mr Baxter having being a former director of the L & B until the turn of the century), led to a friendly merger in 1969 with their close rival, B.T.R., the L & B continuing to operate as a separate company within the B.T.R. group until it closed in the summer of 2002 and was demolished in the following September.'
Note that waterproof clothing is not made by this company in its early days. This varies the pattern amongst other early concerns, which was to make waterproof garments (among other things) at their launch, and perhaps, as with the Moulton business, to discontinue with them later.
David Hunt gives a scholarly account of this aspect of the History of Leyland in his History of Leyland and District , Preston, 1990, Carnegie Press, pb ed.. The relevant extract is here.
From LHS:
'This now closed factory was the result of a board room disagreement at the turn of the century when J.E. Baxter, a director of the Leyland & Birmingham Rubber Co., left the company and set up his own factory next door to his previous employers in Tuer Street.
During the war, the factory in conjunction with the L & B and the Ordnance factories produced inflatable craft, barrage balloons, dummy tanks and gas masks. In 1962, the company returned to become part of the Leyland & Birmingham Rubber Co., which it remained until its closure.'
Wood Milne Rubber Company (aka Wood Milne Ltd) was a firm established in Leyland (See David Hunt's History of Leyland and District , Preston, 1990, Carnegie Press, pb ed.). It was taken over by an American concern in 1924 and in 1934 became the British Tyre and Rubber Co; which became 'B.T.R. Industries' in 1957. Waterproof clothing is not listed by LHS as part of the product range of Wood Milne or these successors.
Thanks to Leyland Historical Society for much of the information here and the pictures.
David Hunt, History of Leyland and District , Preston, 1990, Carnegie Press, pb ed.
William Woodruff, The Rise of the British Rubber Industry During the 19th Century, Liverpool, 1958, Liverpool University Press.
Mannex Directory of Mid-Lancashire, 1854
