The originators of this firm were William Shoolbred and Henry Loveridge. According to W. H. Jones's "Story of the Japan, Tin Plate and Iron Braziers Trades ..." (London, 1900), from which much information on this page is taken, Shoolbred was a Scot who came to Wolverhampton "when quite a young man. He began his business life as a retail tailor in Dudley Street, in partnership with his brother Robert. ... Finding he had not enough scope for his energies in the retail tailoring trade, he determined to make a change. ... We find Mr. Shoolbread joined Edward Perry as a partner in the Japan trade in Paul Street. Here Mr. Shoolbread remained for some years, taking an active part with Perry, until an opportunity occurred of which he promptly took advantage". (Note that Jones refers throughout to "Shoolbread" but an original deed and the only marked item of their wares say "Shoolbred"; the Curator has, therefore, seen fit to adopt that spelling here.
Edward Perry was a well established japanner and Shoolbred must have learnt the trade while he was with Perry. The opportunity which occurred, and which seems to have prompted Shoolbred to have left Perry, apparently quite suddenly, was that Charles Mander, having decided to concentrate on varnish making, put his japanning business up for sale. In 1840 he sold the business to Shoolbread on the condition that it be removed from Mander's premises in John Street: Mander needed the room to expand the varnish business.
According to Jones, Shoolbred took into partnership Henry Loveridge, apparently from the start. But it may be more complicated than that. A deed of 29th September 1869, (Wolverhampton City Archives, Deed/372) shows Shoolbred as the sole owner of the premises (if not of the business). The deed recites the conveyance of the bulk on the land on which the factory stood to Shoolbred in 1840. The deed also recites a mortgage of 1847 by which the premises were mortgaged to one Martin Wilkes for a sum which totalled £6,000. It seems that during the first seven years of the enterprise money was raised from elsewhere, and the lenders may have included Edward Perry, and that in 1847 the mortgage was taken over by Wilkes. But up until 1869 there is no mention of Loveridge. On the other hand a catalogue of 1855 (Wolverhampton Archives DX-894/9/2/23) was issued in the name of Loveridge and Shoolbred.
Jones refers to Loveridge as a young man at the time and apparently a salesman who had worked with Waltons. A firm's salesman at this time was often enough the owner himself or a member of his family or a partner. It is therefore possible that the firm was set up as a partnership between Shoolbred and Loveridge but that property transactions were carried out in Shoolbred's name and that he was seen as holding the property in trust for the firm.
Jones relates that "The new firm soon secured a piece of land at the bottom of Merridale Street [the site is now a green open space, about 100 yards from the Ring Road] which at the time was considered quite outside the town and was surrounded on all sides by fields and gardens. They soon made plans for a large manufactory and began to build".
"Fortunately for them a good mine of excellent clay suitable for brickmaking was found on the land. Several brick kilns were put up and plenty of cheap bricks helped them along". Perhaps they were not simply lucky in this. Brickkiln Street is not far away and presumably the kilns after which it was named used clay from the spot. Shoolbread and Loveridge may have picked this out of town site at least partly because they guessed, or even knew, that brick making clay was to be found there.
"Mr. Shoolbread was intensely anxious at this time. He could be seen every morning at six o'clock watching the progress of the brickmaking and the building of his manufactory. The handsome pile of buildings was finished in 1848 and opened to the great joy of the partners. During the erection of the new works the japanning trade was carried on at the old place in John's Lane".
Jones is not good at dates but, taking these at face value it seems to have taken eight years to build the factory. Certainly it was a large place - but not that large. It must be possible that it was built in stages and occupied in stages and that after eight years the whole was finished.
Shoolbred and Loveridge could not only finance this new works but "the japan stoves for drying were constructed on an entirely new plan, which proved a great success". Presumably they took on Mander's old workmen but, if they immediately occupied a large works such as their's at Merridale, they must have quickly employed a lot more. It is more likely that they increased their work force gradually as the premises grew stage by stage. It is also clear, from the 1855 catalogue, that they were not solely engaged in japanning. In that catalogue there is only one reference to japanned goods, all of the rest of the extensive range of goods being in tinplate. It was not uncommon for firms to issue separate catalogues for different branches of their work and this may be the case here, with the more elaborate items, including those on papier mache, being marketed separately.
The originators of this firm were William Shoolbred and Henry Loveridge. According to W. H. Jones's "Story of the Japan, Tin Plate and Iron Braziers Trades ..." (London, 1900), from which much information on this page is taken, Shoolbred was a Scot who came to Wolverhampton "when quite a young man. He began his business life as a retail tailor in Dudley Street, in partnership with his brother Robert. ... Finding he had not enough scope for his energies in the retail tailoring trade, he determined to make a change. ... We find Mr. Shoolbread joined Edward Perry as a partner in the Japan trade in Paul Street. Here Mr. Shoolbread remained for some years, taking an active part with Perry, until an opportunity occurred of which he promptly took advantage". (Note that Jones refers throughout to "Shoolbread" but an original deed and the only marked item of their wares say "Shoolbred"; the Curator has, therefore, seen fit to adopt that spelling here.
Edward Perry was a well established japanner and Shoolbred must have learnt the trade while he was with Perry. The opportunity which occurred, and which seems to have prompted Shoolbred to have left Perry, apparently quite suddenly, was that Charles Mander, having decided to concentrate on varnish making, put his japanning business up for sale. In 1840 he sold the business to Shoolbread on the condition that it be removed from Mander's premises in John Street: Mander needed the room to expand the varnish business.
According to Jones, Shoolbred took into partnership Henry Loveridge, apparently from the start. But it may be more complicated than that. A deed of 29th September 1869, (Wolverhampton City Archives, Deed/372) shows Shoolbred as the sole owner of the premises (if not of the business). The deed recites the conveyance of the bulk on the land on which the factory stood to Shoolbred in 1840. The deed also recites a mortgage of 1847 by which the premises were mortgaged to one Martin Wilkes for a sum which totalled £6,000. It seems that during the first seven years of the enterprise money was raised from elsewhere, and the lenders may have included Edward Perry, and that in 1847 the mortgage was taken over by Wilkes. But up until 1869 there is no mention of Loveridge. On the other hand a catalogue of 1855 (Wolverhampton Archives DX-894/9/2/23) was issued in the name of Loveridge and Shoolbred.
Jones refers to Loveridge as a young man at the time and apparently a salesman who had worked with Waltons. A firm's salesman at this time was often enough the owner himself or a member of his family or a partner. It is therefore possible that the firm was set up as a partnership between Shoolbred and Loveridge but that property transactions were carried out in Shoolbred's name and that he was seen as holding the property in trust for the firm.
Jones relates that "The new firm soon secured a piece of land at the bottom of Merridale Street [the site is now a green open space, about 100 yards from the Ring Road] which at the time was considered quite outside the town and was surrounded on all sides by fields and gardens. They soon made plans for a large manufactory and began to build".
This depiction of the works is taken from the 1879 advert shown below. The variations between the parts of the building suggest that they were not all built at the same time. "Fortunately for them a good mine of excellent clay suitable for brickmaking was found on the land. Several brick kilns were put up and plenty of cheap bricks helped them along". Perhaps they were not simply lucky in this. Brickkiln Street is not far away and presumably the kilns after which it was named used clay from the spot. Shoolbread and Loveridge may have picked this out of town site at least partly because they guessed, or even knew, that brick making clay was to be found there.
Merridale Works shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1903. Perhaps significantly the map adds the description "Copper, Iron, Tin Plate &c".
"Mr. Shoolbread was intensely anxious at this time. He could be seen every morning at six o'clock watching the progress of the brickmaking and the building of his manufactory. The handsome pile of buildings was finished in 1848 and opened to the great joy of the partners. During the erection of the new works the japanning trade was carried on at the old place in John's Lane".
Jones is not good at dates but, taking these at face value it seems to have taken eight years to build the factory. Certainly it was a large place - but not that large. It must be possible that it was built in stages and occupied in stages and that after eight years the whole was finished.
Shoolbred and Loveridge could not only finance this new works but "the japan stoves for drying were constructed on an entirely new plan, which proved a great success". Presumably they took on Mander's old workmen but, if they immediately occupied a large works such as their's at Merridale, they must have quickly employed a lot more. It is more likely that they increased their work force gradually as the premises grew stage by stage. It is also clear, from the 1855 catalogue, that they were not solely engaged in japanning. In that catalogue there is only one reference to japanned goods, all of the rest of the extensive range of goods being in tinplate. It was not uncommon for firms to issue separate catalogues for different branches of their work and this may be the case here, with the more elaborate items, including those on papier mache, being marketed separately.
According to Jones, at some point (possibly within the first few years of the firm's life) Shoolbred's son, also William, who had also worked at Edward Perry's, became a partner and the firm became Loveridge, Shoolbred, Loveridge. William died quite young and the firm then became Loveridge and Shoolbred. Eventually William Shoolbred's health started to fail and he, "feeling that he had a competency", retired. This appears, from information in Henry Loveridge's obituary, to have been in 1860. It may have been but the deed of 1869 is a conveyance of all of the firms premises from William Shoolbred to Henry Loveridge for the sum of £10,000. The deed recites that the original mortgage was paid off in 1860. So Shoolbred may have given up any active interest in the firm at that time but retained ownership of the land and buildings. Then by 1869 Loveridge was doing well enough to buy the land and premises, thereby taking the whole business into his sole hands. It may be significant that Shoolbred is referred to in the deed as a "woollen draper"; so it may be that, in some role or another, he reverted to something like his original calling. The 1869 deed also records that, in addition to the main factory buildings, which lay between Merridale Street and Russell Street, the firm had also acquired the cottages numbered 98 - 102 (all inclusive) Merridale Street, 6 messuages in Russell Street and land on the east side of the factory,
Thus the firm became Henry Loveridge & Co. It became a joint stock company in 1903. Unfortunately Jones is not good at giving dates and nobody has yet scoured the sources to try to establish dates for the deaths of the two William Shoolbreds. Henry Loveridge died in 1892.