R & G Gray & Co., Exchange Drapery Establishment, Victoria Buildings, Fargate & Crinoline Steel Manufacturer, Castle Mills, Blonk Street & Pond Hill

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R & G Gray & Co. Exchange Drapery Establishment, Victoria Buildings, Fargate. 

Advertisement from Illustrated Guide to Sheffield, Pawson and Brailsford, first published 1862. 

No excuse for not being stylish in Sheffield, if you could afford it.

What a beautiful building, wonder what happened to it?

[SteveHB]

[SteveHB]

1886

"Fargate, including (right), Nos. 25 - 31 Exchange Drapery Co. Ltd., Victoria House, No. 35 Old Red House, No. 37 Singer Manufacturing Co., sewing machine manufacturers"

https://www.picturesheffield.com/t00977

[Roger Arevalo]

Clearly the marketing logic was WE ARE USING EVERY FONT THERE IS

[Ponytail]

1 minute ago, Roger Arevalo said:

Clearly the marketing logic was WE ARE USING EVERY FONT THERE IS

😂😂🤣🤣

[Ponytail]

Whites Directory 1849.

Gray, Geo, draper &etc., h. Shrewsbury Cottage, Intake Road. 

Gray, Robt. & Geo., drapers & mercers, 43 Exchange Street. 

Gray, Robert, draper & etc, h. Stockport.

Advertisement Whites Directory 1852.

Whites Directory 1852.

Gray, George, draper, h. Shrewsbury Cottage, 195 Intake Road. 

Gray, Robert and George, drapers and mercers, 43 Exchange Street. 

Gray, Robert, draper, h. Stockport. 

 

Advertisement from Whites Directory 1856.

Whites Directory 1856.

Gray, George, draper, (R & G & Co) h. Shrewsbury Cottage, Intake Rd. 

Gray Robert and George & Co., drapers, hosiers, silk mercers & etc., Exchange Drapery Establishment, Victoria Buildings, 25-29 Fargate.

 

The Builder 5th October 1861. Extract from an Article titled. A further review of blots in Sheffield. 

(High Street) "Like all the Sheffield Streets, it is inconviently narrow, improving but little in this respect when it takes the name of Fargate. Gray's Exchange Drapery Establishment, with a lofty arcaded entrance and Italian superstructure was striking enough in its effect to cause regret there were not others of equal consideration."

 

Whites Directory/1862.

Gray, George, draper (R and G and Co) h. Kenwood Road. 

Gray, Robert and George and Co., drapers, hosiers, silk mercers & etc., Exchange Drapery Establishment, Victoria Buildings, 25-31 Fargate and crinoline steel manufacturers, Pond Hill. 

Gray, Robert, draper & etc., (R and G Gray and Co) h. Victoria Buildings, Fargate.

Gray, Robert and Co., cast steel, wire drawers and crinoline steel manufacturers, Castle Mills, Blonk Street. 

 

Whites Directory 1879.

Fargate

25-31 Exchange Drapery Co. (lim), drapers and silk mercers, John Tarrant, managing director. 

25 Tarrant, John, managing director.

27 Oxley, John, Secretary to the Exchange Drapery Co (lim) 

 

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From Illustrated Guide to Sheffield, Pawson and Brailsford. 1862

 

Tower Grinding Mill also known as Castle Grinding Mills/Castle Mills,  Blonk Street

 

After an Accident 1854

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;y13990&pos=1&action=zoom&id=137520

 

Castle Mills. 1830

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Kelly's Directory 1861

Robert Gray & Co., Castle Mills, Blonk Street, cast steel wire drawers and flatteners, hot and cold rollers and manufacturers of every description of steel crinoline. 

Whites Directory 1864

Robert Gray & Co., crinoline steel manufacturers and wire drawers, Castle Mills, Blonk Street. 

George Gray & Co., crinoline steel and skirt manufacturers, Pond Hill Works. 

 

Extract from The Early History of Stocksbridge and District, by Joseph Kenworthy. 1914.

"When steel strips were first employed in the making of crinoline they were wrinkled or corrugated in order to strengthen them and the price was 5/- per Ib. This wrinkling or corrigaton was rendered unnecessary by the development of a proper system of gardening and tempering the material used for this purpose. 

It is said that the enterprise displayed by Mr. Fox resulted in his firm having netted a sum of not less than £80,000 before the craze (which lasted from 1855 - 1866) died down, which is not improbable when we reflect upon the possibilities that lay in front of such a high price and the imperious demands made by Fashion. 

 This is well brought out in a story that came down to us, which says that, on  one occasion when there was full in demand, Mr. Fox with his usual thoughtfulness and foresight kept his men fully employed until there was an accumulation of fifty tons in stock. Mr. Robert Gray (more familiar known as Bobby Gray) of Messrs George Gray & Co., of Sheffield. came to Stocksbridge and offered 3s 6d per Ib, for the lot but Mr. Fox declined to discuss anything less than 3s 9d preferring as he said to keep it a little longer, and eventually Geo Gray & Co. took it at Mr. Fox's price. 

Fifty tons at 3s 9d per 1Ib = £21,000 Sterling and as the cost price including material, labour and all the other charges could not have been more than 6d per Ib. the net profit on this transaction would be £18,200. Today the same thing can be bought in quite as good steel for the purpose at little more than 3d per 1Ib. 

Mr. Fox was not a magician, nor the son of one and there could be no suspicion if legerdemain in connection with any of the doings. On the contrary, the transmutation of crinoline steel into gold on his part was affected on pure scientific lines, in other words, by strict business integrity, which is still the best fertiliser of legitimate opportunity. 

This conceded, the reader will look for what which was to be expected of such a man of the circumstances under review. Whilst the craze was so to speak in retort, Mr. Fox quietly built up a trade in cold rolled steel for pens and many other purposes, which ensured employment for a costly plant when such was no longer occupied in making steel for crinolines. 

This in itself was a notable achievement, because two or more of the firms engaged in this trade came to grief as anticipated by Mr. Chester man. For instance, W Holdsworth was declared insolvent before 1864 and when the bankrupts' effects were sold, tradition says that Mr. Fox bought all he had so that no-one else should start in the same line. An explanation which does not accord with the fact that Samuel Fox had then secured a position in the trade which practically made him Independent of any serious competition. Further, the little Wire Mill erected by William Beet, near the Old Corn Mill at Deepcar was adapted by Messrs Gray & Co., to the production of crinoline steel and was turning out a considerable tonnage in the early sixties of last century. William Naylor and Alan Smith who lived in two Cottages of good design which had been specially built for their accommodation at the end of Corn Mill Lane, acted as manager and assistant; the works been driven by steam power and lighted by coal gas. 

Mr. Walton, of Horner House who worked there as a boy of seven years old, informs me that about twenty hands, men and boys were employed in rolling with the attendant processes of annealing and cleaning. Such activity, however was of short duration. Failure in some form or other, overtook the business and Samuel Fox was ultimately left in undisturbed possession of the steel trade of the Little Don Valley."

 

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Sheffield Flood Claim:

Robert Gray and George Gray trading in Co partnership under the firm of Robert Gray & Company, Crinoline Steel and Wire Manufacturers and Rollers of Castle Mills, Sheffield. 

Employees named in the  Claim. 

 

https://sheffieldfloodclaimsarchive.shu.ac.uk/claimSummary.cfm?claim=6-5377