Bernard Seale, Plumber, Glazier, Gas Fitter etc., 27 Church Street & Attercliffe Bridge

[Ponytail]

Bernard Seale, plumber, glazier & gas fitter, 27 Church Street & Attercliffe Bridge. 

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

Whites Directory 1852

Seale, Bernard, plumber, glazier, gas fitter, beer machine etc., manufacturer and coal owner (Smith and Seale) 27 Church Street. 

Smith & Seale, coal owners, Attercliffe and 31 North Street. 

Whites Directory 1857

Seale, Bernard, plumber & glaziers, 27 Church Street

Seale, Bernard, glass & lead merchants, 27 Church Street. 

Directory 1862

Seale, Bernard, plumber, glazier, gas fitter, coal master and agent to the Birmingham Plate Glass Co., 25 Church Street and manufacturer of sanitary drain pipes and chimney pots etc., Attercliffe. 

 

What else can we find about Bernard Seale and Smith & Seale?

[Edmund]

In September 1837 Bernard Seale, aged 22, took over the plumbing business of the late Daniel Bradbury of 15 Old Church street, who had died on 5th September 1836.  Mr Bradbury had only been 28 years old but his autopsy revealed a very diseased liver and lungs full of blood.  It was unclear if this was due to a recent attack on him on his way back from Grimesthorpe, or from natural causes.  As well as taking over Daniel's business, he took over his wife, marrying his widow Hannah on 19th September 1837. At this point the business was reasonably large with several employees, and by 1839 Seale was taking on an apprentice.

Mr Seale seems to have been a good businessman, involved in the Gas Company and having contracts with the workhouse in the 1850s. In the early 1850s he became joint proprietor of the Attercliffe Colliery and Fire Clay Works with an accountant R.H.Smith, who went bankrupt in 1857 resulting in the dissolution of the partnership and Seale's own bankruptcy.  Bernard was granted an allowance of £2 10s a week, allowed to sell his furniture to his friends "in the usual way", and allowed to work the collery until trade assignees were appointed, to prevent its machinery deteriorating. In November there was an auction of his life assurance policies and land and nine houses at Hoyle street. Seale was able to obtain a first-class bankruptcy certificate and pay his creditors 20 shillings in the pound so he came out with his reputation intact.  By February 1858 he was back in business and looking for a part time served apprentice to assist him.  The 1871 census saw him plumbing, but also an innkeeper at the Three Tuns in Orchard street.  In  1877 he was chairman of the Sheffield Master Plumbers Association formed in 1875 as an association for employers, and meeting at the Three Tuns.

Hannah had died in 1875.  Bernard gave up the Three Tuns in 1876.  He returned to living at his plumbers shop at 27 Church street but by 1891 had gone blind and had to retire. He died on 6th November 1892 aged 77 at 130 Broomspring lane.

[Ponytail]

Thanks Edmund for finding the story behind the name.