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HR James and Family, Ironmongers
Alan Payne Research Verity Jeffery August 2018 They say that shopkeeping is in the blood. I was the son of a greengrocer but it must have missed me out because I never wanted the business: too many requests for redder, smaller or bigger tomatoes. And I struggled with customers who only wanted to moan and the daily repetition of putting stock out on shelves and taking fresh produce back at night. It has always been like that for shopkeepers, as the James family of ironmongers knew. |
Seen above left Gladys Fisher, manager of the Co-op and right Nettie James (courtesy Richard Jeffery)
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Ironmongers
We don't really have this trade anymore in England. It developed when household utilities suddenly became available with the rise of domestic electricity and greater general prosperity. As the name implies, the business dealt in iron products (mongers in iron) and also other metal goods. The shopkeepers repaired, installed and sold goods but did not make them, which was the job of the blacksmith.
Employees had been obliged to work six days a week in the late Victorian period until a succession of Shop Acts in the 1890s brought in limited reforms and half-day closing in 1911 with the power to control opening hours vested in the new local authority councils.
The ironmongery trade expanded rapidly after the First World War when fewer women went into domestic service and housewives had to do their own domestic chores. Naturally they sought products which would assist in clearing the fire grate, domestic laundry, ironing and cooking. The trade also catered for gardening requisites, tools, nails and machine parts, appealing to unemployed men in the 1920s. Goods from ironmongers became the must-have items of the early twentieth century:
Really Useful Xmas Presents.[1]
Horace (HR) James
Horace Rentford James was born in Kilmersdon, Somerset, in 1883 to Joseph James, cashier at a Somerset colliery. He trained to be an ironmonger from a young age and, in his late twenties, worked as an assistant ironmonger in the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association), Plymouth.
In 1914 he married a Chippenham girl, Nettie Lavinia King, and they set up home in Hope Villa, Station Road, Corsham. Nettie was the daughter of William C King, an ironmonger in New Road, Chippenham. We might imagine that her parents helped the couple to establish themselves in the trade. Their lives were interrupted by the Great War when Horace served in the Royal Flying Corps. When he returned home there were limited employment opportunities apart from the family trade. They had two children, Joseph and Joan, both of whom helped in the business.
After the war Horace set up trade in his own right in Corsham High Street.[2] By 1920 they were trading in Corsham and two years later moved into more modern and suitable premises next door to expand the trade.[3] The Ponting family owned premises in The Market Place, Box, which they ran as a drapers' shop until 1928 when it was put up for auction on the death of Sarah Ponting. Horace and Nettie appear to have set up business in part of the Ponting shop at the house called St Judes in about 1930, as seen in the headline photograph. There are advertisements in The Wiltshire Advertiser promoting the Box shop in the years 1933 - 35.[4]
Theatrical Events
A few doors up from the shop was Norman Martin, electrical engineer, at 1 The Parade. Norman was a local man whose family had owned Spencer's Farm, Ashley but he set up business as an electrician, installing electric lighting into the old Bingham Hall. He continued this by operating the footlights for theatrical and other productions in the Hall. He helped in the many theatrical plays and pageants put on by Rev George Foster and his wife Kate.
As well as having a mother who studied as a singer, we might imagine that Horace's son, Joe James, was involved in some of the Box productions as a teenager. In later life Joe was well-known in Corsham as an actor (performing as the Duke of Plaza Torro in Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Gondoliers), a member of the Corsham Dramatic Society and producer of many Corsham Scout Gang Shows.
As well as his theatrical ability Joe was a regular contributor to the history of Corsham through the Corsham Civic Society with his knowledge of local people and events. You can read more memories of Joe in Corsham Spotlight, March 2009.
Family Tree
Joseph James (b 1854) married Emma Bryant (b 1857)
Children: Horace R (1883 - 1981); Lilly May (b 1886); Elizabeth P( Bessie) (b 1888); Dorothy S (b 1896).
Horace Rentford James (30 January 1883 - 2 January 1981) was born at Kilmerson, Somerset. He married Nettie Lavinia King
(17 May 1885 - 14 March 1975) at Chippenham on 26 August 1914. Horace (HR) was chairman of Corsham Town Council from 1936 - 38 and again 1943 - 46. Children:
Joseph C (23 February 1916); Joan I (16 December 1919)
Joseph C (Joe) James (1916 - 2009)
References
[1] Advertisement from HR James, Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 11 December 1920
[2] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 23 August 1919
[3] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 1 April 1922
[4] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 23 December 1933, 12 May 1934 and 6 April 1935
We don't really have this trade anymore in England. It developed when household utilities suddenly became available with the rise of domestic electricity and greater general prosperity. As the name implies, the business dealt in iron products (mongers in iron) and also other metal goods. The shopkeepers repaired, installed and sold goods but did not make them, which was the job of the blacksmith.
Employees had been obliged to work six days a week in the late Victorian period until a succession of Shop Acts in the 1890s brought in limited reforms and half-day closing in 1911 with the power to control opening hours vested in the new local authority councils.
The ironmongery trade expanded rapidly after the First World War when fewer women went into domestic service and housewives had to do their own domestic chores. Naturally they sought products which would assist in clearing the fire grate, domestic laundry, ironing and cooking. The trade also catered for gardening requisites, tools, nails and machine parts, appealing to unemployed men in the 1920s. Goods from ironmongers became the must-have items of the early twentieth century:
Really Useful Xmas Presents.[1]
Horace (HR) James
Horace Rentford James was born in Kilmersdon, Somerset, in 1883 to Joseph James, cashier at a Somerset colliery. He trained to be an ironmonger from a young age and, in his late twenties, worked as an assistant ironmonger in the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association), Plymouth.
In 1914 he married a Chippenham girl, Nettie Lavinia King, and they set up home in Hope Villa, Station Road, Corsham. Nettie was the daughter of William C King, an ironmonger in New Road, Chippenham. We might imagine that her parents helped the couple to establish themselves in the trade. Their lives were interrupted by the Great War when Horace served in the Royal Flying Corps. When he returned home there were limited employment opportunities apart from the family trade. They had two children, Joseph and Joan, both of whom helped in the business.
After the war Horace set up trade in his own right in Corsham High Street.[2] By 1920 they were trading in Corsham and two years later moved into more modern and suitable premises next door to expand the trade.[3] The Ponting family owned premises in The Market Place, Box, which they ran as a drapers' shop until 1928 when it was put up for auction on the death of Sarah Ponting. Horace and Nettie appear to have set up business in part of the Ponting shop at the house called St Judes in about 1930, as seen in the headline photograph. There are advertisements in The Wiltshire Advertiser promoting the Box shop in the years 1933 - 35.[4]
Theatrical Events
A few doors up from the shop was Norman Martin, electrical engineer, at 1 The Parade. Norman was a local man whose family had owned Spencer's Farm, Ashley but he set up business as an electrician, installing electric lighting into the old Bingham Hall. He continued this by operating the footlights for theatrical and other productions in the Hall. He helped in the many theatrical plays and pageants put on by Rev George Foster and his wife Kate.
As well as having a mother who studied as a singer, we might imagine that Horace's son, Joe James, was involved in some of the Box productions as a teenager. In later life Joe was well-known in Corsham as an actor (performing as the Duke of Plaza Torro in Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Gondoliers), a member of the Corsham Dramatic Society and producer of many Corsham Scout Gang Shows.
As well as his theatrical ability Joe was a regular contributor to the history of Corsham through the Corsham Civic Society with his knowledge of local people and events. You can read more memories of Joe in Corsham Spotlight, March 2009.
Family Tree
Joseph James (b 1854) married Emma Bryant (b 1857)
Children: Horace R (1883 - 1981); Lilly May (b 1886); Elizabeth P( Bessie) (b 1888); Dorothy S (b 1896).
Horace Rentford James (30 January 1883 - 2 January 1981) was born at Kilmerson, Somerset. He married Nettie Lavinia King
(17 May 1885 - 14 March 1975) at Chippenham on 26 August 1914. Horace (HR) was chairman of Corsham Town Council from 1936 - 38 and again 1943 - 46. Children:
Joseph C (23 February 1916); Joan I (16 December 1919)
Joseph C (Joe) James (1916 - 2009)
References
[1] Advertisement from HR James, Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 11 December 1920
[2] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 23 August 1919
[3] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 1 April 1922
[4] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 23 December 1933, 12 May 1934 and 6 April 1935