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Dennison’s Birmingham's first light switch

Labour day event from Dennisons at Crown and Cushion Perry Barr. OMG that bouffant!
 

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In 1871 ADL was lodger at 11, Hall Road with William Midgley, a retired brass founder. (Hall Road joins Villa Road)

In 1881 he had moved to 27, Villa Road with his wife, son Franklin and daughter. In 1891 he is at Wretham Road.
 
More information on the Dennison early years, and electric lights, can be gained from the Vintage Watchstraps site.

“After much searching he (ADL) found investors in Birmingham, England, who were prepared to put up the capital to buy the Melrose machinery and form a watchmaking company.

The company was initially called The Anglo-American Watch Company. The watches were understandably American in nature, with going barrels rather than fusees, and the initial products, uncased movements, were sent to America for sale, but there was little demand because of a financial recession at the time meaning that the market was already over supplied.

The name of the company was changed in February 1874 to The English Watch Company, presumably indicating a change in focus to selling watches on the British market. It appears that Dennison left the company at around this time.

In 1874 Dennison set up a watch case manufactory in the Handsworth area of Birmingham which eventually became the Dennison Watch Case Company. The early history of the company is rather unknown, despite the best efforts of Philip Priestley with the help of descendants of the founder to uncover it. A date of 1875 is suggested by a long service award to William McBeth in 1929 in recognition of 54 years service from the foundation of the company. However, it is generally believed that the business was started in 1874, coinciding with the establishment in Britain of a branch of the American Waltham Watch Company. Waltham began importing movements from its American factory and was desperate to find someone who could make the large numbers of cases required.

A record in the Birmingham Trade Directory of 1876 indicates a possibility that Edward Howard, one of the founders of the American company with Dennison and Davis in 1850, might have been an investor. Alfred Wigley, an engraver, polisher and springer of watchcases, was involved in some way right from the start, eventually becoming a partner in 1879. The company was called Dennison, Wigley & Company from 1879 until 1905.

In August 1888 The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith reported that Dennison & Wigley were making watch cases so successfully as to be able to send quantities to America in spite of the import duty charged on them. The company employed at the time 100 hands and the factory was ‘lighted throughout with electric light’.”
 
Pedrocut.
There is also some other interesting information on the vintage watchstraps site. This will be of particular interest to Astoness, as it involves Dennison and the Anglo-American and the English Watch Co, which were situated at 45 Villa St, not far from the Dennison factory in Villa St. This is shown on the c1889 map below:


map c1889 villa st showing Watch manufactury at no 45 villa st.jpg
 
In the Birmingham Daily Post in January 1877 there is a long article about Birmingham watch manufacture and the English Watch Company. I can put it on if anyone wants it, but this bit adds more info...

"Passing along Villa Street one only sees a modest door plate bearing, the inscription English Watch Company as the outside indication of the important manufacturer carried on at the rear. The premises consist of 5 houses, an assembly room formerly a chapel, and three ranges of shopping, capable of accomodating at least 300 workmen. The whole area covering nearly an acre of land. Since acquiring the works the present company have considerably enlarged them, and introduced additional machinery, so that the power of production is largely increased...”
 
John. Shopping was used then to describe workshops only. I do not think the word was then used as a verb, though the word shops for an establishment to buy things was so used
 
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