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W H Rhodes Ltd China & Glass + associated companies

An interesting portfolio of memories. I guess some here may recognize some of the faces. Being too young, when I lived near Birmingham to be interested in cookware and catering I never had interest in such places. However, I do recall the Bingley Hall and the Ideal Homes Exhibitions of the late 1940's and early 50's. I my later years I was concerned with that type of products.
The photographs with the crashed truck into the shop front, I guess might arouse comments. When, where and other details. ;)
 
Hi, Alan! Thanks for your interest. The truck in the shop front was in West Bromwich. The Black Country Bugle very kindly published an article about it last year. There was a response the following week. I hope I have clicked the right buttons to include scans of those articles which I hope we are allowed to post on this forum. If you are unable to view these articles clearly, I will gladly send them to anyone who wishes to see them via e-mail.
20170816bugle.jpg20170823bugle.jpg
 
Just to add some closure to this thread, here is the entry from the London Gazette dated 25 August 1972. George Edward Hill was the Company's solicitor.

Maurice :cool:

WHRhodes.jpg
 
Reading the newspaper articles - with difficulty as I go giddy when trying to read sideways :laughing: The photos are much more easily seen in Terry's first (Flicker) post link. I did wonder how Terry got on with his history of this company. No one seems to remember the truck crash in this thread, but as it was in West Bromwich maybe that is one reason.
The Flicker photos are well worth viewing: they show many of the shops that the company had, quite a few in the West Midlands.
One of Rhodes shops was in Broad Street and features in this thread:
 
A great selection of photographs, Terry, and most of them are nicely lit and in good focus. It looks as if the Company was put into liquidation because everyone wanted to retire and no one wanted to take it on, rather than huge debts, as it quite often the case nowadays. Was the group still profitable in 1972?

George Edward Hill came from a Notice of an earlier meeting which was being held at his office when his exact status was mentioned. My only connection was as a customer at the Great Western Arcade shop, mainly in the 1950s and I wasn't even aware that this thread existed. I could have been involved in some genealogical research on 1 October 1918, so simply failed to see it, as sometimes happens. I hope you managed to inherit some of the Company Minutes and other momentos, as trying to do company histories is becoming increasingly difficult since Companies House decided to scrap all records of defunct companies once a term of 20 years had expired after their liquidation. The days when you could walk into Companies House in City Road and pick up a microfiche copy of its Returns for a quid have long since gone. Good luck with your history.

Maurice :cool:
 
A great selection of photographs, Terry, and most of them are nicely lit and in good focus. It looks as if the Company was put into liquidation because everyone wanted to retire and no one wanted to take it on, rather than huge debts, as it quite often the case nowadays. Was the group still profitable in 1972?

George Edward Hill came from a Notice of an earlier meeting which was being held at his office when his exact status was mentioned. My only connection was as a customer at the Great Western Arcade shop, mainly in the 1950s and I wasn't even aware that this thread existed. I could have been involved in some genealogical research on 1 October 1918, so simply failed to see it, as sometimes happens. I hope you managed to inherit some of the Company Minutes and other momentos, as trying to do company histories is becoming increasingly difficult since Companies House decided to scrap all records of defunct companies once a term of 20 years had expired after their liquidation. The days when you could walk into Companies House in City Road and pick up a microfiche copy of its Returns for a quid have long since gone. Good luck with your history.

Maurice :cool:
Hi, Maurice! Thanks for your interest. I think you are right that the decision to liquidate in 1972 was based on the absence of anyone prepared to take the company forward. Times were a-changing and that size of specialist company was suffering from the rise of larger companies, department stores, etc who incorporated 'china and glass' divisions into their all-embracing remits. I suppose I might have been in the running for the task of moving the company on but it never really appealed to me. I was eventually destined to enter the very different world of 'showbiz' but I did run Powell (Catering Equipments) Ltd in Moseley between 1973 and 1980 - that was a tiny remnant of the Rhodes group which my father retained, more or less as a hobby after his retirement. After disposing of Powells in 1980, I then moved into a full time acting 'career'. Re your previous posting, here is a photo of that very same Mr George Hill!George Hill.JPG
 
Hi Terry,

Yes, and department stores are having problems of their own now. People became loathe to travel up several floors to get to the department they needed in sufficient numbers to make the whole building viable. Now with the internet and high business rates, they stand even less chance. Maybe there was a trend that they could spot. When I had my own business in the 1970s, I found more and more of my time was spent chasing customers for money and that was when I decided to sell up and get out. Providing the work keeps coming in, I'm sure you will find acting a more satisfying career.

Maurice :cool:
 
Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed looking through the Rhodes photographs. As they now reflect a bygone era, I am saddened that there is no room in today’s society for such delightful specialist shops. I would be happy to shop in one today! I particularly remember the china shop in the Great Western Arcade (when it was named Lawley’s) as I was briefly employed there to help them pack up and close down. Many people today appear to favour cheaper, imported, disposable tableware from the likes of Ikea, to the detriment of the British pottery industry. (My avatar is a Wedgwood hand painted plate, because I’m a bit of a china nut).
As another poster said, even the large department stores are struggling to attract customers, so I predict further specialist shops will only be able to survive online, and our city centres will decline even further. Such a shame.
 
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