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Advertising in the past

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The Toronto premises in Avenue Road were on the edge of Chinatown, but we now have a Wolseley Street, which comprises high quality shops and apartments. Much has changed in the space of 100 years!

Maurice :-)
 
The Wolseley Works at Adderley Park had been Brown, Marshall railway wagon and carriage builder. It was later the Morris Commercial.
 
mikejee said:
Tim
Really it started in Aston as the Wolseleysheep Shearing Co, then run by Herbert Austin. The main company decided it wasn't interested in cars, so Austin got money to start separate firm
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mikejee,
Wolseley's first factory in Birmingham was in Broad Street and the company moved to Alma Street, Aston in October 1895.
Austin did not get the money to start a separate company and build the Wolseley cars under his ownership; Vickers Son & Maxim bought the car and machine tool business from the sheep shearing machine company and set up the Wolseley Tool & Motor Car Company Ltd., at Adderley Park in 1901, with Austin as General Manager.
But for Austin's management of the sheep shearing machine company, it would have gone to the wall, and despite the directors having large sums of money in investment portfolios, at one point they were actually considering not paying their workers wages, and the company was only saved by their Australian agent lending them money!
Contrary to what many historians say, Vickers was not really interested in entering the motor car business; they were looking to start up a company to build the big petrol engines to power Britain's "Holland" class submarines, and these engines were made at Adderley Park Works.
Boomy
 
Boomy
Did not mean to imply that Austin owned the firm, though, I can see that my wording might be taken that way.
 
Wolseley have gone through many changes over the years, having been founded in 1887 as the Wolseley Sheep Sheering Machine Company. It gave its name to cars even if it did not make them. It then became Wolseley-Webb the lawn mower company then bought Plumb Center the builders merchants. The builders merchants have now been rebranded Wolseley. The company trades as Ferguson in the USA which is actually the name of its parent company having changed its name form Wolseley last year.

I am not sure when the company changed its name from the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine company but I do remember a customer bringing an old share certificate with that name into the bank where I was working at the time in 1970s. The company had already by that time become Wolseley Webb.
 
Nice to see the notes on Wolseley, they add a wider interpretation to the historical dimensions

As to S Kutnow's powders. They had offices in Holborn, London, and many other countries. Their trade mark was the Deers Leep, with a deer on top of a mountain. Mitchells & Butlers had a similar trade mark. I gather the composition was minerals of the type found in Carlsbad, now in the Czech Republic.
 
My dad worked all his working life for Wolseley Sheep Shearing, in Electric Avenue opposite GEC the employees never referred to it as 'The Wolseley' to them it was just 'The firm'
 
DavidGrain said:
Wolseley have gone through many changes over the years, having been founded in 1887 as the Wolseley Sheep Sheering Machine Company. It gave its name to cars even if it did not make them. It then became Wolseley-Webb the lawn mower company then bought Plumb Center the builders merchants. The builders merchants have now been rebranded Wolseley. The company trades as Ferguson in the USA which is actually the name of its parent company having changed its name form Wolseley last year.

I am not sure when the company changed its name from the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine company but I do remember a customer bringing an old share certificate with that name into the bank where I was working at the time in 1970s. The company had already by that time become Wolseley Webb.
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The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Co. Ltd., opened up the Electric Avenue factory by about 1914 to manufacture cream separators and then moved from Alma Street to Electric Avenue about 1922.
Of course, Wolseley gave its name to motor cars because the company was building and selling cars from 1896.
Boomy.
 
Wolselys Adderly Park factory.jpg Wolselys Adderly Park factory.jpg
I assume the vehicle has just delivered or collected the post. Note the name on the factory wall.
 
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This is an advert from 1900 when Thomas Smith & Sons of Saltley (Adderley Road) ventured into making complete cycles.
A heavy drop forging company, it was established in 1848, and was well known for its Snail Brand tools.
Boomy
 

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Interesting to see the trademark of the Birfield Group which I started work with as an apprentice. The name 'Birfield' was made up of the 'Bir' of Birmingham and the 'Field' of Sheffield because of Hardy Spicer in Birmingham and Laycock Engineering in Sheffield. Then in 1966, GKN completed a successful takeover bid of Birfield and eventually became a global business until recently taken over by Melrose PLC.
 
One of my schoolmates worked at Hardy Spicer when he left school. he was on piece work as a drilling machine operator, the going rate for school leavers at the time was no more than £1/10s a week, he could earn £8 a week.

He said that to get a break from the work bench he would force the drill down hard until the bit burned then he could take a break while the tool fitter replaced it.
 
Came across this old advert for Hedges Snuff.

The family firm of Hedges Cash Chemist developed into a major chain of chemists shops. William Ross Hedges Snr. was a highly innovative entrepreneur and developed a range of his own products additional to the usual lines stocked. Hedges Menthol Snuff was a best seller and is still sold today.
At its peak Hedges Cash Chemists had 27 branches in the Birmingham area including “Hedges Building” on Kings Heath High Street. In 1927, the business was acquired by Henry Hodder & Co. of Bristol ending the family link.
hedges.jpg
Hedges building is still on the High Street, Kings Heath proudly labelled "Hedges Pharmacy". I took this photo in about 1970

.hedges 04.jpg
 
G G Jean said:
These bring back a few memories especially the hairdressers at Lewises. They used to have little animal shaped chairs for the children. Jean.

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I have my Nan's story book her grandma gave her on her 7th birthday in 1913. It has a Lewis's sticker inside the front cover, Very small and discrete.
 
We had a Flatley heater mum used to carry it round the house. My gran bought it for her in the 50s. It was grey dull about 3 ft by 2 very light. We put it in the spare room when nan moved in with us in the late 80s. I used to stay over at Christmas at my parents after she passed away in the 90s and I could see the fumes coming out of it!
I remember taking a private sale ad for a Flatley drier when working at the newspaper and told mum and she said I didn't think they were still going.
 
Acme Whistles said:
Wow this is a throwback. Great to see!
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Welcome to the Forum Acme Whistles

You will be interested to know that J Hudson Ltd are still in business in Birmingham making the Acme whistles. As a commemoration of the ending of WWI they are making a limited edition of the whistle as used in the trenches. They are calling this the Peace Whistle
 
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