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Kirby Beard and Co hook and eye manufacturer.

J

Jill

master brummie
On the 1851 census, I have a William Kirby, Lower Tower Street, hook and eye manufacturer, employing 100 women and girls. I have looked in Historial Directories but found nothing. I did, however, find a reference to Kirby, Beard & Company and wondered if there might possibly be a connection. Can anyone please tell me how I might research the history of this company? I've Googled it etc., but have had no luck so far. Any help would be really appreciated. Jill
 
Jill, I am wondering if this company was later bought out by Newey Bros., who had a large factory in Summer Lane, I can't remember whether it was on the corner with Brearley Street or Tower Street, but they made the same type of goods, including Kirby hairpins and hairgrips, might be worth looking into.
 
John - Thank you for looking this up for me - I see you found Kerby, the alternative spelling. I was a bit thick and looked only for Kirby.
Syliva - This information is interesting as I was wondering if there could possibly be a connection with the Kirby grip. The trouble is I'm not sure how to go about checking the history of this company but thanks a lot for the info. Jill
 
Sylvia, you mentione Newey Bros. I'm sure that my mom worked there at one time. She used to bring home 'Outwork' which was putting a piece of catgut down the middle of hypodermic needles. What a job!! it would take me half an hour to do one now. :coolsmiley:
 
Frantic, I know Newey's had a lot of outworkers at one time, one of my aunts used to do it, putting pins, hairgrips etc., onto cards.
 
My Mom used to do outwork, grips fasteners,and other small items it was known as carding in the pearl button trade you had small girls carding, putting pearl butttons on to cards, lot's of labour with small financial rewards.
 
Hello Jill,
Ive just read your thread about Kirby's the hook, eye and button manufactorer in Summer Lane. My family lived in Summer Lane in the 1861 census and were Button Burnishers and Linen Button makers. I wondered if they could have worked at Kirbys. Did you ever manage to find any information about Kirbys?
Gemma
 
I worked at Newey's, Tipton, in the packing department for several years. My mother had homework from there for many, many years, at one time it was delivered by horse and cart, later by a van then still later you had to go and collect it yourself. It was a family occupation and could include carding hairgrips, press studs (ooh they hurt!!) dressmakers pins etc. or you could do what we did most which was threading the tabs on to suspenders!! They paid the most so there was strong competition to get there early to get the 'spenders!! We also did safety pins, you had one large pin and you threaded a certain amount of smaller sizes on to it.

Everyone seems to think of Neweys as a manufacturer but they were more a distributers. I remember that Kirbys made their famous 'Kirbygrips' but they also made hair slides, combs and pony tail rings.
 
Kirby Grips Advert. Kirby company was taken over by Neweys and production continued in a factory in Hall Green.Len.
 
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Kirby Beard used to have premises in Bradford Street at least until 1961. Until my father died in 1952, he had a mate who worked there, and my father had worked for Perry Pens since 1919, like many of my family. So his mate never went short of pen nibs,lino cutters and that sort of thing and my mother never went short of Kirby grips! :)

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Kirby Beard used to have premises in Bradford Street at least until 1961. Until my father died in 1952, he had a mate who worked there, and my father had worked for Perry Pens since 1919, like many of my family. So his mate never went short of pen nibs,lino cutters and that sort of thing and my mother never went short of Kirby grips! :)

Maurice
Click to expand...

Ahh the good old days of benefits in kind, I bet the hair grips came in useful.
 
Hello All,

I'm the Assistant Community Manager for a brand new Build-To-Rent property - Hairpin House in Digbeth (230 Bradford Street) Birmingham opening in March 2023. We're aware the site was formally known for the creation of the Kirby grips and was taken over by the Newey Brothers around 1961.

However we're looking for any further information, images and contacts about the building so we can feature these stories and the history of the building throughout the premises.

Open to all information - happy to speak via email too!

megan.waddilove@ilivearound.co.uk
 
hi ...we do not recommend that our members leave their email addresses on open forum for security reasons ie hacking etc however you are at liberty to do so..you can remove your email address by hitting the edit button should you wish to do so...hopefully some of our members can help you with your enquiry
 
meganrosewaddilove said:
Hello All,

I'm the Assistant Community Manager for a brand new Build-To-Rent property - Hairpin House in Digbeth (230 Bradford Street) Birmingham opening in March 2023. We're aware the site was formally known for the creation of the Kirby grips and was taken over by the Newey Brothers around 1961.

However we're looking for any further information, images and contacts about the building so we can feature these stories and the history of the building throughout the premises.

Open to all information - happy to speak via email too!

megan.waddilove@ilivearound.co.uk
Click to expand...
This is a trade card held at the British Museum
 

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