Hello All,
I stumbled across this forum whilst doing various google searches so thought I would post. My great grandfather was Antonio Maturi who founded Maturi's in 1898. It was later run by my grandfather Victor.....and is now run by my dad! The shop on the Coventry Road was closed about 5 years ago, but only becuase they relocated to Whitmore road (just around the corner) where it is still trading from...
https://www.mowerspares.co.uk/ShopBuild2009/photo109.html
The new shop is now built on the original site of the garages/workshops that used to house the grinding vans that somebody mentioned earlier in this post! The company no longer does the hardware side of things as it focuses solely on the lawnmowers & spare parts but it does still sharpen tools, scissors and knives, all in house and by hand.
Believe it or not, considering the company has been in existence for 114 years we have relatively few old photo's of the shops and no photo's of the grinding vans. If anyone has any they could post or send to me I'd be very grateful.
Quick history for those interested:
Founded in 1898 by Antonio Maturi after he and his brothers had emigrated from Italy, originally sharpening knives on the back of a bicycle powered grindstone.
His brothers founded similar companies, one in Northfield/Selly Oak (I think) and one in Leeds.
Opened a shop in the early 1900's at 259 Coventry Road (opposite the Blues ground, where the houses are now)
Opened a shop at 125 Ladypool road around the same time.
Moved to 393 Coventry Road around 1935, and a couple of years later bought the current plot behind 393 Cov Road on Whitmore Road
There was also a shop on the Birmingham Road Sutton Coldfield for a number of years.
The Ladypool Road shop closed in the 80's, the Birmingham Road shop closed in the late 90's, and we moved from the Coventry road around 2007
Thanks Everyone, great to learn about the history of the area where my family have been based for so long!