A website recording the history of the Wolverhampton coffee mill industry.
Research to date has uncovered 61 separate businesses and 388 men, women and children employed in the manufacture of coffee mills during the period 1750 - 1911.
At present I'm in the process of building the site. Scroll down to find a history of coffee mill making in Wolverhampton/ The Blog is up and running, and clicking on the tab 'More' will lead you to a list of the the individual businesses. More details will be added to this shortly.
Other pages to be added will include:
A-Z OF INDIVIDUAL MILL MAKERS
In the meantime, you can contact me for further detail via the contact form (again click on the tab 'More')
A Forgotten Industry
Until well into the twentieth century, Wolverhampton was noted for the manufacture of coffee, malt and spice mills, and yet this is an industry of which few people are now aware.
In the period 1790 – 1911 there were at least 70 separate businesses manufacturing the mills and some 400 men, women and children involved in the manufacturing process.
The Early Years: 1760 - 1809
The earliest record of coffee mill making in Wolverhampton
is in the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Walsall Directory of 1767, which lists
Richard Fryer and William New, both of Wolverhampton, as mill makers.
By 1799 there were nine manufacturers in the town.
The five major mill manufacturers were all founded during this period:
T & C Clark & Co (1795 – 1960s)
William Corns & Sons (1790 – present day)
George Fieldhouse (1790 – 1874)
The Pearson family (1790 – 1869)
B M Purshouse (1800 – 1897)
The Rise Of The Industry 1810-1839
In 1815, Archibald Kenrick of West Bromwich patented an
improved mill mechanism, which led to the expansion of the industry as a whole.
It is clear from Kenrick’s records that the industry employed an outworker system, employing many men, women and children on a casual basis and paying them on the piecework system.
The effect of Kenrick’s patent was rapid. In 1818, Pearson & Bradshaw’s Directory described the manufacture of coffee mills as being one of the industries for which Wolverhampton was noted. In 1819 there were 14 manufacturers and 40 workers in Wolverhampton.
At the end of the period there were 15 mill manufacturers and 40 men, women and children employed in the industry. There were, however, indications that the local industry was adversely affected by competition from foreign markets. However, in 1839, Thomas & Charles Clark patented two processes which were to have a major effect on the industry: an improved enamelling process free from toxic oxides, and an improved annealing process, which Kenrick regarded as making the mills virtually indestructible.
The Peak of the Industry 1840 - 1879
Records reveal that by 1849 there were 17 local
manufacturers together with 108 employees, many of whom lived in the Blakenhall
area. By 1879 these numbers had reduced
slightly to 11manufacturers and 105 employees.
Two Wolverhampton manufacturers exhibited their mills at the Great Exhibition of 1851; George Fieldhouse & Co and Williams Corns & Sons were two of the six English coffee mill manufacturers at the 1862 London International Exhibition .
In the 1870s, advertisements for Wolverhampton-made mills appeared in the New Zealand newspaper “The Southern Cross” and Street’s “Indian and Colonial Export Directory”. Mills are also known to have been exported to Australia and the United States of America, despite the latter having its own thriving mill manufacturing industry.
Decline of the Industry 1880 -1911
From the 1880s, the industry began to decline, although
fine mills were still produced. By 1889 there were five manufacturers and 74
employees: in1911 there were only four manufacturers and 20 employees. Some manufacturers, such as B M Purshouse,
ceased trading entirely: the two manufacturers which survived diversified. T & C Clark had never specialised
entirely in coffee mills, and concentrated in the early twentieth century on
manufacturing enamelled hollow-ware, eventually specializing in equipment for
chemical laboratories: William Corns & Sons continued to make grinding
mills, together with ornamental and builders’ ironwork, and survive today as
steel stockholders.
General Causes of the Decline
The whole of the hardware industry was hard-hit by the
“Great Depression” of 1873 – 1896. In
addition, the Factory Acts 1878 – 1901 had raised the minimum working age and
restricted the maximum number of working hours for women and children. These,
coupled with the 1870 Education Act which provided for compulsory education for
5 – 13 year olds, reduced the number of casual workers on which the
manufacturing system depended.
Specific Causes of the Decline
Certain specific causes may also have led to the decline. Firstly, in the late Victorian period, the rise of shops such as W T Snape meant that many domestic households purchased their coffee already ground. Secondly, coffee became available in more convenient forms: “Camp Coffee” essence began production in 1876, Liptons began selling pre-packaged roasted coffee grounds in 1903 and instant coffee was first marketed in 1909. In addition, as Kenrick noted in 1837, the mills are virtually indestructible: many early mills are still in perfect working order today.
