On the night of the 1871 census two of my great grandmothers were in Poole Town (another was dead and the fourth yet to be born). Mary Troke was in service as a cook. Julia Finley was staying in a lodging house for tramps etc with her mother Ann, sister Ellen and brother-in-law Henry. The Finleys were hawkers and Henry traded in brushes. I had thought that the Finleys were just passing through until I learnt that Poole once had a thriving brush making industry. Henry was in town for business. A couple of weeks earlier he and Ellen had married in Exeter. Exeter was the clubhouse prior to Poole on the 1829 Tramping Circuit of the Brush Makers Society (read more about the brush makers tramp on The Society for Brushmakers’ Decendants website). Intrigued I delved further into brush making in Poole. Here is a brief history.
In 1796 Peter Rose the brush maker established his business on the west side of the High Street [no. 158] close to where the Level Crossing is today. Peter was the only brush maker to appear on the Militia List that year. Three years later the Militia List recorded another brush maker in Poole – the 18 year-old Uriah Cusen [Busson].
At an unknown date Uriah formed a partnership with the former joiner George Gillingham. This may have been circa 1808 when George, brush maker, and his wife (Ann Notting); John Scriven, baker, and his wife (Olive Notting); William Notting, cordwainer, and his wife and William Lance, joiner, signed a covenant on a tenement with a bakehouse to the rear on the east side of the High Street beside a lane to Petwins Close. The partnership of Gillingham and Busson was dissolved in 1812, the year of George’s death. It is not known where Uriah worked for the next few years but he may have been occupying part of the premises leased by William Notting in Market Street in February 1812 because twelve years later Uriah signed a lease and release on a ‘house etc.’ in nearby Church Street/Levet’s Lane [86 Church Street].
In 1822 Peter Rose sold his business to Francis King. Francis died in 1829 and his brother John took over.
An 1842 directory lists 3 brush manufacturers in Poole: Uriah Busson in Church Street, Henry Bayley in Nile Row and Ambrose Tucker in the High Street.
Uriah Busson died at the beginning of 1846. One of the witnesses of his will was Henry Bayley. His business was sold to the Scotsman James Vernon who had moved it to the High Street, adjacent to The Antelope Hotel, by 1851. James’ brother Alexander was a draper and tea dealer living in Wimborne Road.
Ambrose Tucker died, aged 40, at the end of 1846, His business was also sold but the buyer is not known.
In 1851 James Vernon was employing 12 men in his manufactory. Henry Bayley had gone into partnership with his sons and was a brush maker and iron monger residing on the High Street.
Mary Ann Vernon, 16 year-old daughter of James, died after a painful and protracted illness on 9th October 1852. At the end of that month James failed to get elected as a councillor. After these events James Vernon sold the business and emigrated to Australia where he arrived in October 1853. Alexander Vernon also left Poole in the 1850s, moving to London to establish a business making Toys and Fancy Goods which by 1871 was employing 40 men and boys.
John Hayman from Devon took over the brush manufactory. John married Elizabeth Hodges Watts, daughter of Harry Watts the silversmith, in February 1853. The number of people employed by John over the years remained fairly constant (1861: 8 men and 1 boy. 1871: 10 men, 4 boys, 7 young women. 1881: 9 men, 5 boys, 4 girls.)
Henry Bayley was still making brushes in 1861 but seems to have ceased doing so by 1871 when his occupation was simply ironmonger. Henry died in 1887 and John Hayman on 25 May 1904. After his father’s death Henry Hodges Hayman sold the business to the draper Arthur Butler who moved the manufactory to the old Lewen’s Foundry site in Mount Street. Brush making continued there until a fire in 1955 closed the factory and ended brush making in the town.
The names of people making brushes in Poole found in the census returns of:
1841
Joseph Whitfield, journeyman brush maker
Henry Bayley, brush maker
William Tucker, brush maker
Thomas Browning, brush maker
Francis Western, brush maker
John Philips, brush maker
Thomas Messer, brush maker
Uriah Busson, brush maker
1851
John Bush, journeyman brush maker
Henry Bayley, brush maker
Thomas Bayley, brush maker
John Barnes, apprentice brush maker
Joseph Whitfield, brush maker (away in Bedminster)
James Vernon, brush maker
Ann Tucker, journeyman brush maker
George Hollaway, brush maker
Augustus Hollaway, brush maker
James Froud, journeyman brush maker
1861
Henry Bayley, brush maker
William Bromby, brush maker
John Bush, brush maker
Henry Dorey the elder, brush finisher
Henry Dorey the younger, brush maker
Henry B. Elford, brush maker
James Froud, brush maker
Henry Grant, brush maker
John Hayman, brush maker/employer
Augustus Hollaway, brush maker
John Hollaway, brush maker
George Kellaway, brush maker
Robert Saunders, brush finisher apprentice
George B. Warren, brush maker
Joseph Whitfield, brush maker
1871
Henry Dorey, warehouseman
John Dunford, brush finisher
Louisa Goff (USA), drawer
Robert Hancock, brush finisher
John Holloway, brush maker
Caroline McLintock, brush maker
Emily McLintock, brush maker
Merina Way, drawer
George G Wheeler, brush maker
Susan S Wheeler, brush maker
Joseph Whitfield, brush manufacturer
1881
Alice Case, drawer
John Danford, finisher
Louisa Davis, drawer
Albert Goff, brush maker apprentice
Louisa Goff, drawer
William Hardwick, wire worker and brush maker
Henry H. Hayman, brush manufacturer
Frederick Hayter, brush maker apprentice
Charles Hurst, brush maker
Thomas Penny, brush manufacturer
Joseph Whitfield, brush manufacturer
1891
William J. Barnes, brush maker
Edith Greenham, brush maker
Lizzie Joyce, brush maker
John Hayman, brush manufacturer
Arthur Maber, brush maker
Joseph Whitfield, retired brush manufacturer
1901
Alfred Brown, brush maker
Edward Evans, brush and cane worker
Henry Hodges Hayman, brush manufacturer
John Hayman, brush manufacturer
John Winsor Hayman, brush factory manager
Lizzie Joyce, brush maker
Stanley J. Kendell, brush manufacturer and employer
Arther J. Maher, brush maker employer
Charles Marsh, brush maker
Thomas Marsh, brush maker
Walter C. Sharp, brush maker
Alexandra W Tuck, brush maker
1911
Henry Hodges Hayman, retired brush manufacturer
Stanley John Kendall, brush manufactory manager
Arthur John Knight, retired brush and basket maker and wood turner
Harry Ernest Lake, brush maker
Maud Matthews, brush maker
Joseph Poore, brush maker
George Rigler, brush maker apprentice
George Stanway, retired brush manufacturer
Francis Hubert Vick, brush maker
John Wright, brush maker
Richard Bromley, brush maker
1921
Francis H. Vick, pan hand
George Stanway, retired brush manufacturer
Francis James Cull, brush maker
James Arthur Lily, brush maker apprentice
Albert Leon Redfern, brush maker
William Arthur Albert Burt, brush maker
Albert George Lucas, machinery mechanic
Florence Louisa Lucas, brush maker
Roberta Easten, brush maker
Matthew Kelly (Dublin), brush maker
Bertie Edward Lake, brush maker
May Lake, brush maker
Frederick C Marsh, foreman brush maker
Stanley John Kendall, Manager
Harold Edward Ryder, brush maker apprentice
Cyril Albert Cave, brush maker
John Alfred Tilford, Brush Manufacturer (Newcastle)
Henry Iverson Bonard, brush making wood machinist
Lily J. M. Vallance, brush maker
Ivor Ingham Huntingdon, pan hand
Harry Huntingdon, pan and hairs hand
1939
Arthur W. Bascombe (blind), brush maker
Gladys L Ball, brush maker
Daisy Bishop, brush maker
Hazel W. M. Cockwell, assembler
Hilda A. Stannard, machine operator
Ernest G. French, foreman
Edward J. M. Fry, brush maker apprentice
Muriel M. Tilsed, machinist
Amelia A. Hurst, assistant manageress
Sidney Kelly, brush manufactory manager
William C. Lake, brush hand
Albert Lucas, Engineer
Audrey E. Fendley, brush maker
Evelyn H. Mills, maker and machinist
Harold E. Ryder, brush maker
Charles H. Stapleton, pan hand
Thomas W. Tannet, pan hand
Francis H. Vick, pan hand
Ida M. Yates, brush maker
Louise Burchett, brush maker
Albert J. Vincent, brush maker, bass man hand
Names appearing in the lists of Legal Journeyman Brush Makers and Apprentices of The Brush Makers Society.
James Vernon and John Hayman were both Master members of The Brush Makers Society.
The names of Journeymen in Poole in 1829:
Francis Western
Thomas Browning
Thomas Brice
James Froud
John Holloway
Thomas Moore
Francis Cooke
Charles Dowtin
The apprentices in Poole in 1829 were:
S. Hutton, 1823
S. Billows, 1823
E. Layton, 1823
C. Burrow, 1824
J. Follit, 1824
H. Twitty, 1825
T. Messer, 1825
The names of Journeymen in Poole in 1851:
John Holloway
James Fraud
John Bush (contact for the Poole branch of the society c/o Anchor, Market Street)
William Brimby
Augustus Holloway
George Holloway
The apprentices in Poole in 1851 were:
John Barnes, 1849
Henry Grant, 1851
Henry Smith, 1851
The names of Journeymen in Poole in 1865:
John Holloway
James Proud
John Bush (contact for the Poole branch of the society c/o Bell and Crown, High Street)
Augustus Holloway
George Killaway
Henry Elford
Henry Grant
Henry Dovey
The apprentices in Poole in 1865 were:
George Warren, 1858
George Wheeler, 1862
