|
|
|
|
1871 |
|
Rebecca Fowler, aged eight starts working part-time for sixpence a week in a glove factory in Great Torrington in Devon |
|
1873 |
|
William Pinkham, at the age of twelve starts an apprenticeship in a glove factory in the same town |
|
1884 |
|
William & Rebecca are married |
|
1886 |
|
Lilian Pinkham born |
|
1890 |
|
Leslie Pinkham born |
|
1899 |
|
William & Rebecca start making gloves in the kitchen of their house in Great Torrington |
|
1901 |
|
William & Rebecca move to Salisbury and continue making gloves in their home |
|
1901 |
|
William becomes Liberal Party agent for Maldon near Witham in Essex |
|
1904 |
|
William & Rebecca move to 11, Albert Road Witham & continue making gloves in their home |
|
1904 |
|
William & Rebecca form The National Glove Company (The N G C) employing ten girls |
|
1905 |
|
William & Rebecca expand the business & start a 'miniature manufactory' at 13 & 14 Albert Road Witham |
|
1905 |
|
Engecie (N G C) becomes the trade mark of The National Glove Company |
|
1908 |
|
William & Rebecca's daughter Lilian joins the business |
|
1911 |
|
William & Rebecca's son Leslie joins the business |
|
1912 |
|
New factory built in Witham |
|
1913 |
|
Leslie goes to Germany to look at their manuafacturing methods |
|
1916 |
|
Leslie forms The National Association of British Fabric Glove Makers |
|
1917 |
|
Factories opened in Great Torrington & Barnstaple to support the war effort |
|
1918 |
|
New factory opened in Chelmsford managed by Lilian |
|
1920 |
|
Lilian marries Wilson Dawson, leaves the company and moves to Glasgow |
|
1920 |
|
84 firms in England are employing 12,000 people making gloves |
|
1920 |
|
Exports to the US, Australia & New Zealand begin |
|
1921 |
|
Exports to Japan reach £8,000 a year |
|
1921 |
|
New factory built at Chelmsford |
|
1922 |
|
New factory at Matlock Bath opens |
|
1923 |
|
An office in Gresham Street London is opened |
|
1923 |
|
Leslie succeeded in in producing a high grade warp fabric with the appearance of suede |
|
1924 |
|
An average of 200,000 buttons a week are sewn onto gloves across the company |
|
1925 |
|
152 employees working for the company |
|
1927 |
|
8 firms remain in England employing less than 1,000 people making gloves |
|
1931 |
|
The company goes bankrupt, 500 job losses and the group of factories & machinery are broken up and sold |
|
1932 |
|
Lilian's husband Wilson Dawson lends William & Leslie enough money to buy back the Witham factory |
|
1932 |
|
The business becomes a limited company |
|
1933 |
|
The Witham factory re-opens and is soon producing gloves at full capacity again |
|
1933 |
|
New factory at Dagenham opens |
|
1938 |
|
William dies whilst at work at the Witham factory |
|
1939 |
|
Gloves for the UK and US forces including mosquito-proof gloves for the Africa corps |
|
1948 |
|
Second factory built at Witham and glove production starts at Southmoor Co. Durham |
|
1948 |
|
The company now has 600 employees producing 48,000 pairs of gloves a week |
|
1955 |
|
Two new collections of styles are now produced each year with designers in Paris, New York & Vienna |
|
1959 |
|
South Moor factory re-located to a new factory at Stanley Co. Durham |
|
1959 |
|
The company diversifies into making blouses |
|
1966 |
|
The company closes |
|