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THE SUNBURY LEATHER COMPANY LTD, ALEXANDRA ROAD, ADDLESTONE: PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM, PHOTOCOPY OF LEATHER MANUFACTURING NOTEBOOK, LETTERS AND PHOTOGRAPHS RELATING TO FORMER EMPLOYEE, STANLEY C SUTHERLAND [c.1895]-1962; PHOTOCOPY OF LEATHER TRADE CATALOGUES, 1904-1935; AND PHOTOCOPY OF ARBITRATION CASE, 1919
Reference Number: 8015
Descriptive Information about the Record (click to expand) Provenance Album presented by Mr Dan Sutherland of Chicago, USA, in August 2006. The notebook was loaned for copying in November 2006 with a colour digital copy added in May 2010 and -/1/5 & 6 added in February 2010. -/1/3 was deposited by Trevor Lyons, mechanical engineer of Leeds in June 2007, as was -/1/4 which was supplied by Anthony Newman, Vice Chairman of the Bourne Society. -/2/1-13 were added in May 2010.
-Introduction Stanley Cursiter Sutherland, grandfather of the depositor, was born in Sunbury in 1890. He worked for the Sunbury Leather Company Ltd in the early years of the twentieth century and learned his trade as a tanner before emigrating to America in 1912, narrowly avoiding the voyage aboard Titanic in April that year after cashing in his second class berth ticket to travel later in the season. By June 1912, Stanley had settled in Grand Haven, Michigan and began working for the Eagle Ottawa Leather Company, initially as a tanner then as foreman and superintendent. He married Mabel Robinson in 1917 and had one son, Stanley C Jnr. Stanley Snr worked for the company for over 40 years and retired c.1955. He made several return trips to see his family who had then moved to Teddington and died in 1966.
Stanley's father, Daniel Manson Sutherland, had run the PIM Board Company Ltd in Sunbury (see -/2/13). The works had always been a source of family pride and was owned by the Sutherland family until c.1988.
Situated close to the River Bourne and fronting the Weybridge and Virginia Water branch line of the London and South Western Railway, the original buildings occupied by the Sunbury Leather Company Ltd had been erected by the Addlestone Linoleum Company in the late 1870s. However, the company was first registered in 1904 (see Company registration file held at TNA ref. BT31/10840/82234), by which time the factory had been turned over to the production of fancy leather goods. The first entry for The Sunbury Leather Company in Kelly's Directory of Surrey is 1905, listed as 'manufacturers of hides, Moroccos, roans, pigskins, skivers etc'; A E Miller was the managing director. In 1910, the company was reorganized by its then proprietor A W Galway, with George Clark as chairman.
In 1919, The Company brought a wages arbitration case against The London United Patent Leather Dressers' Society. challenging that the process of applying dope (a paint finish, sometimes coloured, which coated the hide resulting in an upholstery quality product) to hides could only be carried out by employees belonging to the Society and therefore at a higher rate of pay. The Arbitrator visited the Company's premises and studied the process, declaring that it was an unskilled job and therefore not comparable either to the skilled work of a 'japanner' or the morocco coating work carried out at Addlestone. The case revealed that in 1914 the Company were short of japanning work and experimented in the doping process using japanners. Their rate of pay was agreed and the case implies that in 1919, at a time of post-War depression, a lower rate of pay was imposed. The Arbitrator declared in favour of the Company (see -/1/4).
Three plans dated May 1919, survive among the Chertsey Urban District Council building applications and show a proposed extension to the 'Sunbury Leather Company (1910) Ltd' site. The plans, produced by C W Foale, architect and surveyor, of St Quintin Park, London, W10, comprise roof plan, floor plan, cross sections and elevations, depicting the new manufacturing and preparation areas, including power house (boiler house, gas plant and engine), machine shop, fitting shop, lime shed, soak pits, tanks, wet shop, drying room (with access to the River Bourne). It is not known whether the extension was built but the Ordnance Survey maps of the site (XI.11) show the three main buildings of the linoleum works in 1896, the main building extended and additional outbuildings to the east of the site added by 1914 (edition revised 1912), and further buildings added predominantly to the northern end of the site by 1934.
From 1931 to 1937, Canadian William Slade Edwards ran the factory and is listed in Kelly's as 'leather manufacturer, tanner and finisher'. There is no entry in Kelly's for 1938. In 1946, the premises were occupied by Taylor and Penton, furniture manufacturers (a branch of the John Lewis Group; see DM and JL Barker, An Addlestone Album, 1991).
The date of the album (-/1/1), is unknown. It is thought that Stanley Sutherland was in possession of the album at the time of emigrating in 1912, but equally may have been sent to him at a later date as a souvenir of the opening of new factory buildings. The album was produced by Campbell Gray of Cheapside London, who are listed in the Directory of London Photographers 1841-1908, from 1903 onwards. It is possible that the album was issued for the reorganisation of the company in 1910.
-The records Contemporary interior photographs of industrial premises are rare, making this album important for understanding the nature of the work carried out by The Sunbury Leather Company Ltd. The photographs are of good quality, if a little faded; workmen's attire can be clearly seen along with tools of the trade and even risqu?posters and postcards on the workshop walls are visible, along with a workman's watch (-/1/1, p.4). The manufacturing handbook contains Stanley Sutherland's technical notes and recipes relating to the tanning and dyeing processes he learned during his employment at The Sunbury Leather Company. His admiration for modern leather processing techniques developed in Germany is evident in his notes.
Dr Chris Hey, a third generation tanner, of Driffield, Yorkshire, and member of the Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists has studied the album and made the following observations:
The industry appears to be more that of a currier and dresser than tanning. The raw material involved would already be part processed leather and the early processing from raw hides would not have been done. The order of processing the hides would be sorting, washing, stripping, re-tanning, dyeing and fat-liquoring in the round wooden vessels called drums. Following this there would be many different processes depending on the product being made but there would be combinations of shaving, setting, drying and finishing.
Finishing would comprise applications of chemicals to give a surface uniform in gloss, feel, colour and so on. Some mechanical processes of ironing/plating/embossing would also have been done.
Machinery for the factory appears to be driven by overhead pulleys connected to machines by wide leather belts. The main pulley was driven from a central steam engine (see plate 11). Although machinery is being used, many processes at this date were also done by hand.
-Related records For plans of the Sunbury Leather Company proposed factory buildings, 1919, see 3452/Box 98. The National Archives holds the following files relating to the Company: a Company Registration file containing the formal details of the Sunbury Leather Company Ltd including directors, shareholders, financial structure and closing down arrangements and the setting up the Limited Company (TNA ref. BT31/10840/82234), and an Arbitration Awards case, a copy of which is held as -/4 (TNA Ref: LAB 2/433/WA4016/2/1919).
There are no details relating to the factory in the standard published Surrey industrial history works; however, a brief history of the factory appears in DM and JL Barker, An Addlestone Album (Barker), 1991, p.41. This includes two undated photographs, one of the factory buildings themselves and an aerial photograph showing the site within the locality. The latter shows an extensive area for drying skins situated to the rear of the premises.
-Related records For plans of the Sunbury Leather Company proposed factory buildings, 1919, see 3452/Box 98. The National Archives holds the following files relating to the Company: a Company Registration file containing the formal details of the Sunbury Leather Company Ltd including directors, shareholders, financial structure and closing down arrangements and the setting up the Limited Company (TNA ref. BT31/10840/82234), and an Arbitration Awards case, a copy of which is held as -/4 (TNA Ref: LAB 2/433/WA4016/2/1919).
There are no details relating to the factory in the standard published Surrey industrial history works; however, a brief history of the factory appears in DM and JL Barker, An Addlestone Album (Barker), 1991, p.41. This includes two undated photographs, one of the factory buildings themselves and an aerial photograph showing the site within the locality. The latter shows an extensive area for drying skins situated to the rear of the premises.
-Access Conditions There are no access restrictions.
-- Series information for this collection
series: 8015/1/ - SUNBURY LEATHER COMPANY Date: [1910]-1935 Photograph album entitled 'Sunbury Leather Co. Ltd, Addlestone'. Inc... Title Photograph album entitled 'Sunbury Leather Co. Ltd, Addlestone'. Includes large format sepia photographs of the exterior and interior of the factory premises, including the preparation of hides, cutting and trimming. Also shows machine plant in the factory engine house, workmen and work attire. 11 plates. The following descriptions of the plates have been supplied by Trevor Lyons: 1) Exterior of factory premises. 2) Skins storage area. Sorting of skins and looking for imperfections in hides. 3) Washing/dyeing and setting. Unloading the skins from tanning drums or tumblers into dipping trays; setting the leather. The workman on the right of the picture is working the skin with a 'setting sleaker' to stretch and increase the area of the skin (see -/3, p.15 item no.6). Using a blunt curved knife, the workman to the left of him is reducing the moisture content of the hide just removed from the drum. 4) Hand shaving. Workmen are shaving the hide to reduce the thickness, making it more flexible and supple. The workman on the left hand side is holding a shaving knife (see -/3 p.15, item nos.16 and 18), in his right hand and other examples can be seen propped up against the window, along with a steel for sharpening the blades. 5) Glassing or glazing. The workmen are glassing or glazing the hides to give a sheen to the grain side (the outer skin of the animal). The sheen is produced by the friction of a cylindrical piece of glass about 50mm in diameter x 150mm in length, acting against a spring loaded lower assembly which is adjusted by the foot of the workman. The whole hide is treated by gradual movement at the end of each stroke of the reciprocating carriage. [Trevor Lyons adds that the machine in this image does not appear in any of the standard engineering catalogues and is therefore probably not of British or American manufacture]. 6) Staining the flesh side or dressing and applying the finish. The workmen nearer the window are possibly staining the flesh side of the skin, there is a vessel for holding dye on the table in the foreground. The dyers appear to be working with sides (half full hides). After processing the sides are placed on racks to dry. The man in the left hand foreground appears to be inspecting whole hides. 7) Further hand shaving. This made the hides uniform in thickness. [Trevor Lyons adds that the skilled shaver had to work a 6-year apprenticeship before he was qualified. Highly skilled, it was one of the highest paid jobs in the currying shop. Some shavers became journeymen, self-employed under contract to different manufacturers. The hand shaver was threatened and eventually replaced by the introduction of the shaving machine, available in Britain from the late 1890s]. 8) Drying loft. Dressing, applying the finish, wax or grease, then hanging skins up to condition and/or dry. 9) Measuring the hide. The finished hide is measured by a planimeter, a device which calculated the area of by tracing the outer profile (see -/4 for a detailed explanation). The finished hide has a sheen produced by the glazing operation and the 2 boys at the rear of the room are carrying hides placed on a pole. [Trevor Lyons add that hand tracing of the outer edge of the skin was gradually replaced by through-feed machines which speeded up the operation]. 10) The finished leather warehouse. There is another planimeter on the table in this image. Possibly workmen are making up batches of specific area hide for customer orders as there is band or string on the large bobbins on the horizontal roof beam, ready to tie-up specific bundles. Finished upper leather was and still is, sold by area. 11) The steam engine plant. The horizontal steam engine provided the driving force for the whole plant. Drums, machines, pulleys, line shafting were all driven from this prime mover; overhead belts can be seen in plates 3 and 5. Reference 8015/1/1 Unit Date [c.1910] Start Date 19090101 End Date 19111231 Photocopy (2006) of leather manufacturing notebook compiled by Stanle... Title Photocopy (2006) of leather manufacturing notebook compiled by Stanley Sutherland, giving detailed technical descriptions and recipes for leather preparations at The Sunbury Leather Company Ltd. Includes recipes describing the use of blood and milk in the tanning process, dyeing and staining techniques (including American methods), boiling and liming instructions, and diagrams relating to the construction of bottoming, painting and straining frames. 150 pages, with colour digital copy (2010) Reference 8015/1/2 Unit Date [c.1910] Start Date 19090101 End Date 19111231 Digital print (2010) of reference for Stanley C Sutherland from Richa... Title Digital print (2010) of reference for Stanley C Sutherland from Richard Clegg, secretary of The Sunbury Leather Company Ltd, listing Stanley's skills as a hide splitter and shaving buff hides Reference 8015/1/5 Unit Date (18 Sep 1911) Start Date 19110918 End Date 19110918 Digital print (2010) of reference for Stanley C Sutherland from the L... Title Digital print (2010) of reference for Stanley C Sutherland from the Leathersellers' Company's Technical College, Bermondsey, London, following completion of technical training, commending Stanley's skills at dressing and finishing leather, splitting and shaving Reference 8015/1/6 Unit Date (3 Apr 1912) Start Date 19120403 End Date 19120403 Copy (2007) of 2 pages from trade catalogue for tanning and currier d... Title Copy (2007) of 2 pages from trade catalogue for tanning and currier drums and tools supplied by Thomas Haley and Co. Ltd, Engineers and Ironfounders, Bramley, Leeds, including the type of tanning drum or tumbler featured on -/1 page 3, and shaving knives (items 16 & 18) featured on -/1 page 4; also, page from Ernest Bordoli (ed), The Boot and Shoemaker, vol II, (Gresham Publishing Co. Ltd), 1935, pp.154-155, explaining the process of measuring hides using a planimeter as featured in -/1 page 9. 3 items Reference 8015/1/3 Unit Date (1904; 1935) Start Date 19040101 End Date 19351231 Copy (2007) of Arbitration Awards case (originating from the Ministry... Title Copy (2007) of Arbitration Awards case (originating from the Ministry of Labour, Wages and Arbitration Department), brought by the London and District Leather Producers' Association (representing the Sunbury Leather Company), against the London United Patent Leather Dressers' Society. (TNA Ref: LAB 2/433/WA4016/2/1919. Reference 8015/1/4 Unit Date (21 Aug 1919) Start Date 19190821 End Date 19190821
series: 8015/2/ - SUTHERLAND FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS AND DOCUMENTS Scope: Dan Sutherland has annotated some of the scanned photographs but further details of people, places and dates are not known. Some of the scanned images are duplicated. Date: c.1895-1962 Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing Stanley C Sutherland and hi... Title Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing Stanley C Sutherland and his brother, Douglas, at their home in Sunbury (?Ashgrove). Photograher: J J Willis Studios of Sunbury. 2 items Reference 8015/2/1 Unit Date [c.1895] Start Date 18940101 End Date 18961231 Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing ?school cricket team. Stan... Title Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing ?school cricket team. Stanley is seated front row on the right. 2 pages Reference 8015/2/2 Unit Date [c.1900] Start Date 18990101 End Date 19011231 Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing ?school football team. Sta... Title Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing ?school football team. Stanley is seated front row on the left. 2 pages Reference 8015/2/3 Unit Date [c.1902] Start Date 19010101 End Date 19031231 Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing the Sutherland family, incl... Title Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing the Sutherland family, including Stanley, outside the family home (?Ashgrove), Sunbury. Annotated to the effect that the chimneys of the PIM Board Company Ltd in the background. Reference 8015/2/4 Unit Date [c.1910] Start Date 19090101 End Date 19111231 Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing Stanley C Sutherland in tan... Title Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing Stanley C Sutherland in tanning apron standing next to pile of tanned hides. Captioned by depositor 'Stanley C Sutherland as a young tanner' and annotated to the effect that the windows indicate this is taken at the Sunbury Leather Company, Alexandra Road, Addlestone. Undated, pre-Jun 1912 Reference 8015/2/5 Unit Date [c.1912] Start Date 19110101 End Date 19131231 Portrait photographs (including two digital copies made 2010), of Sta... Title Portrait photographs (including two digital copies made 2010), of Stanley C Sutherland. Taken at the Walter Studio, Newark, New Jersey, USA. 3 items Reference 8015/2/6 Unit Date Jun 1912 Start Date 19120600 End Date 19120600 Digital copies (2010) of photographs (c.1912-?1950s), showing Stanley... Title Digital copies (2010) of photographs (c.1912-?1950s), showing Stanley C Sutherland following emigration to America, including playing tennis and social functions. Captioned by depositor. 3 items Reference 8015/2/7 Unit Date [c.1912-1950s] Start Date 19110101 End Date 19591231 Digital copies (2010) of photographs and one original photograph show... Title Digital copies (2010) of photographs and one original photograph showing Stanley C Sutherland following emigration to America, including Stanley and Mabel and depositor as a child with the Sutherland family. Captioned by depositor. 5 items Reference 8015/2/8 Unit Date (c.1914-1962) Start Date 19130101 End Date 19621231 Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing interior of the 'Eagle Otta... Title Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing interior of the 'Eagle Ottawa Tannery c.1915, Stanley Sutherland is in left foreground. Trademark on reinforced pillar places photo' Reference 8015/2/9 Unit Date (c.1915) Start Date 19140101 End Date 19161231 Digital copy (2010) of copy birth certificate for Stanley Cursiter Su... Title Digital copy (2010) of copy birth certificate for Stanley Cursiter Sutherland (b. 22 Jun 1890) and passport for the Sutherland family, with photograph of Stanley, Mabel and Stanley C Jnr. 2 items Reference 8015/2/10 Unit Date (1924-1954) Start Date 19240101 End Date 19541231 Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing Daniel Sutherland III, pres... Title Digital copy (2010) of photograph showing Daniel Sutherland III, president and founder of PIM Board Company Ltd and Sundeala Companies, Sunbury. Captioned by depositor. Reference 8015/2/11 Unit Date (c.1935) Start Date 19340101 End Date 19361231 Digital copies (2010) of photographs and two original photographs sho... Title Digital copies (2010) of photographs and two original photographs showing Stanley C Sutherland following emigration to America, including family shots with Stanley C Sutherland Jnr, the Eagle Ottowa Tannery offices, Stanley Snr at the family home in Teddington and his retirement in 1955. 9 items Reference 8015/2/12 Unit Date 1940-1955 Start Date 19400101 End Date 19551231 Digital copy (2010) of newspaper cutting form the Grand Haven Tribune... Title Digital copy (2010) of newspaper cutting form the Grand Haven Tribune (Michigan) featuring the retirement of Stanley C Sutherland, production manager of the Eagle Ottawa Leather Company. Gives details of his apprenticeship at Addlestone and operating the first shaving machine at the company. Reference 8015/2/13 Unit Date [c.1955] Start Date 19540101 End Date 19561231
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