Keith Turton's Private Owner wagon's in Warwickshire

Photograph Reference: Misc_kt344

The Combination of Shrimpton and Redditch inevitably leads to the towns most famous attribute; for more than a century it was the world headquarters of the needle-making trade. Together with fishhooks. Redditch supplied, at the end of the nineteenth century, 90% of the manufacture of both items world-wide. Alfred Shrimpton started making needles in a small factory in 1812, moving to the larger Britannia Works half a century later. By 1871 he was employing 26 men, fifteen women, seven boys and five girls. In that year, Edgar Shrimpton, fourth of his six children, was three years old. The family lived at 16 Bromsgrove Road, Redditch.

By 1902 Edgar had left the family trade andwas stated as coal agent. The purchase of a single wagon from the Gloucester company in 1902 confirms his status as a coal merchant, but does not explain why he should have left a family well known and respected throughout the Midlands, and by dressmakers and seamstresses worldwide The goods facilities at Redditch station were considerable, being enlarged by the LM.S.R from what the Midland Railway had provided. The goods yard had a capacity for 180 wagons, of which half could be expected to have been carrying coal. The Birmingham coal merchant Dixon's had an independent pair of sidings, as had the gasworks. Its proximity to Birmingham would indicate that most of the coal supplies were in the hands of Birmingham merchants.. Shrimpton's solitary wagon measured 14,6" x 6' 11 "x 3' I". five planks with side doors and inside diagonals and painted black with white letters.

Keith Turton

back