Staffordshire cabinet makers in the Graham Gadd Archive
Cabinet makers in Leek, Staffordshire
The market town of Leek witnessed an industrial boom during the late-18th and early-19th centuries. Like many towns in rural Staffordshire along the banks of the River Churnet, North Staffordshire was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution; it prospered from coalfields and waterways enabling it a key site of industry. Best known for silk manufacture in Leek from the late-17th century, the town during the 19th century also witnessed a steady growth in the furniture trade. In 1850 five cabinet makers were recorded with ten firms operating there by 1896.
The majority of documents in the Graham Gadd collection relating to Leek cabinet makers date to the latter half of the 19th century. As historically common, furniture makers clustered together in neighbourhoods; billheads from the archive show from the early 1870s A. Overfield & Co. and Philip Hodgson were respectively located at 16 and 8 Russell Street and Daniel Allen and E. Newall were in Leek Market Place. In 1900 Arthur Shallcross was at 1 Talbot Hotel Yard across from W.H Clowes and Son, at number 2 Talbot Street.
The Graham Gadd Archive
The Archive contains approximately 1,100 furniture makers' billheads, letters and trade cards across Britain. Leek stands unique in that, despite its relatively small size, the collection includes over eighty bills and letters relating to eighteen cabinet makers. Of these, A. Overfield & Co. was prominent with thirty of the company's letters and billheads spanning nearly seven decades, revealing the types of furniture they produced and the expansion of the business over time.
A. Overfield & Co. of Leek
One of the earliest bill of 1886 concerns the repair of chairs for a Messrs. Challinor & Co.
Local directories indicate that by 1886 Overfield had been in Leek for at least thirty-five years because in 1851 The History, Gazetteer & Directory of Staffordshire listed Alfred Overfield as a cabinet maker in Queen Street.
By the middle of the 1850s Overton had moved to Russell Street. A fire destroyed the company premises in the mid-1860s, but by the end of the decade they had rebuilt. By 1890 the Overton premises had apparently expanded in size and prominence, with billheads entitled 'The Leek Cabinet Works, 12, 14 and 16 Russell Street’, shortly followed by the company diversifying their range of services to offer removals. A 1902 billhead noted that furniture would be “Carefully Removed by Road or Rail.”
Designed by the Staffordshire architect Larner Sugden, the exterior of the A. Overfield & Co. (now named Overfield House) remains largely unchanged. The building - now used as a nightclub - was then described as ‘One of the most complete furnishing establishments in North Staffs'. The letterhead below (dated 25 February 1909), gives a bird's-eye view of the premises.
The aerial perspective displays the shop front, outbuildings, and a yard to the rear. Rising between the terraced houses of Russell Street, the facade of Overfield is divided into two main buildings, the smaller - comprising three storeys and three bays - extends to the yard behind. Next to it sits a four-storey building, with large ground-floor shop windows and bay windows above. The name Overfield & Co. is painted on the side of the building and above the entrance, as well as being displayed on a large sign across the highest point of the roof. To the rear, the yard not only extends behind the shop front, but appears to encompass a significant area of that side of Russell Street, stretching back towards St. Edwards Street. Large outbuildings line the yard, labelled Timber Drying Sheds, Stables and Van and Wagon Sheds. Between these sheds a hive of activity occurs; men carry timber, horses-pull carts and several large chimneys rise from the drying sheds, billowing dark smoke. The impression is that of a successful and organised business involved in every aspect of the furniture trade, from drying timber to removals and deliveries. A. Overfield & Co. remained at Russell Street until the 1920s.
A. Overfield & Co. has been largely forgotten, but in its prime must have been a significant Leek landmark and a key part of the town's furniture industry. The documents in the Graham Gadd collection reveal how the company developed over time and the types of furniture they produced. An extensive invoice, dated March 1899, addressed to a Mrs Brookes of Cromwell Terrace, lists a wide array of furniture: bedsteads, a pembroke table, a bamboo table, four bentwood chairs, a breton lounge chair, a square kitchen table with hardwood legs, a walnut washstand, and a child’s chair with cane seat and back.
Furniture produced by Overfield of Leek is hard to come by but some labelled pieces have been identified in auction catalogues, such as an oak occasional table sold by a Staffordshire auction house in 2016. Perhaps the most notable piece of Overfield's manufacture is a mahogany settee sold at auction through Lyon and Turnbull in 2002. The settee, in the manner of George II, has a yolked top-rail above three urn shaped splats, with a drop in upholstered seat, on cabriole legs, joined by turned stretchers.
This blog aims to have demonstrated the significance of the Graham Gadd Archive as a resource for regional furniture makers. The extensive collection of bills and letters relating to Leek, provide a wealth of information that allows us to not only better understand individual cabinet makers, but the furniture trade in the region as a whole. This case study is but one example of the treasure trove of information contained in the Archive.
Sources: Ray Poole, Leek’s Golden Years (2009); A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 7, Leek and the Moorlands (1996); Post Office Directory of Birmingham, Staffordshire & Worcestershire (1850); Kelly’s Directory of Staffordshire (1896); History, Gazetteer & Directory of Staffordshire (1851) C. M. Haywood and C. A. Parrack, Sugden & Son (1988).