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Goodearl Brothers; Goodall & Sons (1875-2001)

Goodearl Brothers; Goodall & Sons

High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire; chair & furniture makers (fl.1875-2001)

William Goodearl was a Windsor chair maker born in 1811. He established a business in 1870 at Dovehouse Mead, High Wycombe, and by 1875 was listed in a local directory as a chair manufacturer at West End Road.

Four of Goodearl's sons, Henry (born 1838), Richard (born 1843), Benjamin (born 1849) and Arthur (born 1851) went into the furniture trade: Henry at Dovehouse Mead was a cane seat framer; Benjamin at 11 Oxford Road was a benchman; Arthur at 20 Mendy Street was a cane seat framer; and Richard’s whereabouts and trade are unknown. A few of William’s sons must have initially worked with their father because The Furniture Gazette reported the partnership Goodall & Sons was dissolved on 10 January 1885. 

By 1887 the brothers had joined forces to found Goodearl Brothers. Located on Mendy Street, during the following decade they became well-established High Wycombe chair manufacturers. Richard became head of the firm with two of his sons, Albert and Percy, also working in the family business. His eldest son, George, emigrated to Australia and manufactured bedding in Sydney after a short period of importing furniture from Wycombe.

In 1894 Richard Goodearl was Mayor of High Wycombe. In 1903 Albert Barnes joined Goodearl Brothers and worked there initially as a carver and then designer. By 1937 he was a manager and representative on the Board of Directors and finally the Chairman of the Company. The firm was incorporated in 1907 as Goodearl Brothers Ltd., then acquired the High Wycombe Timber Company which was later renamed the Bridge Street Saw Mills. In early 1915 a former mill at Navan in County Meath, Ireland, was bought and equipped as a sawmill and chair factory. This was managed by Percy Goodearl with Wilfred Dean and employed about seventy men and boys. In 1931 Goodearl Brothers merged with Risboro Furniture Ltd until closure in 2001.

Sources: Worden, ‘Industrial Craft and Tradition: Albert E Barnes and the High Wycombe Furniture Industry’, The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present (1993).