Podmore, William

Eastgate Street, Chester, Cheshire; upholsterer and cabinet maker (b.1779; fl. 1809–d.1832)

Made free on 9 December 1809. Claimed to have been employed by the upholsterer, John Powell for twenty years in his business in Eastgate Street, Chester and to have been for eight years his ‘foreman and prime superintendent’. When Powell ceased trading in 1815, Podmore established his own working as an upholsterer and subsequently bound three apprentices: John Simcock (1820); Samuel Dale (1827); and Edward Maddocks (1830). 

In 1818 he was trading from an address in Eastgate Street where he was working as an upholsterer; by 1822 the business was described as an upholsterer and cabinet warehouse. 

His wife Ann died on 21 January 1827 aged 44 leaving a large family, and on 12 April of that year his youngest daughter Elizabeth also died, aged 12. Nevertheless, his business was thriving. 

William Podmore had entered into a partnership with Edward Frodsham Powell and Thomas Powell and they were trading under the style Podmore & Powells. The 9th Duke and Duchess of St Albans visited and the Chester Courant reported on 2 October 1829, that they saw ‘a magnificent sideboard exquisitely carved and manufactured’ which was being produced to an order from Mr Leche of Carden. This item so impressed the Duke, who had married in 1827, that he placed an order for a similar item promising to forward the dimensions of the recess that it was intended to fit, and a drawing of the family arms to be carved in the centre. Only a month later the partners were advertising for a carver for the business. 

The partnership did not survive for long and on 26 June 1829 it was announced that it was dissolved. In September 1829 a sale of the stock was advertised. Powell set up another partnership with a man named Morris, trading as Podmore & Morris from the same address at Hotel Row, Eastgate Street. By 21 August 1829 they were advertising their services which included ‘Modern and Antique CARVING and GILDING to any pattern by the best workmen in each branch and men sent to any part of the country.’ A further partner, George Podmore, possibly William's son was taken into partnership in 1832, the firm then scalled Podmore, Morris & Podmore. They also announced their intention of adding auctioneering and appraising to their activities. 

On 23 June 1832 William Podmore died after a short illness, aged 53 [Freemen rolls; apprentice books; Chester Chronicle, 2 June 1815, 27 April 1827, 1 May 1829, 26 June 1829, 28 August 1829, 28 September 1829; Chester Courant, 23 January 1827, 2 October 1827, 26 June 1832; Liverpool Mercury, 9 November 1827].

Source: DEFM