The twists and turns of firm’s long presence (From Craven Herald)

The twists and turns of firm’s long presence

12:30pm Saturday 19th November 2011 in Craven History

W & JR Thompson (Woodturners) Ltd had traded successfully in Sutton-in-Craven for more than 140 years. But foreign competition and increased use of plastics forced it to close in 2004 and its base in Holme Lane is now a housing estate. But sisters Elizabeth Benjamin and Christine Cumming did not want another piece of Yorkshire’s manufacturing history to disappear from the landscape without some record being made. They have just published a book giving some of the history of the firm, which was set up by their great-great uncle, William Thompson, in 1862. The story is told through letters, documents and photographs that have been passed down through the family.

William Thompson was the village joiner and undertaker. He set up his woodturning Business in Sutton-in-Craven – in a hut, which had a windmill, at Rose Mount.

Business boomed as Thompson’s became a specialist supplier – first making ‘dobbys, lags and pegs’ for the textile industry and later expanding to manufacture millions of wooden products for a dazzling range of uses.

One of the key factors in its early prosperity was the invention, in Sutton-in-Craven, of the dobby – a device that controlled whole warp threads on a floor loom – for which William was asked to make a prototype in 1865.

Although loom-makers had taken over production of the dobby itself by 1867, William went on to specialise in lags and pegs, essential parts used with the dobby.

In a letter sent to potential customers, William wrote: “I claim to have had more practical experience as to the best classes of wood necessary for producing the most perfect lag and peg than any other maker in existence.”

Orders came flooding in, and by 1899, William’s nephew, Walter – Elizabeth and Christine’s grandfather – had joined the firm. Walter’s father, James, was already employed there.

The business began designing its own machines to create increasingly-specialised products which would eventually attract orders from all over the world.

Following William’s death, Walter and his brother, John Robert, were given the option to buy the business for £400. This they did and, in 1899, they renamed the firm W and JR Thompson.

By 1920, Walter and John Robert were ready to move from Rose Mount to a much bigger factory on a three-acre site in Holme Lane, which had good light and was surrounded by green fields, offering “every amenity for the work people”.

Unlike many employers of the time, the brothers were keen that their workers did not have to endure dark conditions.

The economic depression which followed this ambitious move crippled the textile trade and Thompson’s saw their orders fall dramatically. Fortunately Walter and John Robert had had the foresight to diversify and provided precision woodturning for a much wider range of customer.

The loyalty and skills of the 50-strong workforce were credited as a vital factor in the firm surviving and not having to go onto short-time working like so many others.

The next generation of Thompsons joined the firm, and in 1936 the firm became a limited company, with Walter as managing director and his sons and nephews as directors. By then, as the industry recovered, the firm was producing more than a million small “turnings and sawn parts”.

And it made half a million yo-yos to satisfy a new craze sweeping the country.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, many men from the firm were called up and their places were taken by women. “It was surprising how rapidly they managed to adapt themselves to jig work and the handling of even the smallest component,” the firm reported.

With the supply of timber virtually cut off, the company set up a saw mill to cut British timber to the right size. It also had to set up drying kilns as there was no time to wait for supplies to dry out properly.

In a short history published by the company in 1952, it was coy about its wartime role and referred only to vital components for the war effort being made exclusively at the factory. It is believed these included wooden dummy bullets for training exercises and wooden plugs for rubber dinghies issued to airmen to use if shot down over the sea.

Ninety per cent of its orders during the war years came from the Government but the enormous pressure to continue production under difficult conditions took its toll on John Robert, who died in June 1945.

After the war, the firm looked at new markets and Walter, in hospital after injuring his thumb, brooded over newspaper reports of the export gap. Britain was heavily in debt and he was determined that Thompson’s would do its bit in fulfilling as many foreign orders as possible.

In 1949, on the 50th anniversary of the renamed firm, Walter paid for a works trip to Blackpool for his 118 employees.

Walter was still in charge when he died just short of his 80th birthday in 1956. By then, the firm employed 130 people.

The eulogy read at his funeral said he was as much a part of Sutton as the Clough and had the same rugged qualities as the district in which he lived. “Kindly by nature, he was forthright in speech and determined in action.”

And it added: “He was a man of many parts, yet all of them added up to a truly Christian man. The lag shop, as it is called locally, he built up from a small concern to a prosperous woodturning business, providing employment for a considerable number of people.

“He was scrupulously honest and his success in business was due to his capacity for work. He worked hard himself and demanded that others should do the same.

“He was a public benefactor, playing his part in the life of the community and doing what he could to make it a better and happier place. As a philanthropist, he placed many in his debt, helping anybody and everybody who was in need.”

In 1962, the company celebrated the centenary of its original founding by William Thompson and employees received £1 for each year’s service.

By then, numbers had dwindled to 80 and by the end of the 20th century the firm was facing strong competition from overseas and the increasing use of plastic. In 2004, Thompson’s closed its doors for good after nearly a century and a half.

l The book, Chapel, Wood And War, also details the turmoil of Irvin Thompson – Walter’s son – who registered as a conscientious objector during the Second World War. His struggle will be detailed in a future History Pages feature. Copies of the book can be obtained from Caroline Brannigan on (01748) 821041, priced at £10. Proceeds will be donated to South Craven Baptist Church, which is celebrating its 300th anniversary.