Gloucester, 1835-1985: Economic development to 1914

GLOUCESTER 1835–1985

For Gloucester the Victorian period (fn. 1) was one of almost uninterrupted growth. In the mid 19th century the trade brought by the Gloucester and Berkeley canal was of primary importance to the economy, and the building of railways improved links with Gloucester's hinterland. The canal trade, which thrived on grain and timber imports and on coastal traffic, contributed to the expansion of the city's industry, and by the late 19th century, when its decline as a port began, Gloucester had become an important manufacturing centre. Timber yards, flour mills, engineering works, and manufactures ranging from railway wagons to matches were among its industries. The livestock market also increased in importance. The growth of a large working-class population had a decisive influence on the city's social and cultural life, which also reflected its status as a cathedral and county town. Municipal reform in 1835 vested the city corporation's powers in elected councillors and aldermen, but corruption became a feature of municipal as of parliamentary elections, resulting in Gloucester losing its representation in one parliament and one of its members in another. The reformed corporation's role in government was at first small, as most public services were outside its control and the administration of important almshouse and educational charities passed to a separate body of trustees. The corporation became more involved in government after 1849 when it acquired the powers of a local board of health, and in the early 1850s it provided the city with a sewerage and drainage system, the first of several major municipal schemes. In the late 19th and early 20th century the corporation assumed further functions in public health, education, and public assistance, and in 1889 the city, as a county of itself, was accorded county borough status. After the Second World War municipal control over many services disappeared and in 1974 the city was given the status of a district. Apart from the addition of aircraft production in the 1920s, Gloucester's industrial base was virtually unchanged until after 1945, when activity at the docks dwindled, distributive and service trades expanded, and the city became a major centre of employment for the region.

Gloucester's commercial and industrial expansion was accompanied by a rapid growth in population (see Table VII) and by suburban development. Older parts of the city lost population. In the mid and later 19th century new building took place mostly outside the municipal boundary in the outer Barton Street, Tredworth, and Bristol Road areas. There was also building at Kingsholm and Wotton, and between 1851 and 1871 the population of the hamlets immediately adjoining the city rose from c. 7,000 to 14,544. (fn. 2) To improve services in the suburbs the city boundary was extended in 1874 and 1900. The city continued to expand after the First World War, when the corporation began slum clearance in inner parts and building large housing estates on the outskirts, and after the Second World War the pace of growth quickened. In attempts to plan ahead the city boundary was extended several times, most considerably in 1935, 1951, and 1967. (fn. 3) The development of outlying settlements as suburbs began in the late 19th century. The population of Barnwood, Hempsted, Hucclecote, Longford, Matson, Tuffley, and Wotton St. Mary (Without) rose from 3,165 in 1881 to 6,382 in 1901, and in those parts not absorbed by the city in 1900, but excluding Tuffley, from 3,892 in 1901 to 7,049 in 1931. (fn. 4) After 1945 an even wider area outside the city was affected by residential development and between 1951 and 1961 the population of the parishes of Barnwood, Hempsted, Hucclecote, Longford, and Longlevens increased from 8,322 to 15,535. The boundary alterations of the mid 20th century included Barnwood, Hempsted, Matson, and most of Hucclecote in the city. Suburban development continued outside the boundary after 1967, and in 1971 it accounted for most of the population of 4,563 in the parishes of Hucclecote, Innsworth, Longford, and Twigworth. (fn. 5)

Economic Development 1835–1914

Gloucester remained an important market town and administrative centre after 1835, but as a social centre it had been eclipsed by Cheltenham. The Gloucester and Berkeley canal was the main stimulus to commercial activity in the city and encouraged the growth of industry, particularly engineering and manufacture which came to dominate the economy in the later 19th century when Gloucester's fortunes as a port were waning. Trading links with the port's hinterland, which included the industrial centres of Birmingham and the Black Country and the agricultural counties of Hereford and Worcester, were restricted before the advent of the railway by the insufficiency as waterways of the Severn and the canals to which it gave access at Worcester and Stourport (Worcs.). (fn. 6) Work to aid navigation on the river above Gloucester began only in 1842, two years after the city had obtained a railway link with the Midlands. (fn. 7)

Railway development consolidated Gloucester's position as a regional centre and as a junction of major routes from the Midlands to south-western England, and from London to South Wales. (fn. 8) The first railway to reach the city, the narrow-gauge line from Birmingham, opened in 1840 with a station east of the cattle market. (fn. 9) The Bristol — Gloucester line, made by extending the line of the Bristol and Gloucestershire company from Westerleigh, was completed in 1844. It used the broad gauge and from Standish ran over the tracks of the G.W.R. to a temporary platform north of the Birmingham company's terminus. The Bristol and Birmingham lines were worked together, and the inconvenience of the break between gauges at Gloucester (fn. 10) lasted until 1854 when the Midland Railway converted the Bristol line to the narrow gauge and built the Tuffley (or Barton) loop line. (fn. 11) The Cheltenham and Great Western Union company, formed under an Act of 1836 to provide a railway from Cheltenham and Gloucester to London by joining the broad-gauge G.W.R. at Swindon (Wilts.), lacked adequate funds. The track between Cheltenham and Gloucester was laid by the Birmingham and Gloucester company as part of its line, and in 1845 the G.W.R. finished the line from Swindon by way of Stroud and Standish to Gloucester. In 1847 the G.W.R. converted the line between Gloucester and Cheltenham as a mixed-gauge track and bypassed the city with a line near Barnwood linking the tracks from Standish and Cheltenham. A short line ran into the city from the T station on the bypassing line, which was abandoned in 1851 when the South Wales line opened. (fn. 12) That line used the broad gauge and was worked by the G.W.R., which in 1852 rebuilt its station. The line crossed the Severn's eastern channel by a swing bridge, designed by I. K. Brunel and replaced in 1958. The section between Gloucester and Grange Court in Westbury-on-Severn was constructed by the Gloucester and Dean Forest company, (fn. 13) which subscribed to the building of the Gloucester – Hereford line, making a junction at Grange Court. The latter, completed in 1855, was worked by the G.W.R. (fn. 14)

In 1851 there were 5,670 men and 2,877 women living in the city who were in employment and most employers had five or fewer workers. The presence of 485 bargemen and boatmen and 111 seamen indicates the overwhelming economic importance of the docks, which presumably accounted for many of the 146 messengers and porters. The railways, which had not made their full impact, employed 160 men and road transport 77, besides 63 grooms and stable workers and 22 coach builders. Apart from metal and engineering trades, in which at least 434 people worked, the city also depended heavily for employment on building, the provision of food and clothing, and domestic service. As many as 567 men worked in the building trades, including 197 carpenters and joiners, and another 185 people in timber industries. The distributive trades included 143 bakers and confectioners, 126 grocers, 84 drapers, and 81 butchers. In the clothing trades were 463 milliners and other hatmakers and 210 tailors, and shoemakers numbered 366 besides 135 women working with their husbands. More than 17 per cent of the employed population, including 44 per cent of women, was in domestic service and allied occupations such as inn servants and washerwomen. The professions accounted for 228 men and 89 women, mainly teachers (114) and lawyers (90). The courts, of which the assizes were in session when the figures were compiled, gave employment to another 53 men, and there were 117 officers of national and local government, including the customs service (37) and the police (19). (fn. 15)

Activity in the docks depended primarily on the traffic of the Gloucester and Berkeley canal and was controlled by the canal company. The greater cost of trading through Gloucester, which included pilotage charges levied by the port of Bristol, favoured other ports, (fn. 16) but the tonnage carried on the canal rose from 321,853 in 1832 to 654,714 in 1847. (fn. 17) In the late 1830s a schooner plied between Gloucester and Hamburg (fn. 18) and in 1841 eight foreign powers had consular representation in the city. (fn. 19) There was also considerable commerce with Welsh and Irish ports, and by 1845 regular steamer services to Chepstow and Swansea had been established. (fn. 20) Outside merchants and financiers, including several from Birmingham, figured prominently in Gloucester's trade and the development of its docks and railways. (fn. 21) One of the most active was Samuel Baker, a West Indies merchant from Bristol, who lived near Gloucester at Highnam Court until 1838 when he bought the Lypiatt Park estate in Stroud. (fn. 22) He was the first chairman of the Gloucester Chamber of Commerce, formed in 1839 to protect the port's interests. (fn. 23) The railways had an adverse effect on river traffic above the city but their impact on canal traffic was initially beneficial, though from the late 1840s they began to make inroads in the coasting trade. (fn. 24) The extension of the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire canal to Hereford in 1845 had little, if any, effect on Gloucester's commercial life. (fn. 25) The Birmingham and Gloucester railway company gained access to the docks in 1841 by bringing the Gloucester — Cheltenham tramway by a spur to its station. As a link between docks and railway the tramway proved unsuitable and in 1848 the Midland Railway completed a branch railway from the station to High Orchard and the docks. Where it ran next to the Sud brook the stream was straightened and culverted. From that time the tramway declined, a process hastened by the opening of the Forest of Dean railway, which gave Cheltenham direct access to coal supplies. The Midland Railway and the G.W.R. obtained powers to abandon the tramway in 1859 and sold the Gloucester depot and removed the lines in 1861. (fn. 26)

The staples of Gloucester's trade in the mid 19th century were timber and grain imports. The timber came mainly from the Baltic and Canada and the trade was dominated by local firms such as Price & Co., John Forster & Co., and Robert Heane & Co. in 1850, (fn. 27) when the Hull firm of Barkworth & Spaldin established a Gloucester branch. (fn. 28) Price & Co., the most important, later opened branches in Grimsby (Lincs.) and Barrow in Furness (Lancs.). (fn. 29) After William Price's death in 1838 the firm was headed by his son William Philip Price (d. 1891), who from his newly acquired Tibberton Court estate played an important part in the life of the city, from 1852 as one of its M.P.s. His extensive railway interests culminated in his appointment as chairman of the Midland Railway and in 1873 as a Railway Commissioner. (fn. 30) By the 1850s he was partnered in his timber business by Richard Potter, who lived at Standish House and became an industrial and railway magnate, holding the chairmanship of the G.W.R. between 1863 and 1865, (fn. 31) and by Charles Walker (d. 1877), who in 1873 purchased the Norton Court estate near Gloucester. (fn. 32)

The timber importers' yards, which from the later 1830s centred on High Orchard, (fn. 33) converted logs or deals for the building trades. (fn. 34) Gloucester's first steam-powered sawmill, built at High Orchard in 1838 by a company of merchants, was quickly abandoned (fn. 35) and manual sawing continued for many years. In 1836 the Anti-Dry-Rot Co. of London constructed kyanizing works at High Orchard. They closed in 1841 but several other firms took up timber preserving and creosote production. (fn. 36) In the late 1840s and early 1850s the timber trade and industry benefited from railway contracts, particularly those for lines from Oxford to Worcester, Wolverhampton, and Birmingham. From 1849 annual timber imports more than trebled to 106,377 tons in 1852 and then fell to 48,760 tons in 1856. New yards were opened in the Bristol Road area and the number of sawyers rose to more than 75 pairs in 1851. The chief employers were T. and W. Tredwell, Price & Co., and William Eassie. (fn. 37) Eassie, who established his works in Gloucester in 1849 and built some railway trucks, later specialized in prefabricated buildings, some of which were sent to Australia. (fn. 38) In 1854 and 1855, in association with Price & Co., he supplied huts and hospitals for the British and French armies in the Crimea. Those contracts were obtained by Richard Potter and employed as many as 1,000 men, working in shifts. (fn. 39)

In the late 1830s and 1840s the grain trade was still mainly Irish and coastal. Following the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 foreign imports, notably from the Ukraine, grew considerably and the docks were enlarged. In 1851 the city ranked third in the trade after London and Glasgow. The Irish and coastal commerce declined from the late 1840s but Irish imports remained significant until the late 1870s when Gloucester's grain trade was falling off generally. (fn. 40) Birmingham and Bristol merchants conducted much of the trade, notably the Birmingham firm of Joseph & Charles Sturge and the Bristol firm of Wait, James, & Co., but an important part was handled by local businesses, such as those started c. 1850 by John Robinson and Charles Lucy. (fn. 41) Robinson was joined by his cousin Thomas Robinson (d. 1897), who was head of the firm after John moved to Bristol and who became a prominent figure in Gloucester's commercial and public life. (fn. 42) William Charles Lucy (d. 1898), who continued his father's business from 1851, built Harescombe Grange on an estate he bought near the city in 1861. (fn. 43) Apart from timber and grain, imports covered a wide range of goods in the middle of the century, including metals, ores, Welsh slates and coal, wines, spirits, Irish porter, potatoes, animal feed, and fertilizers. (fn. 44)

The balance of trade, both foreign and coastal, heavily favoured imports. (fn. 45) The principal export was salt from Droitwich and Stoke Prior (both Worcs.), which was transhipped for markets at home and, to a lesser extent, abroad. (fn. 46) The trade survived despite Liverpool's considerable advantages for handling it, (fn. 47) and among merchants active in it was Gopsill Brown (d. 1867), who founded a sack-hiring business. (fn. 48) The lack of significant outward trade, which arose principally from Gloucester's failure to become a major outlet for Midlands industry, led many seagoing vessels to leave the port in ballast and take on return cargoes elsewhere. (fn. 49) There were several attempts to develop exports of Forest of Dean coal. The most ambitious, involving the construction of a branch railway from Over to a new wharf at Llanthony, was begun by the Gloucester and Dean Forest railway company in 1851 and completed by the G.W.R. in 1854 with a swing bridge over the Severn's eastern channel. (fn. 50) It failed, and coal-handling equipment at the wharf was dismantled in 1869. (fn. 51)

In the 1840s Gloucester, though not primarily a manufacturing town, had a great variety of small trades and a few larger industries, notably pinmaking and shipbuilding. Metal trades included those of brazier, cutler, gunsmith, tinplate worker, blacksmith, and whitesmith. (fn. 52) A small but growing number of foundries supplied castings for, among other things, sugar pans and mortars. The main works were William Montague's foundry in the Island and the Kingsholm foundry started in the early 1830s in Sweetbriar Street. (fn. 53) Agricultural and milling implements and machinery were produced in several places, including the Island foundry and works established at Westgate bridge by Thomas Webb in 1838. (fn. 54) J. G. Francillon had presumably opened his millstone works by 1850 when he was importing French burrs. (fn. 55) In the early 1840s the firm of Cox & Buchanan continued its edgetool manufacture, and nails and wire were made at a few sites, (fn. 56) including Whitegoose Mill outside the city boundary. (fn. 57) The metal trades and engineering benefited from expansion of the Forest of Dean coal industry and railway contracts in the early 1850s, and foundry facilities were increased. (fn. 58) Ironworks at High Orchard and in Quay Street, built for William & James Savory and for William Harris respectively, both dated from 1851. (fn. 59)

In its former staple industry of pinmaking, in which much female labour was employed, Gloucester faced strong competition from other places by the 1830s, and the removal of patent restrictions led to collapse. (fn. 60) Of the surviving firms one ceased production before 1841 (fn. 61) and the other two in the 1850s. (fn. 62) That of Kirby, Beard, & Co., which employed 132 people in 1851, moved to Birmingham. (fn. 63) Another old industry disappeared c. 1849 with the closure by Thomas Mears & Co. of its Gloucester bell foundry. (fn. 64) Shipbuilding was represented in 1841 by William Hunt, who was launching schooners of 175 tons at the canal basin, and by three makers of smaller vessels, including Edward Hipwood at Westgate bridge. (fn. 65) The industry, which in 1851 employed 55 men from the city, (fn. 66) grew in the mid 19th century and new yards were opened on the canal. (fn. 67) Among craftsmen associated with the industry were a mast and block maker in 1842 (fn. 68) and an anchor smith in 1851. (fn. 69) There were also firms making rope, sacking, and sailcloth, rope being produced at three sites in the early 1840s. (fn. 70) Gloucester also had three coachbuilding concerns in 1841 (fn. 71) and new carriage and wheel works were opened in 1846. (fn. 72)

Leather trades were represented by curriers, fellmongers, a glover, saddlers, and numerous boot and shoemakers, of whom one had 24 employees in 1851. (fn. 73) Of the city's two tanneries one was producing sheepskin mats in 1841 and parchment in 1851. (fn. 74) Several businesses made brushes and three factories soap in 1841. (fn. 75) The decline of the malting trade saw the number of listed maltsters fall from 14 in 1842 to 6 in 1859. (fn. 76) The only brewery of any size, that of Charles Tolley and Edward Trimmer, moved to premises between Westgate and Quay Streets in 1837 and controlled 12 public houses in 1848. (fn. 77) The city also had a vinegar factory at that time. (fn. 78) A steam flour mill, opened near Westgate bridge in 1833, was worked in 1840 by Thomas McLean, a baker. (fn. 79) The growing volume of corn imports from the late 1840s stimulated Gloucester's development as a centre for the flour industry in 1850 with the building by Joseph and Jonah Hadley of City Mills in the docks. (fn. 80)

As Gloucester grew the building trades prospered and in 1851 builders were among the largest employers. The firm of William Wingate & Sons, the most important with 64 workers, (fn. 81) was connected with many city improvements of the mid and later 19th century. (fn. 82) Brickmaking in the meadows near the city expanded considerably after 1840 and works were extended, and new ones established, by the Severn on Alney Island, in Walham and Sandhurst, and at Llanthony and Lower Rea. (fn. 83) Local gravel beds were also worked, with important pits being opened, probably before 1875, between Barnwood and Hucclecote. (fn. 84) Associated with the docks and the building trades was the enamelled slate industry, which was introduced to Gloucester c. 1845 to dress imported slate to look like marble, granite, or wood. (fn. 85)

Gloucester's growing population and commerce increased the demand for shops and services, and professions and businesses catering for the wealthier classes flourished. In retailing, drapery stores were established by Robert Blinkhorn in Eastgate Street in 1843 and by Thomas Denton and a partner in Northgate Street in the early 1850s. (fn. 86) Cabinet makers and upholsterers, jewellers, clock and watch makers, and wine and spirit merchants were recorded in the mid 19th century, (fn. 87) and there were separate businesses making organs and pianos. (fn. 88) The printing industry was represented in the early 1840s by at least eight printers, including the owner of the Gloucester Journal, (fn. 89) and 54 printing and bookbinding workers lived in the city in 1851. (fn. 90) In 1842 the legal and medical professions were followed by 41 and 20 men respectively, the former figure reflecting Gloucester's role in civil and ecclesiastical administration. (fn. 91) Auctioneers and estate agents practising in the city were joined in 1849 by Henry Bruton from Newent. (fn. 92) The main banks in 1835 were those of the Bank of England, the National Provincial Bank, and the Gloucestershire Banking Co. The Gloucester City and County Bank, which commenced trading that year, was taken over in 1836 by the new County of Gloucester Bank of Cheltenham. James Wood, the city's last private banker, died in 1836, and the Bank of England closed its branch and transferred its business to Bristol in 1849. (fn. 93)

There are numerous indications of economic hardship in Gloucester in the 1850s when many businesses, notably the vinegar factory and the edgetool firm of Cox & Buchanan, closed. (fn. 94) On the canal traffic plummeted from 634,520 tons in 1852, when railway contracts sustained much economic activity, to 418,470 tons in 1857. The Crimean war, which severely reduced both grain and timber imports, compounded the depression. (fn. 95) Unemployment, mitigated until 1855 by activity at William Eassie's works, led to a prevalence of pauperism and attendant social problems which persisted in some districts in 1859. (fn. 96) Nevertheless the late 1850s saw an improvement in Gloucester's economic fortunes with a revival in trade and industrial expansion.

Despite the recovery Gloucester's advantages as an inland port were jeopardized by the inability of larger seagoing vessels to use the canal and docks, by the increasing use of railway links between the Midlands and other ports, and by the lack of a strong export trade. The last factor led in turn to a shortage of railway wagons at Gloucester and to the diversion by 1865 of barley for the malting industry at Burton-upon-Trent (Staffs.) to Newport (Mon.). (fn. 97) Larger vessels transferred all or part of their cargoes bound for Gloucester to lighters at the Sharpness end of the canal by the early 1850s, (fn. 98) when a regular steam packet service on the canal was begun. (fn. 99) Although steam towage, introduced on the canal in 1860, reduced the cost of importing through Gloucester, (fn. 100) traffic carried on the canal had risen by 1872 to only 624, 454 tons. New and larger docks opened at Sharpness in 1874 failed to halt the port's comparative decline, and deep water docks built at Avonmouth and Portishead (Som.) in the port of Bristol in the late 1870s attracted much of its business, particularly the grain trade. The loss of that trade was temporarily checked by an agreement of 1882 ending intense competition between the ports. (fn. 101) Gloucester's timber trade continued to prosper, 160, 257 tons being imported in 1877, and William Nicks (d. 1885) became one of its more prominent local representatives. (fn. 102) During that period a trade in petroleum imports from America was established, (fn. 103) but a steamship company formed in 1874 to link Gloucester with Ireland was short lived. (fn. 104) The port's decline, which extended to the coasting trade, and the economic recession of the early 1880s led some merchants, including the firm of J. & C. Sturge, to leave the city. (fn. 105)

Gloucester's river trade was assisted by the regular employment of steam tugs on the Severn from the mid 1850s. (fn. 106) Dredging of the river above the entrance locks of the Gloucester and Berkeley and the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire canals, begun in 1842, proved inadequate as larger seagoing vessels replaced Severn trows, and to maintain the depth of water between the city and Tewkesbury new channels with locks and weirs were cut at Llanthony and Maisemore between 1869 and 1871. (fn. 107) Those works contributed, by changing the Severn's flow, to the virtual abandonment of the city quay and increased river traffic in the docks, where the Severn & Canal Carrying Co., formed in 1873 by a merger of Worcester and Stourport firms, transhipped goods. (fn. 108)

The railways and particularly their extension west of the Severn ended Gloucester's days as a coaching centre. (fn. 109) The Brecon mailcoach made its last run in 1854. (fn. 110) Although their advent reduced the work of the city's remaining woolstaplers, (fn. 111) the railways contributed to a growth in market trade. New markets for cheese, wool, and hides were established in the 1850s, and a new produce market and a corn exchange were built in 1856. (fn. 112) The business of the livestock market, through which 33,800 sheep, 21,276 cattle, 11,222 pigs, and 2,030 horses passed in 1861, (fn. 113) continued to grow after its improvement in 1863. (fn. 114) The mops or hiring fairs held after Barton Fair (28 September) attracted many farm hands and domestic servants and survived attempts to replace them by a registration society, formed in 1838 mainly by the efforts of John Curtis-Hayward of Quedgeley and revived in 1859. (fn. 115) The mops, which were attended by employers and servants from all over the county in the early 1870s, (fn. 116) later succumbed to the use of newspaper advertisements. (fn. 117) Gloucester's growing population provided a market for the agricultural produce of the surrounding countryside and there were extensive market and nursery gardens in the suburbs. (fn. 118) Notable were the nurseries of J. C. Wheeler, whose firm in 1859 received an order for fruit trees for Osborne House (I.W.) and Windsor. (fn. 119) Local carrying businesses, which flourished in the mid 19th century, maintained links between Gloucester and its traditional economic region, the towns and villages of north Gloucestershire and adjoining counties. (fn. 120)

Gloucester's industrial development, which from the mid 19th century centred principally on the docks and canal, became the most significant factor in economic activity after the slump of the mid 1880s. Industrialization created several major employers, the largest being the Gloucester Wagon Co., founded in 1860 by local businessmen to make, repair, and hire railway trucks. With Richard Potter as chairman the company built a factory in Bristol Road and by the end of 1860 employed 360 workers. (fn. 121) Owing much of its success to the first manager, Isaac Slater, it penetrated non-colonial overseas markets from 1867, when it obtained a Russian contract, (fn. 122) and it constructed large repair works near the former T station south-east of the city in 1869. (fn. 123) In 1874 the company had a workforce of c. 800. (fn. 124) The Bristol Road works stood next to William Eassie's joinery workshops, (fn. 125) and that business, continued after Eassie's death in 1861 by his sons, received an injection of capital from the wagon company's directors in 1866. (fn. 126) Production at Eassie & Co. was increasingly dominated by orders for the wagon company, which in 1875 bought the business, thereby doubling the size of its Bristol Road works. (fn. 127)

Foundry work and engineering grew and diversified. Samuel Fielding and James Platt, who in the later 1860s acquired the Atlas Ironworks, built at High Orchard in 1860, established the principal heavy engineering concern, specializing in hydraulic machine tools and gas engines. (fn. 128) The older High Orchard ironworks, one of several producing flour-milling machinery, (fn. 129) was acquired in 1881 by the heavy engineering firm of T. & W. Summers of Southampton. It constructed a machine shop in Bristol Road c. 1890. (fn. 130) William Gardner, who in 1861 took over J. G. Francillon's millstone factory, established a firm of milling engineers. He built a factory in Southgate Street in 1878 and moved to new and larger works in Bristol Road in 1894 when he took his sons into partnership. (fn. 131) In Quay Street J. J. Seekings from 1870 and William Sisson from 1889 developed a marine engineering business, which moved in 1905 to new works near Elmbridge Road, where it produced a wide range of high speed machinery. (fn. 132) Works catering for agriculture included those of the implement makers S., A., and H. Kell of Ross-on-Wye (Herefs.), who took over a foundry in Barton Street in 1856, (fn. 133) and H. S. Crump of Tewkesbury, who began a business in London Road after 1874. (fn. 134) Among older foundries that of William Montague was continued by Charles Montague and was closed in 1865. (fn. 135) An attempt to establish edgetool works in Kingsholm in the late 1850s was short lived. (fn. 136)

Gloucester's flour industry expanded in the 1860s. The number of mills rose from two in 1860, when City Mills was taken over by Joseph Reynolds and Henry Allen, to eight by the early 1870s. Albert Mills dated from a conversion in 1869 of a warehouse in the docks by James Reynolds, whose partners later included James Bruton. From the 1870s the industry was threatened by imported flour and by failure to introduce new technology. At least one mill closed before 1914 and at others animal feed was increasingly the main product. Only Albert and City Mills, which adopted the roller-milling process in the early 1880s, prospered as flour mills. City Mills was worked from 1886 by the firm of Priday, Metford, & Co. (fn. 137) Gloucester's role in supplying agricultural needs increased in the late 19th century. Fertilizer works were built near Hempsted bridge c. 1855, (fn. 138) but more important was the move by Foster Bros. of its seed-crushing business from Evesham (Worcs.) to a new mill at Baker's Quay in 1863. (fn. 139) The mill, which processed linseed from Argentina, India, and Russia, and cotton seed from Egypt, produced oil for markets at home and abroad and cake for sale in the Midlands as animal feed or fertilizer. Foster Bros. became a major employer with a workforce of 129 in 1897 and amalgamated with other firms in 1899 to form British Oil & Cake Mills Ltd. (fn. 140)

The shipbuilding industry thrived after 1859 when the Sunderland firm of Pickersgill & Miller took over a yard. (fn. 141) A barque of 500 tons launched in 1860 was said to be the largest vessel built at Gloucester but was soon surpassed by several ships. (fn. 142) A few iron vessels were constructed by engineering firms, including Fielding & Platt which completed Gloucester's first seagoing steamer in 1868, (fn. 143) but with the replacement of wooden sailing ships the industry declined rapidly. After the late 1870s, when F. C. Hipwood launched two seagoing vessels into the river above Westgate bridge, it was devoted mostly to building and repairing river and canal craft. (fn. 144) The number of yards fell to three or four with a workforce of over 50 in 1911. (fn. 145) The decline was felt in ancillary trades such as ropemaking which had ceased by that time. (fn. 146)

The fortunes of Gloucester's other industries and trades varied in the late 19th century. Brushmaking survived and soapmaking, which had stopped in the early 1860s, was revived. Industrialization in the food and clothing trades produced several major employers. In 1870 John Stephens started a vinegar and pickle factory at the tannery at the north end of Hare Lane, which had closed a few years earlier. The factory extended production to jam and in 1897 employed 400 people. (fn. 147) A small mineral water and soft drinks factory was built in Commercial Road in the mid 1870s, incorporating part of the Blackfriars. (fn. 148) Several breweries were started (fn. 149) but most were closed after acquisition by larger concerns outside the city, principally by the Cheltenham brewery. (fn. 150) A successful malting business belonged to G. and W. E. Downing of Smethwick (Staffs.), whose maltings, built at High Orchard in 1876, were considerable enlarged by the early 20th century. (fn. 151) A shirt factory and a cuff and collar factory, built in 1887 and c. 1900 respectively, were among the largest employers. (fn. 152)

In the cabinet-making trade the most successful firm was started by J. A. Matthews in 1863. It produced a range of furniture, much of it from 1894 at a large new factory at High Orchard, and employed 200 people in 1897. A smaller company was created by Edwin Lea, who added extensive workshops to his retailing business in Northgate Street. (fn. 153) The enamelled slate industry prospered and in 1897 employed c. 200 people. One of its leading exponents by the mid 1860s was Jesse Sessions (d. 1894), who had begun as a builders' merchant in 1838. His successors built a factory at Baker's Quay in 1897 for the manufacture of chimney pieces and bathroom furniture. (fn. 154) Most of Gloucester's enamelled slate production ceased before 1918. (fn. 155) In the early 1890s G. T. Whitfield opened brickworks on the west side of Robins Wood Hill. (fn. 156) Prominent among Gloucester builders was Albert Estcourt (d. 1909), who, at first in partnership with his brother Oliver (d. 1871), worked throughout the country with leading architects. (fn. 157) Also known outside the city at the turn of the century was the sculptor Henry Frith, who with his brother W. S. Frith of London provided carvings for the Birmingham law courts. (fn. 158) The printing and stationery industry also prospered and employed well over 300 people in 1901. (fn. 159) One of the largest employers was John Bellows, who started his business in 1858 and published a successful pocket French-English dictionary from 1872. (fn. 160) The firm of Wellington & Co., which began as paper merchants in the early 1850s and also manufactured paper bags and cardboard boxes, had a workforce of c. 160 in 1904. (fn. 161)

Matchmaking, an industry for which Gloucester became widely known, was introduced in 1867. (fn. 162) S. J. Moreland built a factory in Bristol Road the following year (fn. 163) and as his business expanded the factory was enlarged and a timber float was constructed on the canal at Two Mile Bend between Hempsted and Quedgeley. The firm's familiar England's Glory trademark, registered in 1891, copied a label produced in the 1870s at one of two match factories in the Island. In 1885 the industry employed over 1,000 outworkers, chiefly women and children, making match boxes. Moreland's factory, which had a workforce of 640 in 1907, was rebuilt on a larger scale in 1911; (fn. 164) the business was acquired by Bryant & May in 1913 but remained under the management of the Moreland family. (fn. 165) A successful chemicals business was started in 1869 by J. M. Collett, who in 1904 moved to a new factory near Bristol Road. (fn. 166) A lampblack factory in Millbrook Street, opened by 1870, was closed c. 1916. (fn. 167)

The general economic revival begun in the later 1880s was felt throughout Gloucester's economy. It supported a growth in banking (fn. 168) and in retail trade. Some stores were enlarged, (fn. 169) including the Bon Marché, a drapery business started by J. R. Pope in Northgate Street in 1889. (fn. 170) Chain stores opened branches in the city centre, including, by the First World War, Boots Cash Chemists and Home & Colonial Stores. The footwear business of George Oliver had premises there from the late 1870s. (fn. 171) The Gloucester Co-operative and Industrial Society, formed in 1860, opened retail outlets both in the centre and the suburbs, and by 1910 it had 18 shops, a bakery, and a depot in Gloucester. Between 1887 and 1900 it also had a dairy farm of 100 a. at Saintbridge. (fn. 172) The market trade flourished, with the cattle market being enlarged several times, and a wholesale fruit market was established in 1900. (fn. 173) The railway companies undertook works to accommodate increased traffic through Gloucester. In 1885 the G.W.R. opened a line to Ledbury (Herefs.) along the course of the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire canal, which had closed in 1881. (fn. 174) The company rebuilt its station following the opening of the Severn Tunnel in 1886. (fn. 175) To compete, the Midland Railway in 1896 replaced its terminus by a station which through trains could use without reversing. The new station (later Eastgate) was some way south-east of the old and was connected by a long footbridge to the G.W.R. station (later Central). (fn. 176) The G.W.R. relaid track on the line bypassing Gloucester near Barnwood in 1901. (fn. 177)

The port's trade benefited not only from the general economic recovery but also from a reduction in tolls and improvements in the river approach to Sharpness. By the end of the century vessels with cargoes of 1,200 tons were navigating the canal, but most of Gloucester's overseas trade was transhipped at Sharpness. Canal-borne traffic rose from 594, 772 tons in 1886 to 776, 497 tons in 1896 (fn. 178) and continued to grow after 1900. (fn. 179) With the port of Bristol continuing to take the bulk of the grain trade, the chief increase was in the timber trade. Timber imports, comprising a great variety of goods, rose from 107, 714 tons in 1886 to 192, 119 tons in 1896, when Gloucester was the ninth largest timber port in the country. (fn. 180) For the trade a dock and pond, with a branch line from the Midland railway, were constructed in Monk Meadow in the 1890s. (fn. 181) Most of the importers' yards were in the Bristol Road area (fn. 182) and the Price family business, re-formed in 1889 as Price, Walker, & Co. Ltd., moved to new premises there in 1894. The company, which took over several other businesses and in 1904 employed up to 700 people in its yard, dominated the trade. (fn. 183) A regular steamer service to Antwerp and Rotterdam, inaugurated in 1885, was later extended to Hamburg. Its main cargo comprised sugar imports. Gloucester retained a substantial trade with ports of the West Country, South Wales, and Ireland, and salt remained the chief export. (fn. 184) In 1887 Gloucester corporation rebuilt the city quay in an attempt to revive its trade with the port's hinterland, (fn. 185) but it opposed the deepening of the Severn between the city and Worcester, promoted by commercial interests in Cardiff and undertaken in the early 1890s. (fn. 186)

The late 19th and early 20th century saw further industrial expansion and diversification. (fn. 187) In 1888 the wagon company, which also made railway carriages, sold its T station works (known later as the Emlyn Works) and to overcome difficulties re-formed with reduced capital as the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd. (fn. 188) The new company enlarged the Bristol Road works (fn. 189) and with the purchase in 1893 of carriage and wheel works in the city began producing road vehicles, including during the Boer war ambulances. (fn. 190) The company reduced operations by closing its joinery and road-vehicle departments in 1900 and 1908 respectively, their work being continued by other companies. (fn. 191) In the early 20th century the local character of the wagon works was diluted by the inclusion of outsiders on the board; among them was Stanley Baldwin, with whose firm the company collaborated in the purchase of steelworks at Port Talbot (Glam.) in 1906. (fn. 192) In 1897 the wagon works, the largest firm in the city, employed 1,100 people. Nine other engineering firms employed 1,080 people; the most important were Fielding & Platt (500) and Summers & Scott (180). The latter, formerly T. & W. Summers, (fn. 193) passed into receivership c. 1907. (fn. 194) W. S. Barron & Son, an engineering firm noted for provender mill plant, started at Kingsholm in 1903. (fn. 195) New manufactures, which came to employ 100–150 people, included folding furniture at the Hatherley Works in Melbourne Street, opened in 1885, and from 1892 hairpins and toys and games. (fn. 196) In the early 20th century motor cars and cycles were built in Gloucester on a small scale, (fn. 197) among others by the Cotton Motor Co., which made cycles for trials to a design patented in 1914. (fn. 198)

Trade unionism appeared in Gloucester before 1835 (fn. 199) but made little progress before the 1850s when railwaymen, watermen, and shipwrights registered friendly societies. (fn. 200) In 1844 solicitors' clerks were among groups seeking a reduction in winter working hours similar to that introduced by some shopkeepers. (fn. 201) A branch of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers was formed before 1860. (fn. 202) In the 1860s and 1870s industrial relations were occasionally disrupted by strikes, notably by shipwrights, building workers, dock labourers, and railwaymen, the last forming a branch of the Amalgamated Railway Servants' Association in 1872. (fn. 203) The printing workers also became more organized, having their own branch of the Typographical Association from 1875. (fn. 204) In the late 19th century trade unionists were active in many industries, and on several occasions engineering employers resorted to lockouts. (fn. 205) Employment in the docks was sensitive to any disruption of trade by economic recession, war, and harsh weather, (fn. 206) and over 250 deal porters struck in 1881 over an attempt to reduce their wages. The formation of a branch of the Dock Labourers' Union in 1889 was followed by a strike of c. 1,300 men at Gloucester and Sharpness in sympathy with Bristol dockers and by friction over the employment of non-union labour. (fn. 207) In 1900 the grain and oil-seed importers formed an association to protect their interests and in 1902 employers in the port formed another to deal with labour matters. (fn. 208)

Gloucester's occupational structure in the early 20th century reflected the relative decline of the port, the growth in manufacturing industry and engineering, and the continuing importance of distributive trades. The railways employed more than 1,200 men in 1901 but among male workers engineering and building trades were even more dominant. The proportion of the population in domestic service had declined and the main areas of female employment included the clothing, toy, match, and jam and pickle industries. The number of people employed in the civil service and local government to administer the population of both city and county rose from 329 in 1901 to 502 in 1911. (fn. 209)