Johnson & Appleyards Ltd

[ThosWWardLtd]

From the 1860's through the 1940, the Company of Johnson & Appleyards, Barkers Pool/Leopold Street, Sheffield were involved with many prestigious projects for many of the biggest firms in Sheffield. Their involvement with Thos. W. Ward Ltd and the installation of most of the interior panelling for their offices taken from various dismantled battleships and passenger liners (and their involvement in the installation of panelling and fittings from the RMS Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic in Cutlers Hall) is what brought them to my attention. What intrigues me about this Company is that they were a huge company, based in the building which still survives on the corner of Leopold Street/Barkers Pool and their work is still regarded is some of the finest cabinet work to come out of Sheffield in the late 19th/early 20th Century, but hardly anything at all seems to have survived for the Company.

 

With the advent of the Second World War, it seems that the already struggling Johnson & Appleyards had finally just about met their end. With the Sheffield Blitz, Atkinsons of Sheffield, whose premises was destroyed during the bombing, required alternative premises and the premises of Johnson & Appleyards was seen as a most fitting solution, but to aquire the premises they also took over the Company. As part of this a few records were transferred, which were necessary as part of the transaction, but it seems that everything else was destroyed.

 

What I am now attempting to do is track down anyone whose ancestor may have worked for Johnson & Appleyards and try to build a better picture of the Company and its operations and try and discover what happened in those final days during the takeover and subsequent abolition of the once mighty cabinet making firm.

 

If anyone who reads this is an ancestor of an employee or knows anything of the take over and demise of Johnson & Appleyards Ltd, I would love to hear from you or hear more through the forum.

[PeterR]

From the 1860's through the 1940, the Company of Johnson & Appleyards, Barkers Pool/Leopold Street, Sheffield were involved with many prestigious projects for many of the biggest firms in Sheffield. Their involvement with Thos. W. Ward Ltd and the installation of most of the interior panelling for their offices taken from various dismantled battleships and passenger liners (and their involvement in the installation of panelling and fittings from the RMS Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic in Cutlers Hall) is what brought them to my attention. What intrigues me about this Company is that they were a huge company, based in the building which still survives on the corner of Leopold Street/Barkers Pool and their work is still regarded is some of the finest cabinet work to come out of Sheffield in the late 19th/early 20th Century, but hardly anything at all seems to have survived for the Company.

 

With the advent of the Second World War, it seems that the already struggling Johnson & Appleyards had finally just about met their end. With the Sheffield Blitz, Atkinsons of Sheffield, whose premises was destroyed during the bombing, required alternative premises and the premises of Johnson & Appleyards was seen as a most fitting solution, but to aquire the premises they also took over the Company. As part of this a few records were transferred, which were necessary as part of the transaction, but it seems that everything else was destroyed.

 

What I am now attempting to do is track down anyone whose ancestor may have worked for Johnson & Appleyards and try to build a better picture of the Company and its operations and try and discover what happened in those final days during the takeover and subsequent abolition of the once mighty cabinet making firm.

 

If anyone who reads this is an ancestor of an employee or knows anything of the take over and demise of Johnson & Appleyards Ltd, I would love to hear from you or hear more through the forum.

 

http://www.picturesheffield.co.uk s26727

[ThosWWardLtd]

Hi

Thanks for your response, but upon checking the image number on Picturesheffield, it relates to the premises of Firth Brown on Savile Street, was it meant to be a reply to another thread?

[PeterR]

Hi

Thanks for your response, but upon checking the image number on Picturesheffield, it relates to the premises of Firth Brown on Savile Street, was it meant to be a reply to another thread?

 

Hi,

 

I was in the process of formulating a quote about the oak panelling in the main offices of Firth Brown where I worked in the late fifties/early sixties and was editing with further comment. However, I was not allowed to 'save' the post then and apparently the pic. number only has come on. It's just that I wondered if it came from a liner. Sorry if I went too far off the point.

 

Peter.

Edited January 3, 2015 by PeterR

[ThosWWardLtd]

Hi Peter

No need to apologise, it was just that at the time of your quote, there was a thread about ex Firth Brown Employees just below this one, but it makes perfect sense now.

 

The panelling at Firth Browns may well have come from a passenger liner dismantled by Wards, but it could also have been supplied directly by the likes of Johnson & Appleyards or one of Firth Browns own suppliers with their various shipbuilding interests.

 

It is facscinating to also correspond with an ex Firth Brown employee as Wards and Firth Browns put in what seems to have been a joint planning application for office developments along Savile Street in 1960, so they may well have had close links. Do you remember what the panelling at Firth Browns was like, or maybe know anyone who has any images??

[PeterR]

Hi Peter

No need to apologise, it was just that at the time of your quote, there was a thread about ex Firth Brown Employees just below this one, but it makes perfect sense now.

 

The panelling at Firth Browns may well have come from a passenger liner dismantled by Wards, but it could also have been supplied directly by the likes of Johnson & Appleyards or one of Firth Browns own suppliers with their various shipbuilding interests.

 

It is facscinating to also correspond with an ex Firth Brown employee as Wards and Firth Browns put in what seems to have been a joint planning application for office developments along Savile Street in 1960, so they may well have had close links. Do you remember what the panelling at Firth Browns was like, or maybe know anyone who has any images??

 

I can't recall any further offices for Firth Brown's ever actually being built on Saville Street after 1960. The offices I worked in were built in the 1800s I believe. The panelling was possibly later though.

When I was an office junior in 1959 aged 15 one of my duties was to collect a tea tray from the directors' kitchen for the works manager. I used to pass from our offices of yellow and green painted walls through a door into the splendour of a corridor of dark oak wood panelling. I don't think there was any intricate carving. Seem to remember framed panels of about two feet square from floor to ceiling. It seemed quite a long treck back carrying the heavy tray for a skinny youth at the time, back into the 'real world' after seeing what I thought at the time were butlers poishing the silver cutlery Never did get to see inside the directors' offices off the corridor.

 

You can find 433 pics of Firth Browns if you click on http://www.picturesheffield.com and type in 'firth brown' but unfortunately none inside the offices.

Edited January 3, 2015 by PeterR