Hardy & Padmore - Carst iron makers Four Flags Sauce label Steward's Chemists - Finest Glycerine & Rosewater label
Stretton & Co. - Worcestershire Sauce label
 
Welcome to Worcester City Museums and Galleries
SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE EXHIBITION - GLOVE MAKING
 
Lea & Perrin's - Worcestershire Sauce label Waldron & Co. - Mandarin Sauce label Waldron & Co. - Worcestershire Sauce label
Hill, Evans & Co. - Malt Vinegar label
 
 
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The Commandery  
 
A delivery of glove "pieces" being made to outworkers in a country village near Worcester - Click on image for a bigger picture Worcester's gloving industry reached its peak between 1790 and 1820 when 150 manufacturers of gloves employed over 30,000 people in and around Worcester. Fownes Glove Factory, Talbot Street c.1890 - Click on image for a bigger picture.
At this time nearly half of all glovers in Britain were based in and around the city of Worcester.
Trade was strictly regulated by the government to protect home industries from foreign competition by placing large taxes on goods. Under this system the Worcester glove industry prospered greatly.

However during the 19th century the government encouraged free trade eventually lifting taxes in 1826 on foreign gloves. This happened at a time when French gloves had increased in popularity and causing a huge reduction in trade which eventually led to mass employment throughout the city. 		Miniature Gloves from the Fownes glove collection - Click on image for a bigger picture.
Gloves designed to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 - Click on image for a bigger picture.
Dent Allcroft and Company Glove Factory at Warmstry House by the River Severn - Click on image for a bigger pciture. While many of the smaller businesses did not survive this period, two of Worcester's most famous gloving firms, Dent Allcroft and Co Ltd. and Fownes Gloves Ltd. survived by reorganising their workforce, introducing a factory system and improving the overall quality of the products. Both these firms went on to become leading glove manufacturers in Europe.
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INDUSTRIES
Brewing
Engineering
Glove Making
Pottery Making
Shoe Making
Wine & Sauce Making
Introduction
COMPANIES
Cinderella 's
Britannia Brewery
Dent Allcroft & Co.
Courtney's
Four Flags
Fownes Gloves
Hardy & Padmore
Harper & Co.
Heenan & Froude
Hill, Evans and Co.
James Archdale and Co.
Joseland & Sons Larkworthy & Co.
Lewis Clarke & Co.
Lea and Perrins
McKenzie and Holland
Mellor & Co.
Metal Box
Mining Engineering Co.
Robert Allen & Co.
Royal Worcester Spreckley Brothers Ltd. Stretton and Co.
Waldren and Co.
Williamson & Sons
History of Worcester
Old Maps & Plans
Old Photographs & Paintings
Social History Collection
Gallery Plan