Records of Frederick Longdon and Co. Ltd and Thomas Glover and Son Ltd, surgical bandageand hosiery manufacturers of Derby and Nottingham, 1885-1985

The collection is divided into 22 series and all items relate to Frederick Longdon and Co. Ltdunless otherwise stated. The collection comprises:

• Minutes of the Corset Department Management Committee, April 1938-September 1939 (BLD 1).
• Final account books, December 1899-December 1961 (BLD 2).
• Ledgers, January 1916-1981 (BLD 3, 4 and 9).
• Cash-books, April 1950-January 1981 (BLD 5 and 6).
• Special order book, 1885-October 1919 (BLD 7).
• Trade expenses book, January 1972-November 1980 (BLD 8).
• Petty cash book, account book and sales ledger for T. Glover and Son Ltd, May 1959-October 1985 (BLD 10, 11 and 12).
• Photographs and printed images of employees, c.1884-c.1970s (BLD 13).
• Share certificates, September 1946-June 1981 (BLD 14).
• Correspondence, agreements, printed items and other papers and artefacts, April 1935-July 1980 (BLD 15-22).

The collection represents the surviving records of F. Longdon and Co. Ltd and a few itemsrelating to Thomas Glover and Son Ltd. Of particular interest are the minutes for Longdon's CorsetDepartment covering the period 1938-1939, photographs of employees, and a few items ofcorrespondence with the American fabric manufacturer Kaylooms Incorporated.

The collection incompletely records the history of Longdon's and Glover's and informationrelating to their products and manufacturing processes is limited. The collection would providesupplementary information for any study into the firms or the textile industry in general but isinsufficiently complete to permit detailed research into these subjects.

The company of Robert Longdon, hosiery manufacturers of 32 Friargate, Derby appears in tradedirectories from 1835 until 1852. The company may have existed before 1835 but probably ceasedtrading soon after 1852. Historical information is slight but later references indicate that thename changed to Robert Longdon and Son, the firm specialised in silk hosiery including gloves, andalso operated from premises in Short Street. Frederick Longdon and Co. Ltd, an elastic stockingmanufacturer of Short Street, Friargate, is recorded in the 1855 Post Office Directory. The commonname, trade and address suggest that the firm was a successor to Robert Longdon. By 1881, FrederickLongdon and Co. Ltd is described as a surgical bandage manufacturer operating from Agard Street,Derby, an activity and a location associated with the firm until the 1970s.

Items in this collection also suggest that Longdon's had a factory in Chermnitz in Germany fromsome time before 1899 to about 1924. A trade directory for 1932 records that the firm also hadpremises at 179 Forest Road West, Nottingham. F. Longdon and Co. Ltd (Canada) was incorporated on 24October 1919 and operated under that name until 1975 when it changed its name to Nelson Scott(Canada) Ltd.

Thomas Glover and Son, elastic web and fabric manufacturer, appears in the Post Office Directoryfor Nottinghamshire for 1855. The firm's address was Greave's factory, Station Street, Nottingham(it also used premises in Parkinson Street, Nottingham around this time). It remained there untilabout 1889, when perhaps following the death of Thomas Glover, it moved to Cooper's Factory, RodenStreet, Nottingham. By 1894, the firm was at Russell Street Mills, Russell Street and in 1897 thetrade directories record a separate address as Herne Hill, London. The company had disappeared fromdirectories by 1900, returning in 1925 described as a surgical hosier in Woodborough andChesterfield Street, Carlton, both in Nottinghamshire. The firm remained at the Carlton addressuntil the 1970s.

F. Longdon and Co. Ltd had shares in Thomas Glover and Son Ltd from 1935 and in Nelson Scott Ltdfrom 1918. Both interests continued into the 1960s. Longdon also had a controlling interest in acompany called Farstar Trading Inc. in Canada. It is possible that Longdon's secured a controllinginterest in Thomas Glover and Son Ltd during the twentieth century (Longdon's manufactured productsat Glover's Carlton factory in later years). It appears that Longdon's was taken over by CourtauldsTextiles PLC in the 1980s.

The collection has been divided by document type into 22 series. Within these series, items havebeen arranged chronologically.

ACCESS: Accessible to all registered readers.

REPROGRAPHIC: Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposesonly, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

COPYRIGHT: Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must besought in advance in writing from the Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts and SpecialCollections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk).The Department will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but this can be difficult and theresponsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the person wishingto publish.

LANGUAGE: English

This collection constitutes a random selection of material salvaged from Longdon's Derby factory.Series BLD 1-14 were acquired by The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts andSpecial Collections in three instalments between 1989 and 1991. Series BLD 14-22 were given to theDepartment in 1995. Other records of the company may survive elsewhere but none are known to thedepartment.