| Administrative History | The business appears to have been established in Friargate, Derby, in the 1830s by Thomas Crump (1802-1887); initially with an emphasis on the supply and use of gas. Later the business advertised a wide range of products including water closets, force pumps, fire fighting equipment, pipes, leather buckets, plate glass and gas fittings. The business undertook contracts for a range of installations including water mains, gasworks, gas lighting and heating systems. Thomas Crump's enterprise is evident from his obtaining in the 1840s and 1850s a number of patents for specific details in the deisgn of water closets and by his contribution of items to the Great Exhibition of 1851: a portable fire-engine, with jet and spreader for watering plants; a liquid manure pump and an instrument for singeing horses with gas. (In 1847-1851 Thomas Crump was a church warden at St Werburgh's, Derby.)
In 1861 the business employed 27 men and five apprentices. By the mid-1870s the business was managed by two of Thomas Crump's sons; and then by a partnership of one of the sons, William Thomas Crump (1830-1903) and William Henry Mallender (1859-1926) When that partnership was dissolved in 1899 William Henry Mallender became head of the business, later assisted by his son Basil Arthur Mallender (1885-1968). In 1930 the business was merged with that of J Ratcliffe and Company. Ultimately the business was owned by Basil Henry Ramsey Mallender (1911-1986) and it was he who closed the business in 1972. |
| Custodial History | This collection was deposited in Derbyshire Record Office in 1970 and 1972 |