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Archive Reference / Library Class No.D2696/H/17/1
Title"Commerce: An Illustrated Weekly Journal", No. 236, Vol. XI
Date3 Aug 1898
DescriptionFeaturing an article entitled "An Essay on Wheels by Lesser Columbus" about Holmes & Co. and its history, pp. 209-223, containing reproductions of eight Holmes portraits, 12 carriage designs, 22 photographs of the interior and exterior of the firm's premises in Derby, and an exterior photograph of the premises in Sheffield, London, Lichfield and Burton-on-Trent
Extent1 item
LevelItem
RepositoryDerbyshire Record Office
Archive CreatorHolmes & Co. of Derby (1803-1923), Burton-on-Trent, Lichfield, London and Sheffield, coach builders & harness makers
Sanderson & Holmes of Derby (1923-c1970), coach builders/motor car body builders
FormatDocument
Image

"Commerce: An Illustrated Weekly Journal", No. 236, Vol. XI

Transcript or IndexSelected extract, pp. 210-212:
"a sketch history of the [coach-building industry] would be lamentably incomplete without an extensive mention of the rise of Messrs Holmes and Company. To be sure, coaches were not in very general use when Charles I, in one of his most sensible moments, granted a charter of incorporation to the saddlers and harness-makers of Lichfield. The guild included widow Holmes, and 127 years later Charles Holmes of Lichfield, the founder of the now famous firm of Margaret Street, London, and Derby, coach-builders, was admitted a member of the Worshipful Company of Saddlers. ... the family records go on to state that it was he who added the business of coach-builder to the ancestral trade of saddler and harness-maker by starting as a coach-builder in 1776. His elder son, William, succeeded him in Lichfield, and his younger son, Charles, commenced a business in Derby in 1803. After his death the business was carried on by his sons, and in course of time the eldest, Herbert Mountford Holmes, was left sole proprietor of the Derby business. ... he made over the business to his three sons, Charles Herbert Mountford and George Edward, the present proprietors. ... Under the management of Herbert Mountford and his brothers the business grew rapidly, and branches were opened in London, Sheffield and Burton-on-Trent"
Exhibited at the Great Exhibition 1851 and at international exhibitions since, "Many of the Holmes carriages have been built for rajahs and princes of our great Indian dependency, and for the King of Siam and other foreign potentates"
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