Old Leeds Firms

[grumpybloke]

There hasn't been much mention of the clothing manufacturing industry in Leeds, one of the main things it was built on. Burton's with 1000 machinists in their own little "town" in Harehills, Hepworth's, Hepton's, Price, Centaur, Chas.Barker, Berwin (ok still there, but they don't make anything in Leeds), Blackburn's, Roscoe, Coss & Morris, H.Brown, Louis Jacobs,the list goes on and on... What a shame there are only a handful of people in clothing manufacture these days. I remember when "nobbut a lad" seeing several columns of clothing operative jobs in the YEP every night. I bet they don't even have that category now. There was this amongst many others -http://www.secretleeds.co.uk/forum/Mess ... ghLight=1I was referring to in this thread (Old Leeds Firms) in particular!

[Johnny39]

It was a funny thing about tailoring in Leeds, someone always knew someone who could get hold of a suit length, someone always knew a tailor, consequently people often didn't use the local factories only the people who worked in them but who earned a bit on the side at home.

[stutterdog]

Johnny39 wrote: It was a funny thing about tailoring in Leeds, someone always knew someone who could get hold of a suit length, someone always knew a tailor, consequently people often didn't use the local factories only the people who worked in them but who earned a bit on the side at home. I remember my parents buying me my first suit with long trousers in the early 50's. My Dad always had his suits made at a Jewish tailors, David Makovsky's. He was an excellent tailor who had a small shop in Albion st ,I think? We of course,in those days,could not afford to buy a bespoke suit and pay cash for it. Makovsky had a man who called at the house every Fri. on his bike,to collect regular payments.

[trophy]

[quotenick="BLAKEY"][quotenick="TrojanUntil the advent of the Leeds style bus stations (Dewsbury, Batley, Cleckheaton, Wakefield) I'd never been on a bus when it was reversing.I thought it must be illegal. Certainly in the past at Leeds Central, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Castleford and Batley, buses parked parallel to the stand.    [/quote.    the old west yorkshire vicar lane bus station was of the same layout as the new bus stations        

[Bert]

Johnny39 wrote: It was a funny thing about tailoring in Leeds, someone always knew someone who could get hold of a suit length, someone always knew a tailor, consequently people often didn't use the local factories only the people who worked in them but who earned a bit on the side at home. That's right Johnny39. Almost everything I wore as a kid was something run up by my Mam from patterns cut by my Uncle - or more usually a hand-me-down of one of my elder brothers' things made that way. When my Man wasn't working in one of the clothing factories down York Road she was doing piece-work at home for one or other of them, frantically racing to have mountains of garments run up in time for the collection man to pick them up and pay her a pittance for them - all in the brief interludes between cooking, scrubbing, ironing, shopping, sweeping, dusting etc for we four idle males in her house with hardly a minute's help from any of us. Actually Chameleon, I seem to remember she once did a stint as well in one of the staff canteens in York Road - we had a nice photo of her with all her smiling workmates in their white outfits, so maybe hers was one of the faces you saw at that window.    

[Bert]

I seem to remember that on the other side of York Road from all the tailoring firms, set well back beyond what looked like an old bomb site in the area near the public baths, were a shopfitting firm and a firm of upholsterers. One of them was called Curtis I think. A lad I used to hang out with went to work for the firm of upholsterers when he left Crossgates School, proudly swinging the new tool of his trade - a large wooden mallet - which I always feared he would be happy to use on the head of anyone who annoyed him, me included.

[Leodian]

Bert wrote: I seem to remember that on the other side of York Road from all the tailoring firms, set well back beyond what looked like an old bomb site in the area near the public baths, were a shopfitting firm and a firm of upholsterers. One of them was called Curtis I think. A lad I used to hang out with went to work for the firm of upholsterers when he left Crossgates School, proudly swinging the new tool of his trade - a large wooden mallet - which I always feared he would be happy to use on the head of anyone who annoyed him, me included. As a child I used the read the 'Curtis Shopfitters' sign as 'Curtis Shoplifters'. As far as I know the firm (or at least the building and sign) is still there.

[tyke bhoy]

Leodian, glad its not me that's read shopfitters as shoplifters on a regular basis

[Leodian]

tyke bhoy wrote: Leodian, glad its not me that's read shopfitters as shoplifters on a regular basis Curtis Shopfitters must have been there a long time as I feel sure it was there from the mid 1950s to early 1960s as I regularly passed by. There was then a now long ago demolished school (St Patrick`s junior school from other threads) more or less opposite it at the time.

[Si]

tyke bhoy wrote: Leodian, glad its not me that's read shopfitters as shoplifters on a regular basis Me too!