For Folk Sake: A Sharp Look at Gloucester’s Pin-making Legacy.
As you walk along Eastgate Street there are bollards with a twisted design on top with a pointed base. I wonder if you have ever noticed these, and if you have, did you recognise them for what they are? These bollards are in the design of a pin in homage to Gloucester's once booming pin making industry.
One of the locations for the pin making was 99-101 Westgate Street, where The Folk currently resides. Within this building thousands upon thousands of pins were made in the late 18th until the mid-19th century, there are still some pin-making machines at The Folk if you'd like to have a look!
From the 17th century the pin making industry was incredibly significant in Gloucester, and from 1743 to 1853 the pin manufacturers Cowcher, Kirby, Beard and Tovey conducted their business within the building of the Folk. Kirby Beard and Co was a large pin manufacturer, recognisable to some by the hair grips 'Kirby grips'. Their origins are in Gloucester, where Kirby joined forces with the Cowcher pin manufacturers, which was first established around 1743 by William Cowcher (1713-83). Cowcher was an important figure in the city and his son Richard succeeded him. It was Richard who formed the partnership with Kirby, however he died not long afterwards, at only 39 in 1805. It was after the death of Richard that Kirby joined the pin makers, Beard. However, it was not until the 1840s that the company dropped the name Cowcher from their name, as well as the name Tovey. Not long after this the pin making machines arrived in Gloucester, which was far more efficient than hand-making them!
Whilst we have been conducting our decant of the Folk stores, we have found thousands (I really do mean thousands!) of pins in various stages of manufacturing.
These pins that we have found are arguably in stages of undress, with some shanks being found (the long sharpened piece of the pin without the pin head) and spiral pin heads that have not made it onto the shanks, to even more interesting ones, which have the pin heads half-way down the shank! This might seem like an insignificant detail, and why should you care about these pins in various disarray? Well, this shows us how they were made and give us an insight into this particularly important part of Gloucester's history.
The solid headed pins that we have found under the floorboards of 99 Westgate Street where the pin factory have led us to believe that important strides were made in powered production at this location, right here in Gloucester! Sadly, Kirby, Beard and Co moved to Birmingham in 1853, leaving Gloucester behind them, but not without leaving its mark and with the knowledge that such a well-known brand found their feet in Gloucester!
After hearing about the history of pins, you can see why pins and pin-making are so important to Gloucester. However, do you think we need thousands of pins? Looking after thousands of pins is challenging work, and not all of them are in the best condition.
We will be reviewing these pins as we progress with our decant project, as we have several poor condition pins, reference pins, and pins that were not made in Gloucester at all! I'm sure you'll be pinned to your seat waiting to hear more, so look out for more of our 'For Folk Sake' blog posts and 'What's this? Wednesday' finds.
