Page 363 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

Brushes and Brush-making,
to the big London warehouses. Pan-work bulked largely in the
operations. Pan-work, which means half-a-dozen silent men sitting
round a witches' cauldi'on of pine pitch to dip launches of bristles
therein, the fumes, thick but not unhealthy, rising to the roof and
richly coloming the surroundings. The work in London increased
until, in 1904, the employees numbered thirty. During the same time
another co-operative brush-making business was developed under
the control of an independent productive society in Hudderslield.
By 1904 the Yorkshire factory, with accommodation at most for
forty workers, was supplying co-operative societies with brushes
to the value of £5,500 a year. But by this time brush-making
machinery had come into existence which was beyond the capacity
of either of the two Httle factories profitably to employ. These
machines were in private hands, and their cheap productions were
gaining the co-operative trade. To meet the competition the C.W.S.
took action toward concentrating all co-operative brush making.
The London manufactory in 1904 was removed to Leeds, an
admirable centre for supplying north, south, east, and west.
Adjacent to the clothing factory at Holbeck (Leeds) the C.W.S.
possessed other factory buildings which were then unoccupied, and
here temporarily the re-organised and enlarged business was
installed, under the new management of Mr. Saunders. At the same
time the Huddersfield Brushmaking Society was approached with an
offer of purchase. Very soon the latter agreed to sell at a price
yielding 24s. for each £1 share. The Huddersfield factory was taken
over at the beginning of July, 1904. The next step was in December,
1906. A purchase was then made of 10.447 square yards of freehold
(and buildings thereon) for £5,750 in Belleisle Road, Hunslct, Leeds,
and an existing tannery was converted into an excellent modern
brush factory. Here the Holbeck and the Huddersfield businesses
both were installed, the economy of the C.W.S. providing a new use,
as a general depot, for the vacated Upperhead Row premises in the
cloth-making town. The humble domestic brush, whether as yard
broom or scrubber, is so homely an article that most jjeople are
surprised to hear of the varied countries, climates, and peoples that
contribute its raw materials. It is one of those insignificant details
of commerce which unexpectedly can open vistas of interest—in this
case toward Brazilian forests, toward Scandinavian birch woods,
toward markets and fairs where bristle is sold from Leipzic to China,
and toward the Continental prisons whence comes much competition
with Enghsh and co-operative manufactures. The economics of few
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