Gloving in yeovil

ewEns & gould

Glove Manufacturers of South Street

 

Ewens, Gould & Allen (only listed in Kelly's trade directories between 1889 and 1894) was a glove manufacturing partnership who were in business by 1882; the three partners being Edward Samuel Ewens, George Henry Gould & George Richard Allen.

The Ewens, Gould & Allen factory, in South Street, was a three-storey, seven-bay building and is photographed below. As seen on the map below the glove factory was almost integral with Park Street House which had been the home of glove manufacturer William Fooks. Ewens, Gould & Allen purchased the factory and house by auction in 1882.

In December 1894 the South Street factory was sold (see below) and in its edition of 19 April 1895 the Western Gazette reported the dissolution of the partnership, the business to be thereafter known as Ewens & Gould.

Ewens & Gould left the South Street premises and the properties were bought by Ebenezer Pittard who made the house his home and renamed it Woodlands. In the 1901 census Pittard gave his occupation as 'leather glove manufacturer' even though his main trade had been more closely connected to leather dressing. It may be that Pittard used the factory himself after the departure of Ewens & Gould.

Ewens & Gould, in the meantime, relocated to premises in Vicarage Street. However, and as published in the London Gazette edition of 17 December 1897 (see below), on 1 December 1897 the partnership of Ewens & Gould was dissolved, with George Gould continuing the business on his own.

 

map


This map, based on the 1886 Ordnance Survey, shows South Street running across the top of the map from its junction with Bond Street and Park Street / Addlewell Lane at left. Ewens & Gould's factory is shown at centre. The glove factory shown close to Bond Street was that of Clothier, Hitchcock & Giles. Park Street House, at centre, became the home of glove manufacturer Ebenezer Pittard in the 1890s.

 

GALLERY

 

A notice placed in the Western Gazette's edition of 10 March 1893 - intriguing!

 


From the Cave Collection (colourised), Courtesy of South Somerset Heritage Collection

This photograph features in my book "Lost Yeovil"

This photograph of South Street dates to about 1920. The three-storey white building at centre was the Ewens & Gould glove factory. The building at right with a shop-front and the Pitman's School sign was originally the Park Street House gardener's cottage. The factory later became a box-making factory and, later still, the site was cleared and it was occupied by the Somerset & Dorset Box Co Ltd. The site is now the car park behind the old Gaumont cinema.

 

Notice of the sale of the Ewens, Gould & Allen glove factory in South Street, placed in the Western Gazette's edition of 14 December 1894.

 

The Notice place in the London Gazette of 17 December 1897 dissolving the partnership between Edward Ewens and George Gould.