Yeovil people

joseph hammond

Glove Manufacturer of Silver Street

 

Joseph Hammond was born in Yeovil in 1796. In 1824 he married Sarah Smith in Yeovil. The poll books for both 1832 and 1846 listed Joseph living in Ebenezer Row, roughly where Poundland is today.

In the 1841 census Joseph Hammond was listed as living at Townsend albeit close to the the gasworks and the old workhouse, that is Ebenezer Terrace. He was aged 45 and listed his occupation as glove manufacturer and was living with his wife Sarah, children Joseph aged 15, James aged 12, Elizabeth aged eight and John aged 4. Also living with them was Joseph's younger brother John, described as a glover.

In 1851, Joseph was noted as an investor in the South Western Railway Company.

In the 1851 census Joseph had moved his family to Silver Street and was living in the building next to the Pall Tavern, later to be occupied by gunsmith Henry Little. Living with him were his wife Sarah 13-year-old son Thomas and younger brother John who gave his occupation as 'Glove Manufacturer, one of the above firm '.Joseph gave his occupation as 'Glove Manufacturer employing three leather dressers, five leather parers & three boys partially, 4 cutters and layers out, 2 apprentices & 2 boys, 280 sewers partially'. Bearing in mind that the 280 sewers were outworkers, women and girls working from their homes, Joseph's manufactory was relatively small scale.

The Somerset Gazette Directory of 1840 listed Joseph as a glove manufacturer in Middle Street and he was in partnership with brothers John and James Pickford. The firm of glove manufacturers called Hammond & Pickford was listed in Pigot's Directory of 1830 as operating at Townsend (today known as part of Lower Middle Street) "nearly opposite the Yeovil Gas Works". This factory (see map and photo below) was sold in the mid-1840s and became Charles Pittard's Middle Street leather dressing warehouse and office.

Later, Hunt & Co's Directory of 1850 and Slater's Directory of 1852 listed Hammond & Pickford at Vicarage Street.

Joseph Hammond died on 27 January 1853, in Yeovil "in the 60th year of his age". The partnership was not officially dissolved until August 1856.

 

Joseph Hammond's signature against the Vestry minutes of 3 March 1831. 

 

map

 

This map is based on the 1886 Ordnance Survey. At centre is the leather factory of Hammond & Pickford, later (from 1848) the factory of Charles Pittard. For location, at top right is the junction of Townsend (today's Lower Middle Street) running up from centre bottom, Newton Road at centre right and Wyndham Street at top right.

 

gallery

 

A notice of the sale of Hammond & Pickford's glove factory from the 19 April 1845 edition of the Sherborne Mercury.

 

A cautionary tale from the 13 January 1849 edition of the Sherborne Mercury. By this time Hammond & Pickford were operating from Vicarage Street.

 

The notice of Joseph Hammond's death from the 7 January 1854 edition of the Southern Times and Dorset County Herald.

 

This postcard dates to around 1900. Joseph Hammond's home was the three-storey, single-bay bow fronted building adorned with buckets and other ironmongery paraphernalia, next to the Pall Tavern (in naked brickwork!). It was later Henry Little's gun shop cum ironmongery

 

Pretty much the same scene, photographed in 2013.

 

Originally the glove factory and leather dressing yard of Hammond & Pickford, this building was sold in the mid-1840s and became Charles Pittard's Middle Street leather dressing warehouse and office. Photographed in the 1930s.

 

The same view, photographed in 2013.