As some of the smaller cloth mills closed towards the end of the nineteenth century, glove making became established in the Westbury area.
Although some production was factory based, outworkers, mostly women working from home, were also employed. For most of the next century two names dominated the industry, Boulton and Jefferies.
Among the first factories to be set up was by William Boulton, whose success was helped by his invention of the Boulton cut thumb, a technique which simplified the manufacturing process. He was operating in Westbury Leigh before 1871. By 1889 his sons had established the firm of Boulton Bros and in 1901 they expanded the business by buying and extending Bull’s Mill, a former cloth mill, in Westbury Leigh.
The company thrived and gloves were exported around the world, especially to the USA. Subsidiary firms opened in Westbury and by 1915 J P Boulton & Co were operating from premises in Station Road, probably the new factory built in 1908. Trading continued during the first world war, although a consignment of gloves was lost when the SS Arabic was sunk en route to New York in August 1915.
The firm suffered a setback in 1918 when import tariffs were imposed by the USA, but rebuilt its home market. By 1920 a factory in Indigo Lane was used by Boulton (The Douglas) Co and the firm of VC Boulton was in the former stables in Alfred Street by 1935. Boultons continued to trade until the 1970s when it was taken over by Dents and production moved to Warminster.
Arthur and William Jefferies, the sons of a Westbury draper, started a gloving business in Fore Street in 1883. In 1908 they bought a disused water mill in Hawkeridge which they used for the preparation of leather. In the 1920s the firm became a limited company and Arthur was managing director. During the first world war the firm produced trench mittens for the army and by the 1930s the firm employed 400 people. In 1936 Jefferies was acquired by Dents and most of the Westbury factories closed, but the firm of George Jefferies continued production in Edward Street.
In 1927 the Westbury Glove Co opened in Station Road. Owned by Mr Alley, it remained in business until the second half of the twentieth century. The last gloving manufacturer in Westbury was Reynolds & Kent who had a workshop in the complex of buildings which included the Oak Inn in Warminster Road. This firm left the town within the last twenty years.
Although there is no longer a gloving industry in Westbury, memories remain of working in the factories. Men were employed to cut the glove components from the leather and they also ironed the finished product. Women did the stitching and were paid according to the number of gloves they completed. Some still worked from home, but there were also sewing rooms at the factories. Girls who started as glove makers in the 1960s first had to work towards reaching the required standard for quality.
They then had another three months to build up speed before moving onto the piecework system. Wages were comparable to what could be earned in Woolworths, but they had to earn every penny.
The industry’s gradual decline was down to the import of cheaper products and the changes in fashion and society in the second half of the twentieth century. People stopped wearing gloves on every occasion, just as they stopped wearing hats. As they became more utilitarian, gloves were no longer a symbol of social status and an important accessory.
Liz Argent
To find out more about Westbury’s history, go to Westbury Heritage Society’s new website www.westburyheritagesociety.org.uk and their Facebook page Old Westbury, Wiltshire.
