AP WMS 31 s1 f01 v1 e1
William Molyneux, Managing Director, talks to John Reid about WT Mather Ltd, a company known for producing jams and chutneys. Recorded on the 12 February 1982 at WT Mather Ltd, Barn Lane, Golborne.
Audio description below:
Yes, I’m William Rigby Molyneux, known as Bill in the factory, direct / descendant of the Mather family. The Mather family was a longstanding / Golborne family in the 1880’s. They founded a business as greengrocers / in the main street in Golborne, Where they had a shop and it would / seem that the business started really from Mrs. Mather, who of course / is my grandmother, preserving fruit and vegetables, which were prob-/ably surplus to requirements for the shop. Preserving fruits and vege-/tables either as jams or marmaldes [marmalades] or chutneys and really the business /grew from that. I’ve no details on the very early history but we have/ records here dating back as far as 1893, which show the earliest traces/ of making jam from the shop and those records do give prices of sugar / and fruit and cost of hay for the horses, which were used for delivery / of the fruits, vegetables and the business really stemmed just from the / shop having the produce[product] for display and sale in that shop. It would / appear that the business first as a manufacturing concern as such in / the early part of the 20th century and whilst I’ve no actual record of / the date, probably about 1910 that the business first was instituted/ here in Barn Lane, when it took a part of this quite large building /that we have here now, which for some reason is always known as the /blacking mill. I’ve never found out exactly why it was called the / blacking mill but it was a textile mil owned by family called /Halliday and the family’s called Halliday and Constantine who owned/ the premises and I believe they allowed my grandfather,W. T. Mather /himself to lease part of the premises to commence jam manufacturing /in a very simple sort of way of course at that time. There is evidence/ that I can show, that for a while the business had a name Mather and /Entwistle but I'm no recollection at all who Entwistle was and whether/ he'd any connection with the family or not. W. T. Mather himself was/ very well known in the district, he was a very active Weslyan Methodist /and in local government he was a liberal party councillor and at one /time Chairman of Colborne Council and from what I know, he was very/ well known and respected here in the Golborne district.
Audio Details
| Forename | William |
|---|---|
| Surname | Molyneux |
| Middle Name | |
| Township | Golborne |
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