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Cash's

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Coordinates: 52°23′41″N 1°29′02″W / 52.394747°N 1.483927°W / 52.394747; -1.483927
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Cash's
Founded1846 (1846)
FounderJohn and Joseph Cash
HeadquartersSeven Stars Industrial Estate, Wheler Road
52°23′41″N 1°29′02″W / 52.394747°N 1.483927°W / 52.394747; -1.483927,
Coventry
,
England
ProductsRibbons, silk pictures
Websitejjcash.co.uk

Cash's, or J. J. Cash Ltd., is a company in Coventry, England,[1][2] founded in 1846, that manufactures woven name tapes and other woven products[1] and is known for formerly making ribbons.[2]

Foundation

The company was founded by two brothers, John and Joseph Cash, sons of a wealthy stuff (or textile)-merchant,[2] also called Joseph.[3] At the time of the company's founding, the father and sons already had a warehouse and offices in Hertford Street, Coventry.[3] They sold ribbons made for them by outworkers.[3]

In 1846, the two brothers set up a ribbon-making factory with 100 looms, at West Orchard.[3]

Cash Family

Joseph Cash in 1900

The brothers, who were Quakers, were philanthropists and model employers;[4] Joseph for example founded the Coventry Labourers' and Artisans' Friendly Society, in 1843, along with his friend Charles Bray.[3] This friendly society provided 400 allotments for working people, as well as a store selling groceries.[3]

He built an infants' school in the garden of his home, Sherborne House, in 1853, which he also allowed local Wesleyans to use as a place of worship.[5]

John Cash bought his house, 'Rosehill', from Charles Bray. George Eliot had been staying with the Bray family, and on sale of the property she moved into the smaller Ivy Cottage on the grounds.[5] John's wife was Mary Sibree, to whom Eliot had been tutor of German.[6]

Cash's Topshops

The cottages at Kingfield, on Cash's Lane
Second block of cottages, facing the Coventry Canal

In 1857, Cash's commissioned a series of three-storey weavers' cottages[2][4] on a plot of land alongside the Coventry Canal at Kingfield, and on a road now known as Cash's Lane (52°25′19″N 1°30′29″W / 52.42208°N 1.50796°W / 52.42208; -1.50796), then in countryside, outside the city boundary.[4] Initially 100 such cottages were planned, but eventually only 48 were built,[4] in two blocks. These used bricks, with tiled roofs and mock Tudor barge-boards on the gables.[7] Each had a garden.[3] On the top floor of each cottage was a well-lit work area, known collectively as 'Cash's Topshops', housing a Jacquard loom, powered by a central, steam-powered beam engine.[2] They opened for business on 12 October 1857,[4] and the individual workshops were combined into single, large, workspaces in 1862.[7] The houses still stand, and were Grade II listed on 10 October 1975.[7]

A park called Cash's Park lies nearby, to the west (52°25′21″N 1°30′38″W / 52.42245°N 1.51057°W / 52.42245; -1.51057).

William Andrews

The diary of Cash's first factory manager at Kingfield,[4] William Andrews, was the subject of a book, Master and Artisan in Victorian England, published in 1969, in which it was reproduced.[8] The original is held in the city's Herbert Art Gallery and Museum ("The Herbert").[4]

Andrews (1835[4]-1914[8]) joined the firm in 1855, as a designer, immediately after completing his apprenticeship.[4] The Cash brothers contracted him for three years, at annual salary of £100.[4] In late 1857 he was offered managership of the Kingfield site, and took up residence at 8, Kingfield.[4] He negotiated a salary of £120, with his house, gas and coal provided free.[4] In addition, he was to be paid separately for his design work.[4] He was not popular with the weavers,[4] and left in June 1858 to manage another part of the business, at Drapers Fields.[4]

Post war

The factory was damaged by bombing in the Second World War, and parts subsequently demolished.[9]

During the 1960s, Cash's absorbed other Coventry weaving companies, including B. Laird, Lester Harris and W.H. Grant.[3] Other local competitors failed, leaving Cash's the only survivor of the type in the city.[3] In January 1964, Cash's were appointed 'Manufacturers of Woven Name Tapes to Her Majesty the Queen.'[2]

The company was sold to the Jones Stroud Group in 1976, ending the involvement of the Cash family.[3] In 1984, the Kingfield site was vacated, and the company move to more modern premises on Torrington Avenue,[3] where it continued to make woven products until January 2014 when the company went into administration.[10] Though on 13 February 2014 it was announced that Hong Kong based The Jointak Group had invested in the company and that it would reopen under the name "Cash's Apparel Solutions".[11] On 23 December 2014, Cash's moved out of Torrington Avenue to their present location at the Seven Stars Industrial Estate at Wheler Road in Coventry.[12]

Cash's no longer make ribbons, although they continue to weave the time-honoured identity nametapes, together with woven pictures, cards and bookmarks. In more recent years the main focus of the business has been in anti-counterfeit labelling for high-end brands. Becoming part of the global Jointak Group has secured the Cash's brand for future generations.

Legacy

Many Cash's products are sought after by collectors, and featured in museum collections.[13]

Cash's original records were destroyed by a bomb,[4] but many of the company's subsequent archives are in the Coventry local history centre, in The Herbert. In 1996, the 150th anniversary of the opening of the company's first factory was celebrated by an exhibition at The Herbert, 'A Woven Image'.[3]

The Primary school: Joseph Cash Primary School is in the Radford area of Coventry.

References

  1. ^ a b "Name Labels, Name Tags, Clothing label & Luggage Straps". Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "A brief history of Cash's in Coventry". BBC Online. BBC Coventry and Warwickshire. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Jones, Huw (1998). Still Weaving - J and J Cash Ltd of Coventry. Coventry Museums & Galleries.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Prest, John (1960). The Industrial Revolution in Coventry. Oxford University Press.
  5. ^ a b Ashton, Rosemary (1996). George Eliot - A Life. Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-13473-0.
  6. ^ Karl, Frederick (1995). George Eliot - A Biography. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-255574-3.
  7. ^ a b c "251 - Coventry - West Midlands - England". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  8. ^ a b Chancellor, Valerie E. (1969). Master and Artisan in Victorian England. Evlyn, Adams & Mackay.
  9. ^ "Cash's clock tower, damaged by bombing, 1941, during demolition". Pictures of Coventry. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
  10. ^ "Coventry job losses as Cash's goes into administration". BBC News. BBC. 30 January 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  11. ^ "Coventry Cash's reborn with backer from Hong Kong". BBC News. BBC. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  12. ^ Waddington, Jenny (20 February 2015). "Coventry's Cash's opens new base - a year after being saved from administration". Coventry Telegraph. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  13. ^ Dodge, Jenny (2007). Silken Weave - A history of Ribbon Making in Coventry from 1700 to 1860 (2 ed.). Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. ISBN 978-0-9541185-5-6.
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