feature - John Lewis Heritage Centre

feature

John Lewis Heritage Centre

Fortunately, when the planning for the new Heritage Centre was undertaken, the possibility of flooding was taken into account as the area of the Thames at Cookham suffered quite badly from the effects of the torrential rains we had earlier but all the plans worked so no damage was done. As I mentioned in the previous article, one of the very precious archived items is the sign of the Royal Warrant which was granted to Caleys of Windsor, which is where Queen Victoria had many of her hats made, and there are even some of the hats in the archive as she would take in an existing hat to be copied and then take the new version. One of the old kilns of the original Odney pottery has been preserved as have some small items which were made at the pottery.

Prior to all the mechanisation of the fabric industry, patterned fabrics were printed by hand from carved wooden blocks. On one visit to the printing factory, I was very privileged to be able to watch a length of fabric being printed using the block method. It is very labour intensive but so many different blocks, giving so many different shades of colour can be used giving a very realistic finish to the print. On the fabric being printed as I watched, there were bunches of grapes and by the time the final colour had been added, it looked as if the grapes could be picked!

Once a fabric had been designed, using many of those in the archives from which ideas were taken, it could then be re-coloured in a great selection of shades from which a final few were taken to be printed for the shops. One of the most famous of our designs was the Daisy Chain which was produced for many years in a large selection of colourways. It was popular for curtains, cushion, bedcovers and even bought by some customers to make into summer skirts! On a visit to Singapore in the 1990s, we were taken by some friends into the British Club and on the top floor restaurant we were very surprised to find the curtains made in the brown/orange colour of Daisy Chain!

There is a vast amount of archive material included in a specially conditioned area for safe keeping at the centre, all of which have been, or are being stored and listed.

John Lewis, who started the business in London, had a Rolls-Royce which he had a bell attached to to warn oncoming traffic of his approach but this was soon removed as his chauffeur protested!

John Spedan Lewis, who was the Chairman who gave the business to all the Partners, sent many memos and all of these are housed in this purpose built area.

There is much more work to be done at the Heritage Centre, in Cookham, including setting up an internet Memory Store archive on which all stores can add their archive material.

This is really where I came in, as I work on the Robert Sayle archive which can be found at www.robert-saylememory-store.

Interest Springing from the John Lewis Heritage Centre article Following the article I wrote in the last issue of the magazine, about having worked at Robert Sayle in Cambridge and of the opening of the John Lewis Heritage Centre at Cookham, I was amazed to receive two messages regarding the early days of Robert Sayle.

The first was via the telephone and talked of a connection between Robert Sayle and his family and a local family by the name of Doggett, some of whom were working in London where they were, through their Church, in contact, with Robert Sayle’s son George who managed the Robert Sayle London office. It appears that on George Doggett’s return to Cambridge, he was employed at the Cambridge Store of Robert Sayle due to his friendship with George Sayle.

When, in the early twentieth century the shop became a Limited Company, under the Drapery Trust, there was still a strong link between the Sayle and Doggett families as in the 1920’s, almost a century after the opening of the store in 1840. We have, in the archives, a photograph of the Directors of the Robert Sayle store together with employees who had worked for the store for over 50 years, there is a G H Doggett who was both a Director and Head of the Counting House. These men totalled 579 years of service to the Robert Sayle Store!

The four Directors decided that they would like to be photographed with the employees who had been with the company for the longest time. Each man has spent at least 50 years working there! Reading from right to left: Standing: Mr Turner, a Commercial Traveller; Bill Rayner, a Van Driver; J B Rampling, a Director; Arthur H Clark, a Director and Manager of the Fashion Department; J W Pretty, a Director; J Struggles, Manager of Linens Department Seated: A Holliday, Head of Wholesale Department; D Clark, Forman of the Wholesale Packing; G H Doggett, Director and Head of Counting House; S Fromont, Foreman of Despatch; H Harvey, Driver and horse-keeper to Mr Chaplin, head of the firm.

Obviously, the Doggett family continued their work with Robert Sayle for more than one generation.

For many years, Robert Sayle himself lived above the store, until his growing family needed larger accommodation but the staff would also have lived above the store, a practice which continued for very many years.

There are still a couple of ladies who, while working at the store, lived above the shop and there is still one Partner working at the new John Lewis Cambridge who has worked there for over 50 years!

This brings me to the second contact, when I was shown photographs and newspaper cuttings from 1929 of a relative of a friend of mine for many years in the village.

This relative lived above the shop, an area known as Victoria House and it is with this link that the lady joined the Victoria House Ladies’ rowing crew of that year. In her daily work, she was in the Fur Department. The rowing clubs, male and female were very active and were very competitive. Both took part in races on the Cam. The relative crew member is shown the third from the right, standing.

If anyone has any other memories of the Robert Sayle store, either of their own or of a relative or friend, who worked at the store or remembers some particular point of interest, perhaps as an employee/Partner or as a customer, we would be delighted to add it to the Robert Sayle Memory Store which is accessible online at www.robert-sayle-memory-store or by email rsmemorystore@gmail.com It is also possible to add comments to any specific item on the online site for approval by our team. Marjorie Shaw