Apprentices First Hand Accounts

Th e Apprentices of 28 Pavement Over Two Centuries 18221 1823 1832 1834-432 1845 1851 A manager, William Hughes, Joseph Rowntree, Birth of fi ve children lived in the house and looked Building was bought at Th e family moves ‘Grocer and at this address after the 8 apprentices, and 4-5 auction by Joseph Rowntree Joseph marries Sarah away from the shop Tea dealer’ ( John Stephenson, domestic servants; helped from Scarborough, Stephenson from Manchester to 11 Blossom Street, – registered at Joseph, Henry Isaac, by Rachel Rowntree, on his 21st birthday and afterwards to Bootham this address Hannah, Sarah) a relative of Joseph Rowntree 18551857 1857 1858 1859 1861 Joseph Rowntree dies. Removal of the York Adult His will shows the extent Thomas Hills (b. 1843), John Stephenson enters School from Hope Street to George Cadbury of Joseph entered the of the Pavement premises, Quaker and ‘journeyman’, the business, now styled Lady Peckitt’s Yard where a Birmingham spent his business, now styled including buildings in Lady and J.S. Rowntree are Rowntree & Son variety of buildings and apprenticeship in the shop Rowntree & Sons Peckitt’s Yard. Th e shop and recorded as resident rooms were used warehouses were valued in the house at £2,408 18693 1872 1876 1877 1879 1884 Th omas Hills became an Around this time, Italian warehouse and Partnership established William Rowntree Business disposed to the original building was provision dealer – also at 26 ‘Rowntree, Hills & Co, Joseph leaves the Rowntree leaves the Rowntree Hills Thomas Hills but still styled completely taken down and 27 Pavement (i.e. Th omas grocers and tea-dealers’ Hills & Co. partnership & Co. partnership Rowntree Hills & Co and rebuilt Herbert house, on other side (also at 26 and 27 Pavement) of Lady Peckitt’s Yard) 18871887 1888 1889 1892 1898 4 John Stephenson’s business is Arnold Rowntree (aged 17) Coning & Sons; with various other business occupants, Partnership between John now running at a loss of £500 was apprenticed to Pavement; Firm taken over by Th omas in 9 months – it makes him feel e.g. a guano agricultural Stephenson Rowntree and First permanent but in 1891, Joseph invited him Coning of 39 Goodramgate, ill. He asks his cousin to bring the to enter the cocoa works and merchants, a f ish company Th omas Hills is dissolved electricity installation in who retained the Rowntree apprentice Theodore Rowntree chocolate works, H.I. Rowntree registered off ice, York Children’s (Rowntree Hills & Co). this building in York shop name for many years home from Scarborough so he can & Co., in the knowledge that John Fund committee off ice, solicitors, Hills leaves York to come help to change ‘the fortunes of this Stephenson intended to retire and auctioneers, district surveyors, once prosperous business.’ sell the grocery business coast guard works 5 19321949-596 1949-60 1960 19767 1986 10 Pavement and Pavement Date of sale by Collinsons Vacant Flats. Besides Collinsons, each Vacant and under Street numbers are changed year c. 8 names are registered alteration to become in Pavement – presumably Coning & Sons business to the address, but Pavement 1970-75 1982 Pizza Hut restaurant because Picadilly was created. Corinthia Restaurant sold to JB Collinson & Sons. Flats is somehow separated Rowntrees Grocery No. 28 becomes no. 10 from 10 Pavement. Th is was Supermarket (probably Pavement said to be the tallest linked to the Rowntree 1984 1987 8 commercial building in York shop in Scarborough) Acropolis Restaurant Pizza Hut opens Apprentices First Hand Accounts 1 1840s - A Reminiscence by Joseph Rowntree II (written in 1914): 1887 - From a hand-written account of the ‘Shop arrangements in ‘Th e young men in the business dined with my father and mother in the May 1887’, which itemizes the duties of the apprentices individually: middle of the day. It was the custom then for almost everyone to take beer 1. Accounts to collect to meals, and it was supplied to the young men. My father, however, who 2. Baskets to have charge of was an able man, and one who in his thinking kept very close to the facts 3. Biscuit case in 2 shops to replenish and keep in nice order (Take care that of life, and was moreover a man of tender conscience, became alive to the the biscuits are brought forward and that they do not get stale) 2 4. Back-shop to keep tidy tremendous havoc that was caused by the use of intoxicants. He said to 5. Counting of silver and copper. The silver and copper from the three tills in himself that if these young men get into the habit of taking alcohol, one of the two shops is to be collected and taken into the office five minutes before more of them would be almost certain to be mastered by it and to become a closing time drunkard. He therefore discontinued the personal use of beer and banished 6. Cocoa holes to replenish it from the table. Th is was before my day but I heard my father speak about 7. Canisters through the chop to have their lids on every night it; it was also before the Temperance movement had come to the front. 8. Clocks in shop, office and dining room to wind up and maintain to time All of us children were brought up as abstainers, to our great benefi t.’ 9. Cocoa – and other small goods to examine with invoice when they come in 10. Composite and spice closets and chicory room to have charge of 3 11. French-door to open when required to workmen in the early morning 1852 - From Joseph Rowntree’s ‘Memoranda of Business and 12. Fruit drawers to fill; and keep supplied with fruit fit to sell Household Arrangements. York, Pavement, September, 1852’: 13. Drawers for starch to fill on Fridays ‘Th e direct object and purpose of the establishment is business’ 14. Consumption of gas to check ‘It is not a place suitable for the indolent and the wayward’ 15. Invoices to examine Warehouse books to keep ‘About 20 minutes for each meal is as much time as is required’ 16. Office requisites – paper, pens, stamps, envelopes, sealing wax, elastic bands, ‘Th ese occasions of meeting together should be felt to be as a social and carbon paper to provide 17. Paper bag room to keep in order uniting character’ ‘Every morning on entering the shop each young man 4 18. Paper to hand up on Fridays records, in a book kept for the purpose, the exact time at which he enters, 19. Parcels to send out daily as shown by the offi ce clock;… a gratuity of 26 shillings per year is 20. Posting of letters daily 12.55 and 7 and Fridays and Saturdays 8. allowed to the punctual.’ Letters to be posted at pillar except when requiring registration then to go to Lendal. 1860 - A ‘Bond of Brothers’ was formed in 1849 – a membership 21. Soap case to replenish and keep in good order of all the apprentices who had served at 28 Pavement. Th ey resolved to 22. Soap to examine with invoice and pack away on arrival. 23. String drawer to keep tidy ‘meet on the steps of York Minster at 12 noon of the thirtieth day of sixth 24. Scales to be cleaned by and when brought up for use after cleaning to be month 1860; each member to write annually and give the President an 5 shown to who is to have a general charge of scales and weights throughout account of his proceedings during that year; for the President to write the establishment a report of the proceedings of the whole Bond and forward it to each 25. Tea to prepare member.’ Th e Bond was dissolved after 1860. 26. Tea coffee and sugar stock to keep 27. Tea and coffee papers to lay 1880 - Samuel Henry Wright, apprenticed at Pavement in 1880, 28. Sweeping shop and office aged 19, looks back on his apprenticeship: 29. Samples in shop to set out 30. Scoops and inkstands to clean on Saturdays ‘We considered 28 Pavement to be the fi nest grocery shop in the city. 31. Samples to cover each evening and cakes to put in tins 6 My bedroom looked across Lady Peckitt’s Yard. A big bell hung on the wall 32. Shop to close each evening outside my room, and it was rung every Saturday morning at fi ve o’clock by 33. Supply soap to wash-basins in back shop and office. Use up here old Shean, a veteran warehouseman of seventy years, who had worked for any damaged or unsaleable tablets. the fi rm since ‘old Mr Joseph’s days’ i.e. the father of the present head of the 34. Shop windows to rub down each morning Cocoa Works. Shean used to come at that unearthly hour to light the engine 35. Window plates and door plates to clean each morning fi re and a coke fi re for coff ee and chicory roasting and I, when youngest 36. Washing of front-shop counter on Friday evenings apprentice, had to turn out to let him in. Behind the offi ce, which was quite 37. To open shop every morning a fair size, was the ‘back offi ce’ where tea tasting, sugar and fruit sampling 7 and buying was done….On market days Joseph Rowntree used to stand at 1940 - ‘My memories of 10 the Pavement is working for Mr Collinson the Despatch Counter for hours sending porters, errand boys, and van men from 1944 till 1947.

Load more