THE INTERNET
As the internet grew, searching for information became easier. eBay was launched in 1999 and revolutionised ephemera buying. Frequent internet searches for Henry Thorne & Co. Ltd., though, produced little more than an ever expanding range of toffee tins.
Today, searching for Thorne’s has brought you to this website, maybe in the hope of finding answers to some of the questions I am posing here. You will discover that there is still little published information about the company.
MASSIVE EXCITEMENT!
In 2007, a set of records from Henry Thorne & Co. Ltd., were found at Ralph Thoresby School in Leeds. They were donated to Holt Park Library and then transferred to West Yorkshire Archives. Thanks to the internet, I found the Archives’ catalogue listing for their new acquisition. In the archival box are two complete Directors’ minute books covering 1889 to 1909, as well as AGM accounts and reports continuing into World War One. Various other papers and photos are included such as press photos of World War Two bomb damage to the factory.
The minute books describe the conversion of Henry Thorne & Co. to a Limited Company in 1889, led by Henry Marshall Thorne. Previously the company had been a partnership dating back to the 1830s. I found that the man in the 1926 photo is Henry Marshall Thorne – Henry Thorne’s son – the founder of the Limited Company, but not of the Thorne’s business.
Who had the foresight to protect this documentation and how did it end up in a school? Presumably they had some connection with Thorne’s? How I would love to meet them.
It took me several years to work through the minute books and make sense of the story they tell. During the period of these records, Edward Woodhead was a Director and senior shareholder, not an outright owner. So, from the creation of the Limited Company in 1889 until the start of the First World War a lot is now known about the company.
I also found, at Leeds Museums, the original Valuation and Share Allotment Book for the Limited Company.
Henry Marshall Thorne died in 1896, yet his estate’s probate was not granted until 1922 – twenty-six years later. Why probate took so long, I have yet to discover.
- West Yorkshire Archives, WYL2173 ↩︎
Henry Thorne & Co. Ltd., Leeds, England 