Freeman, Hardy and Willis
of Leicester and Northampton.
'(It was in) 1870 that Mr Edward Wood began manufacturing boots and shoes in the city under the name of Edward Wood and Company. Six years later on December 20 1876 he turned the business into a limited company with capital of £15,000 and appointed as its directors an architect Mr Arthur Hardy, his factory manager Mr William Freeman, and his traveller Mr Frederick Willis. Mr Wood took the position of chairman and named the company Freeman Hardy and Willis Ltd. Mr Freeman and Mr Willis did not remain directors for long but Mr Hardy was succeeded in the business his son (Arthur Ernest Hardy) and grandson (Hugh Rawson Hardy). The link with the Hardy family was finally broken in 1953 when Mr Hugh Hardy resigned his directorship. The company operated as boot and shoe manufacturers but in 1897 it was decided to concentrate on the retail side of the business. The first branch was opened in Wandsworth London and in the next half century it had grown to 520 branches. The headquarters was an impressive building at the junction of Humberstone Road and Rutland Street Leicester which with 750,000 pairs of shoes was almost totally destroyed by enemy bombing on the night of November 19 1940. FHW operated from nine different sites round the city. A new building of about 200,000 square foot was completed for the company on the Humberstone road site in mid-1950s.'[1]
1875 Freeman, Hardy and Willis, Wellington Street, Leicester.
1876 The company was registered on 20 December, to acquire the business of the firm of the same name, manufacturers of boots, shoes and other leather articles. [2]
1877 Partnership dissolved. '...the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned, William Freeman, Arthur Hardy, and Frederick Willis, carrying on business in copartnership, at Leicester, in the county of Leicester, as Boot and Shoe Manufacturers and Factors and Leather Merchant?, under the style or firm of Freeman, Hardy, and Willis, was, on the 4th diy of January last, dissolved by mutual consent...'[3]
1894 Advert. [4]
1903 The business of Rabbits and Sons was taken over.
1914 AGM. Jonathan North is chairman. H. Simpson Gee and Robert Hyslop re-elected as directors.[5]
For many years, there was a branch in nearly every town in the United Kingdom.
1929 Acquired by Sears
1956 Became part of British Shoe Corporation based in Leicester.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Leicester Daily Mercury - Saturday 02 September 1995
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ The London Gazette Publication date:13 February 1877 Issue:24420 Page:710
- ↑ Directory of City of Lincoln, 1894
- ↑ Birmingham Daily Post - Friday 23 January 1914