Catalogue description Volumes and corresp. etc. of Joseph Bryant Ltd., ropemakers, Broad Plain, Bristol 2

Stephens Bros. and Martin Ltd.

Property

Business

Valuations

Apprenticeship

Photographs

Miscellaneous

Joseph Bryant Ltd.

Property

Ledgers

Business

Taxation

Probate

Apprenticeship

Burgess records

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

Joseph Bryant Ltd, Bristol, ropemakers

Stephens Brothers, Bristol, ropemakers

Martin Ltd, Bristol, ropemakers

Deposited on indefinite loan in the Bristol Record Office by Joseph Bryant, Managing Director, on 19th February 1974.

Stephens Brothers originated in Bridport, co. Dorset early in the eighteenth century and first appear in the Bristol directories in 1844 as St.Philip's Hemp and Flax Mills. The mill building constructed then and its original beam engine house and chimney still exist, with later additions like those recorded in the early twentieth century. George Palliser Martin joined the Stephens brothers in the 1870s and in 1924 became the owner of the business from which the private limited company was formed soon after. Martin was well-known in Bristol in industrial circles and served as President of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce and as a Justice of the Peace before his death in 1929. Business declined during the 1930s and the St.Philip's Mills were leased to Joseph Bryant Ltd. from 1942. In 1960 Stephens Bros. and Martin Ltd. was purchased by Joseph Bryant Ltd., who had earlier acquired the St.Philip's Mills, and ten years later Stephens Bros. and Martin Ltd. discontinued operations.

Joseph Bryant, son of William Bryant, a coalminer of Stoke Lane near Shepton Mallet, co.Som., was apprenticed in 1711 to Jane Green, widow of Francis Green, who carried on her husband's ropemaking business in Temple. Joseph set up business in 1718 and probably lived and worked in St.Philip and Jacob until the 1750s. He and his son John are known to have been in Bedminster, probably Bedminster Causeway, after 1753, though John voted at St.Philip and Jacob again in 1774. Ten years earlier he became a trustee of the Baptist burial ground in Redcross Street. John's son Joseph married into a ropemaking family and continued the family's trade. His son John raised a large family in St.Paul's and was probably connected with the ropewalk in Grosvenor Place, Wilder St. It is from John's son William that the present firm developed, though other branches of the family were connected with ropemaking and associated trades.

William and his wife Eleanor moved to Church Lane, St.Philip's which remained their place of business until 1858 when they leased 95 Old Market St. After her husband's death in 1859 Eleanor carried on trading until her remarriage in 1873 when her eldest son Joseph assumed management of the business in his own name. The business was assigned to him by Eleanor in 1883. The ledgers and other business records which survive from 1863 provide much information on the development of the business, including the building of a new ropewalk at Church St.,Newtown, methods and rates of pay and product costings. Following Joseph's death in 1902, his brother George acted as trustee until Joseph's son Arthur took over the business in 1912 when he was admitted as a burgess. The business, still known as "Joseph Bryant", was run by friends while Arthur was on active service for two years from 1917. Arthur's sons Joseph and John were apprenticed to him in 1944 and joined him in the business which had become a limited company and extended its range of activities. Arthur died in 1967, the same year as his grandsons William and Richard were apprenticed to their father Joseph. William and Richard became burgesses in 1974.

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