Catalogue description Messenger and Co. Ltd

This record is held by Museum of English Rural Life

Details of TR MES
Reference: TR MES
Title: Messenger and Co. Ltd
Description:

The Collection contains contract files for buildings erected in Great Britain and overseas.

Date: 1887-1953
Arrangement:

The catalogue is arranged by the following counties:

 

Bedfordshire

 

Berkshire

 

Buckinghamshire

 

Cambridgeshire

 

Cheshire

 

Cornwall

 

Cumbria

 

Derbyshire

 

Devon

 

Dorset

 

Essex

 

Gloucestershire

 

Hampshire

 

Herefordshire

 

Hertfordshire

 

Isles of Wight and Man

 

Kent

 

Lancashire

 

Leicestershire

 

Lincolnshire

 

London

 

Merseyside

 

Middlesex

 

Norfolk

 

Northamptonshire

 

Northumberland and Co. Durham

 

Nottinghamshire

 

Oxfordshire

 

Rutland

 

Shropshire

 

Somerset

 

Staffordshire

 

Suffolk

 

Surrey

 

Sussex

 

Warwickshire

 

West Midlands

 

Wiltshire

 

Worcestershire

 

Yorkshire

 

Scotland

 

Ireland

 

Wales

 

Overseas

 

NB: Where counties were not specifically mentioned in the records, current counties have been given.

Related material:

Many records were retained by the Records Office of Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, including financial records, purchase and estimate books, contract books, order books, contract files for Leicestershire, plans etc 1866-1973 [Reference DE 2121]

Held by: Museum of English Rural Life, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Messenger and Co. Ltd

Midland Horticultural Company

Physical description: 30 linear metres
Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited in 1980 (Accession Number T80/8) via Leicestershire Museums, Art Galleries and Records Service.

Subjects:
  • Horticulture
  • Buildings
Administrative / biographical background:

Thomas Goode Messenger is recorded as having a plumber's, glazier's and glassfitter's business in High Street, Loughborough as early as 1855. In 1858 he formed his own company of Messenger and Co. and by 1863 is listed as a plumber and hydraulic engineer. By 1877 the firm is described as "horticultural builders and hot water apparatus manufacturers". In 1874, Walter Chapman Burder purchased the company and in 1884 the business was moved from the High Street premises to Cumberland Road, off Ashby Road. A foundry was then built and further extensions in 1895 led to the complete closure of the High Street Branch. The firm was famous, particularly in the Victorian and Edwardian period, for making greenhouses, verandahs, summer houses, cucumber frames, melon pits, mushroom beds, orchid stages, vineries and peach houses. As the demand declined from the 1930s, the company began to concentrate more on the manufacture of heating equipment and became an engineering firm. It was also known by the name Midland Horticultural Company.

Link to NRA Record:

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