Catalogue description CHILCOT AND WILLIAMS LTD

X/504A/1 Partnership Agreements X/504A/2 Minutes X/504A/3 Directors and Shareholders X/504A/4 Patents and Tradenames X/504A/5 Business Correspondence X/504A/6 Factory in Surrey Street, Landport X/504A/7 Accounts X/504A/8 Stockkeeping, Orders & Costs X/504A/9 Staff Records X/504A/10 Kops Bros (GB) Ltd X/504A/11 Williams Family X/504A/12 Other Records

Chilcot and Williams Ltd, corset manufacturers of Portsmouth

• Portsmouth, Hampshire

Chilcot and Williams were corset manufacturers. The 1847 rate book makes the first known reference to James William Chilcot being a staymaker in Landport Road. In 1869 he entered into a partnership with Thomas Roger Williams and the firm became known as Chilcot and Williams, a name it retained throughout its subsequent history. T R Williams bought out Chilcot on his retirement in 1886 and the firm remained under Williams family control until it became a public company in 1938. For a while (1905-1913) Thomas Pettit Williams entered into a partnership with another corset maker, Walter William Brown, but when Brown became bankrupt in 1930, Williams bought him out. Williams also bought out the firm of E C Allen in 1942 after it had been bombed out of business. From 1938 Chilcot and Williams had a close association with Kops Bros (Great Britain) Ltd and its subsidiary Scottish Knitwear and Fashions, for whom Chilcot and Williams made garments. After T P Williams' death in 1962, the firm was taken over by Berlei (UK) Ltd in 1965 and the factory in Surrey Street eventually closed in 1970.