Catalogue description RECORDS OF GEORGE STAYNES AND SONS LTD., OF 36 & 38 SILVER STREET, LEICESTER, LEATHER MERCHANTS

This record is held by Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, Record Office for

Details of 16D69
Reference: 16D69
Title: RECORDS OF GEORGE STAYNES AND SONS LTD., OF 36 & 38 SILVER STREET, LEICESTER, LEATHER MERCHANTS
Date: 1840 - 1959
Held by: Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, Record Office for, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

George Staynes and Sons Ltd, leather merchants, Leicester

Physical description: 366 Files
Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited 1969 & 1971

Accruals:

Records of Messrs Staines and Sons, Leather Merchants, Leicester, found in a separate box from the main collection and probably those records deposited at a later date by J.H. Davis Esq, 4 Guilford Road, Stoneygate, Leicester in August 1971.

Administrative / biographical background:

George Staynes' firm seems first to have been established c. 1855, as in that year it is mentioned in The Post Office Directory of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Rutlandshire, trading as curriers and brush makers at 79 High St. & 101 Belgrave Gate, Leicester.

 

By 1861 the company's address was 60 High St., Leicester and described as leather merchants and curriers in Briggs Gazetteer and Directory of the Counties of Leicester & Rutland. 62 High Street is mentioned in The Post Office Directory for 1864 and a fuller entry lists the company also as "manufacturers of leather machinery straps & uppers for boots & shoes, gutta percha depôt, india rubber hose, sheet tubing, machine belting & india rubber washers etc. & agents to the Singer Manufacturing Company's sewing machine."

 

Wright's Directory of Leicester 1887-1888 gives the company as "curriers, grindery dealers, leather dressers and sewing machine agents." The above directory for 1900 notes premises also in Cart's Lane, Leicester and Wright's also, in 1904, notes their address as 36 & 38 Silver Street, Leicester, describing them as "curriers, leather and grindery mer[chant]s, belting manufacturers & mill furnishers and sewing machine agents."

 

One of the last mentions of the company in a trade directory is in Kelly's for Leicester, 1966, their address being still Silver Street, trading as a leather merchants. The same directory for 1969 contains no mention of the firm so it may be inferred that by this date that Staynes had closed, after over a century of business in a prominent Leicester industry. Other entries in trade directories would seem to indicate that other members of the family were in the same business locally and in Northamptonshire.

Link to NRA Record:

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