IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 ACC/3018
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: THOMAS AND EDGE LIMITED {BUILDERS}
Date(s): 1930-1970
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 0.4 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Thomas and Edge Ltd | builders
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Thomas and Edge Limited, builders, was founded by Edwin Thomas before 1914; he died before 1939. His son Arthur E. Thomas (Member of The Institute of Building) became Governing Director but was killed on active service in the Royal Air Force after he was called up in 1940. He had a son, Robin Thomas.
Other Directors were H.A. Godfrey; Leonard Henry Mildwater (Member of The Institute of Building and Associate Member of The Institution of British Engineers: originally joined the firm in 1914 to learn trade of carpenter and joiner, became General Foreman in 1929, Director in 1937 from which he resigned in 1946 to found his own company) and J.T.L. Wigmore, Director and Secretary.
The firm's projects included work for Government Departments especially War Department contracts. Examples from 1937-1940 include seven barrack blocks and Institute at Aldershot, Hampshire; workshops at Feltham, signals establishments at Woolwich, and the construction of factories, laboratories, research buildings, office blocks and ranges at Woolwich Arsenal which took four years to complete. Jobs outside London included grandstands built at race courses such as Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire (in 1929) before the Second World War and buildings abroad including Africa. By 1930 the firm had a Birmingham office and was undertaking contracts in Cheltenham, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Brighton and Lewes, Sussex. In 1944 work outside London, overseen by Mildwater, amounted to 95% of the company's annual turnover, thanks mainly to contracts for the Air Ministry.
Offices were at Equitable House, 25 Greens End, Woolwich (the former premises of the Woolwich Equitable Building Society). The firm also occupied premises at Eton Road and the company's Works at the Royal Dockyard Wharf, Woolwich.
(Main source of information: a descendant of Leonard Henry Mildwater, September 2018)
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of Thomas and Edge Limited, 1930-1970, comprising Board and general meeting minutes, share register, and private ledgers.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Arranged in three series as follows:
ACC/3018-1: Minutes
ACC/3018-2: Shares
ACC/3018-3: Ledgers
Conditions governing access:
These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information may be subject to access restrictions.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright rests with the depositor.
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Deposited in 1992, ACC/3018.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: July to October 2009, updated May 2018.