IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/B/215
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: THWAITES AND REED LIMITED
Date(s): 1780-1958
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 179 production units.
Name of creator(s): Thwaites and Reed Ltd | clockmakers
Ainsworth Thwaites and Co | clockmakers
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
This firm of clockmakers was founded in 1740 by Ainsworth Thwaites under the name of Ainsworth Thwaites and Company. The founder's son, John (born 1757), subsequently headed the firm from 1780-1816. He also served as Master of the Clockmakers' Company in 1815, 1819 and 1820. In 1816 John Thwaites entered partnership with George Jeremiah Reed, and the firm was restyled as Thwaites and Reed. The firm became a limited company in ca. 1950.
Thwaites and Reed Limited traded from the following addresses: Rosoman Street, Clerkenwell, 1740-1880 and Bowling Green Lane, London EC1, 1881-c 1974. The firm relocated to Sussex in c 1975.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of clockmakers Ainsworth Thwaites and Company, later Thwaites and Reed Limited. The records comprise daybooks 1780-1955; ledgers, including workmen's time and materials accounts, 1788-1958; estimate and order books 1802-1945; maintenance and repair books 1822-47 and 1874-80; spare parts books 1842-1912; stock books 1814-55 and 1904-54; copy invoice books 1917-20; out-letter book 1919-20; cash books and journals 1812-1951; bank books 1886-1954; and wages books 1828-1931.
Access to Mss 6788/1-6, 6789 and 6791/1-4 is subject to special conditions: for further information ask a member of staff.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.
Conditions governing access:
These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to this collection rests with the depositor.
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The records of Thwaites and Reed Limited were deposited in the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library by the company, via Mr G and Mrs H Buggins, in 1952 and 1971, and catalogued at various dates by members of Guildhall Library staff. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
See also CLC/521/MS06788A for school exercise book of John Thwaites, 1771-1808 and 1859.
Publication note:
See also 'The Context of Production, Identification and Dating of Clocks by A and J Thwaites' by G T E Buggins and A J Turner, Antiquarian Horology, 8/4, (September 1973), pp. 372-381, which contains a table of clock serial numbers and their dates between 1760-1841.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note:
Date(s) of descriptions: January to May 2011.