Contact me:
Peter Garwood
HELP
NEEDED !
Contact me:
Peter Garwood
THE SCALE INDUSTRY
Other
than genealogical research, a history of the development of the
scale industry in the UK/South Africa/Australia/New Zealand is being compiled over the past two centuries.
I
first became interested through researching the history of the Wedderburn name,
being a descendant of the Wedderburn scalemakers - (my grandfather
Frederick Wedderburn was a "rebel" who left the Deptford firm
early last century to go and work for Davis & Co (Vandome & Hart), despite being the
eldest son of Frederick William, the owner of the firm). The original Wedderburn
scalemaker has been tracked down, a Jabez Wedderburn born ca. 1795. The aim is
to record the development of the scalemaking tradition in the family since Jabez
first set up in Finsbury around 1815, followed by Spitalfields, Bermondsey and
Southwark by 1830. Subsequent generations left the main firm, setting up in
Aldersgate, Islington, Deptford, two cousins left for Johannesburg in the 1890s,
others for New Zealand, Australia. George Alexander set up in Southampton, in
the 1890s, the firm is still going strong today. There were numerous other
branches of the family scalemakers that I have yet to pinpoint. The Australian
Wedderburns are now probably the largest independent scalemakers in Australia
and New Zealand. As mentioned elsewhere, Philip Wedderburn from
Australia has provided most of the current data on these pages.
The intention
is to describe the
evolution of the scale industry over the past two centuries by chronicling the
movements of the Wedderburns over a corresponding period, listing amalgamations,
takeovers etc.
We would be very interested to hear from anyone who has carried out research into the history of scalemaking over this period, and especially anyone who may have any archive documents or general information that they could share with us, particularly if they were to contain specific references to the Wedderburns. Many thanks!
Contact email:
Peter Garwood