Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T12:02:28.254Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

Introduction

Gordon Boyce
Affiliation:
Canada and Britain and has taught economics, business and economic history, and international business subjects in Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Get access

Summary

Christopher Furness, the seventh son of John Furness and Averill, daughter of John Wilson of Naisbet Hall, Durham, was born at West Hartlepool on 23 April 1852. John Furness had been born in Myton-on-Swale, Yorkshire, about 1808 and moved to West Hartlepool to work on the rail lines being built into the town during the 1840s. For a time the family lived in the Ramsey Buildings in New Straton, but they later moved to Haverton Hill. After this nomadic period, in 1850 they returned to West Hartlepool where John determined his future lay. This was a fortunate decision for the town was poised for dramatic growth.

West Hartlepool had been founded in 1844 by Ralph Ward Jackson who secured parliamentary approval to develop the Stockton and Hartlepool Railway and Dock Co and to build a new harbour. During the 1850s, further railway and dock extensions supported rapid expansion of outward coal shipments, and the town emerged as a major centre in the North East for timber imports from the Baltic and Russia and as a distribution point for foodstuffs. In addition, John Pile built a shipyard and an iron works (later acquired by Thomas Richardson and in turn by Matthew Gray). This development attracted engineering works, foundries and related businesses. Local shipowners established lines to North Sea ports and developed specialized services linked to larger, well-established, bulk-cargo trading networks. As a “port-industrial centre,” West Hartlepool experienced rapid population growth (1841, 2079; 1861, 14,485; 1881, 23,219; 1901, 63,715) and a dramatic expansion in locally owned ships (1883, 184,000 tons; 1888, 325,147).

It was to this vibrant environment that John Furness returned in 1850 to establish a grocery and provisioning business in Lynn Street. Under the direction of his sons, principally the eldest, Thomas (1835-1905), the concern developed into one of the largest of its kind in the North East. Thomas Furness and Co., as the business came to be known, was founded in 1854, and by the mid-1890s it conducted wholesale import and export operations, food processing and manufacturing, warehousing, ships chandling, coal factoring and retailing through six shops located in Northern towns.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Growth and Dissolution of a Large-Scale Business Enterprise
The Furness Interest, 1892-1919
, pp. 1 - 14
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
    • By Gordon Boyce, Canada and Britain and has taught economics, business and economic history, and international business subjects in Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
  • Gordon Boyce
  • Book: The Growth and Dissolution of a Large-Scale Business Enterprise
  • Online publication: 27 April 2018
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
    • By Gordon Boyce, Canada and Britain and has taught economics, business and economic history, and international business subjects in Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
  • Gordon Boyce
  • Book: The Growth and Dissolution of a Large-Scale Business Enterprise
  • Online publication: 27 April 2018
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
    • By Gordon Boyce, Canada and Britain and has taught economics, business and economic history, and international business subjects in Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
  • Gordon Boyce
  • Book: The Growth and Dissolution of a Large-Scale Business Enterprise
  • Online publication: 27 April 2018
Available formats
×