| Description | Contains business records of Browns of Beverley, tailors, including administrative, legal, and sale of business records 1914-1980, financial records 1898-1979, customer records 1945-1978, staff records 1947-1979, publicity records 1830-1976, tailoring guides and pattern books 1860-1950s, and Federation of Merchant Tailors records 1950s-1961.
Also contains family records belonging to Gladys Brown relating to the Brown family, including Arthur Henry Brown and Rosa Brown 1878-1937, Gladys Brown 1901-1982, John Leslie Brown 1910s-1981, Jessie Brown later Chant and her family 1900s-1958, Brown family 1851-1980s, Hodgson family 1825-1874, Fountain family 1849-1851, family photographs 19th century-1980, Beverley Methodist records 1805-1914, cookery books 1920s-1940s, local printed sources 1900-1974, national printed sources 1814-1953, and miscellaneous records 19th century-20th century. |
| AdminHistory | John Brown founded the business in 1876. He was born in Kilham and had been apprenticed to a tailor in North Dalton in 1851. His son Arthur Henry Brown started with the firm in 1889, and his son John Brown started with the firm in 1922. John Brown took over the business when his father died in 1937. The original tailor's shop was in Beverley Market Place, and it was extended in 1906. The shop was later moved to another part of the Market Place. The business was sold in 1979 to Austin Reed. A branch of Brown's was opened in Driffield in 1937.
John Brown (c.1838-1890) married Elizabeth Fountain (1837-1912) in Aug 1862. Their son Arthur Henry Brown (1872-1937) married Rosa Hodgson (1871-1947) in 1896, their children were Jessie Brown (1897-1975), who married Arthur Guy Chant (1886-1959) in 1920, Lilian Emma Brown born and died 1900, Gladys Hodgson Brown (1901-1982), Winnie Brown (1902-2002), who married Dennis Weaver, and John Leslie Brown (1905-1983). |