Page 7 - L&T William Avery

William Avery Redditch Heritage

WILLIAM AVERY 1832-1899

Inroduction

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Dr. Page introduced his ‘In Memoriam Mr. William Avery’ by stating that ‘William Avery
had ‘for sixty years ... taken a prominent part in the public, social and religious life of the
town and neighbourhood’. He concluded:

William Avery was distinguished by generous sympathy, which showed itself in
a willingness to render ready help to all, transparent simplicity, sincerity,
integrity, and unostentatiousness; by charity, love of fairness, and invariable
wit and good humour. These secured the affectionate esteem of all who knew
him. His example and the remembrance of his work and name will ever survive
in local fame and history.

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William Avery was born in Headless Cross on 1st May, 1832. He received his early
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education ‘in the two chief scholastic establishments situated in Evesham St.’. The
schools may have been those of Thomas T. Shore and William Henry Tomlinson. He then
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he went to the Wesleyan College (later Queen’s College), Taunton. The college aimed to
provide ‘a regular and liberal course of education’. 5

Manufacturer of needles and needle cases

At a relatively early age William Avery was
initiated by his father, John Avery, (died 25 June
1865 aged 58 ) into the ‘art and craft’ of needle
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making. In later years, he was well known in the
Redditch area as the successful head of W. Avery
& Son, as a manufacturer of needles and
inventor of needle cases. The needle cases
included models of for example, a hat box, a
drum, a chair, Shakespeare’s birth place and a
wishing well. At the Exposition Universelle
(1889) in Paris the W. Avery & Son’s display
included a brass needle case in the shape of the
Eiffel Tower, a miniature scale replica of the
exhibition’s main attraction.7 He was also well-
known for his needle case in the form of a
butterfly which carried needles under its wings. 8

The ‘W. Avery & Son’ premises were in the
Birmingham Jewellery Quarter at 192, Great
Hampton Row. The needle cases were made
using tools similar to ones used to make
jewellery. The Avery needle factory was in
Birchfield Road, Headless Cross and was shown
on an 1895 map as a needle factory. The present
Stonehouse Close is in the centre of where the
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factory was. The firm was sold to another needle
manufacturer, J. English & Son in September
1900.

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