Page 148 - Redditch People

Redditch People

The Smallwood Brothers - William

Needle Manufacturers & Benefactors

Edwin and William were the eldest sons of William William 1810 – 1901
Smallwood who was a successful needle
manufacturer. He made his fortune by introducing William and Edwin Smallwood
the gold headed needle which sold at a premium (Source: Redditch Indicator)
price. On his death his company and his fortune was
left to his eldest son Edwin. Meanwhile William had
set up a successful auction house in Alcester, where
he lived for the rest of his life.

Edwin and William were benefactors to Redditch, as
well as to Alcester and Birmingham, and their names
appear in the Smallwood Hospital and Smallwood
Alms-houses.

Source/Researched by: Various Newspapers in the RLHS archives

Life and Times of William Smallwood

William added to this by donating a further £15,000 (one million pounds). There were now
sufficient funds to go ahead with the building.

There had been much discussion about where the hospital should be built. Seven sites had
been identified around the town but William made it clear that the hospital should be built
on Church Green West, further up from the Institute. There were five picturesque but
dilapidated cottages occupying the space and with £1,500 from the funds the land and
cottages were bought and demolished. Between November 1893 and May 1895 work
continued on the building and furnishing of the hospital.

The hospital was state of the art for that time and even had an internal telephone system.
When it was opened in May 1895 there was a procession from Headless Cross to meet
Lord and Lady Windsor. At the hospital there was a ceremony where the architect, Mr.
Henman, presented a silver key to Lady Windsor to officially open the hospital. This was
followed by a fête in Bromsgrove Road while invited guests attended a luncheon in the
Public Hall on Church Road. However, William was not well enough to attend so a telegram
was sent signed by Lord Windsor:

"Your guests at luncheon congratulate you on the completion of your beautiful hospital.
The toast of your health has been received with great enthusiasm".

In the evening there was a magnificent display of fireworks to round off the day.

William's generosity did not stop here. He went on to make many public donations to
churches and schools in Redditch, Astwood Bank and Alcester, as well as to hospitals in
Birmingham. Most notably he financed the building of almshouses in both Redditch and
Alcester. These were homes for the elderly poor. In Redditch he donated £8000 from
Edwin's estate for the building of Smallwood Almshouses which are still to be seen on

Page: 148 © RLHS 2015