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John Cave & Sons - Introduction
tradenames
pencil
John Cave & Sons Ltd, Rushden pencil printed with
"Commonwealth", "Kyngzone" and "Worlds Best" tradenames
Razor blades & Clocking-in Tokens

Business

Extract from Memories of the 1890s by R E Bayes
Grandfather Skinner, a choir and band conductor, and the owner of a Sunday frock coat and silk hat, lived in Handel House, Queen Street, and was timekeeper in the Cave factory.

Rushden Echo, 1st January 1915, transcribed by Kay Collins

Mr Wilfred E Capon, secretary of Messrs John Cave and Sons Ltd., Rushden, has passed the Intermediate examination of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries.
export to Kansas
1910 outside the College Street factory on a wet day - railway wagons with boxes for export to Ellet Kendall Shoe Co, Kansas City.
Photo by S Powell
Note: T. C. Ellet, president of the Ellet-Kendall Shoe Company, was born in California in 1855, founded the company in Mississippi in 1867, before moving to Kansas City around the 1890s.
To read about the crates being made see: Fred Dickens

Shoemaking was a reserved occupation and to prove they were in emloyment some of the men wore badges - issued by the company in 1915.

Leisure


Polish tin and an oversized shoe made for an exhibition.

wartime advert
A Wartime Advertising postcard

click here for two interactive presentations of the Cave's centenary booklet and demolition after Eaton's closed

choose the title - then click Run to view the album

Please note that because of the limitations of the software package used, it will at present only display on-line in Internet Explorer, other browsers will download the file to run locally


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