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Hard work at hardware shop

This month it is the 100th anniversary of the death of one of Newark's important 19th Century businessman John Howitt.

John Howitt was founder of the firm of J. Howitt and Sons Ironmongers who traded in the town on Stodman Street for almost 100 years between the 1870s and early Sixties.

At one time the company owned a number of different premises in the Stodman Street area with showrooms on the Stodman Street/Middlegate corner (now Greenwoods menswear) offices across the road at 35 Stodman Street (now Dorothy Perkins) and workshops in St Mark's Lane.

Over the years the business advertised its services across a wide range of hardware applications including the manufacture of agricultural and horticultural implements electrical engineering household ironmongery and even as agents for motor cars and cycles.

Many people meanwhile may remember Howitt's telephone number as being simply Newark 8. In later years John Howitt set up home in a large house at 67 London Road Newark called The Firs.

It is now occupied by the Newark Chamber of Commerce. John Howitt was born in 1829 in the village of Harby. He came to Newark at the age of 13 in 1842 as an apprentice in Edward Tonge's ironmongery business on Stodman Street.

A passageway known as Tonge's Yard is shown on Stodman Street at this time running roughly between what is now Superdrug and Dorothy Perkins and leading all the way through to Lombard Street.

Tonge's business it is said was first established by a Jeremiah Newton and indeed premises owned by a Mr Newton are listed on Stodman Street in early trade directories up to 1828.

Between 1828 and 1832 Newton's name is replaced by that of Tonge with whom the 13-year-old John Howitt began his apprenticeship in 1842.

Some time between 1848 and 1853 Edward Tonge was succeeded in business by Jonathan Bradley with whom Howitt continued to work eventually becoming a partner.

The firm was re-styled Bradley and Howitt and gained a wide reputation as ironmongers gas fitters bell hangers and copper and locksmiths.

Bradley an alderman of Newark died in August 1865 with his place in the partnership being continued by his wife Alissimon.

John Howitt however took over sole proprietorship of the business in 1872/3 and embarked upon a series of improvements and expansions.

A deed dated November 1877 records his purchase for £4 200 of a large building directly opposite Tonge's old shop on the corner of Stodman Street and Middlegate.

This property (11 Stodman Street now Greenwoods menswear shop) gave 428sq yds of floor-space and allowed the creation of an excellent showroom with a 67ft frontage to Stodman Street and a 45ft frontage onto Middlegate.

It was to become the main focus of Howitt's business from this time onwards and the basis of the firm's continued success for the next 20 years until John Howitt's death on March 24 1898 He died of pneumonia aged 69 and the Newark Advertiser accorded him a lengthy obituary in which he was described as "an admirable example of punctuality assiduity and industry.

Though a close observer of all that was taking place in the public life of the town Mr Howitt did not desire to hold public office preferring to concentrate his energies and abilities on his business pursuits."

He did nevertheless accept office as a church warden and was an ardent supporter of the Newark Agricultural Show and the Newark Chamber of Trade for whom he served as president in 1892.

Sons He was concluded the Advertiser: "A good-hearted and kindly man diligent in business and esteemed for his sterling worth by all who knew him. He leaves behind him the heritage of a good name which will long be cherished with sincere and affectionate respect."

Some years before his death John Howitt had taken his two sons - John T. (born 1866) and Joseph K. (born 1868) - into the business and it is they who continued in his stead after 1898.

John T. Howitt together with his wife Kate took over the family residence at The Firs on London Road and in due course raised a third generation of Howitts - J. Trevor and Keith - who were to take over the business in partnership.

Keith the younger of the two (born 1899) remained a bachelor and took over The Firs where he died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack aged 49 in 1948.

Trevor meanwhile married and lived with his wife on Holme Lane in Winthorpe. According to entries in the town's trade directories Howitt's business on Stodman Street continued trading until the early Sixties.

It is listed in the County Publicity Ltd's directory of Newark and District for 1961 but is not present in the next source available to us a local telephone directory for 1965.

This week's photograph was taken in 1960 during the firm's last years and shows part of the premises at No. 11 Stodman Street looking east towards the Market Place.

Information on the later history of Howitt's is scarce - at least in the town's written archives - and if any Advertiser reader can supply additional information I would be most pleased to hear from them.

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