| Description | Summary
Newbury Laundry Ltd : memorandum and articles of association, 1934; company minutes, 1886-1985; register of directors, 1948-1967; registers of shareholders, 1886-1959; returns under the Companies Acts, 1937-1959, including returns for subsidiary companies, 1957-1959; annual reports, 1923-1962; annual accounts, 1960-1963, 1965-1969; journals, 1931-1974; nominal ledger, 1938-1958; reports and summary valuations, including information on subsidiary companies and property outside Newbury, 1947, 1950, 1964, 1979, 1982; miscellaneous material,including memorandum and articles of association of the British Launderers' Research Association, 1926, 1952, 1964.
Basingstoke Steam Laundry and Bath Co. : annual reports, 1924, 1925, 1943,1944.
Bicester Laundry Ltd : memorandum and articles of association, 1960; company minutes, 1946-1971; register of directors, 1948-1964; combined register of directors, members, returns under the Companies Acts (including annual reports) and mortgages, 1945-1952; returns under the Companies Acts, 1960-1972; copy annual report, 1949; annual accounts, 1960-1970.
Didcot Laundry Ltd : memorandum and articles of association, 1960; company minutes, 1934-1971, 1988; register of directors, 1948-1964; returns under the Companies Acts, 1960-1972; annual accounts, 1960-1970.
Oxford Laundry Ltd : records of association, 1932, 1960, 1964; company minutes, 1886-1969; returns under the Companies Acts, 1959-1975; annual accounts, 1901, 1906-1917, 1919, 1960-1973; annual reports, 1908, 1910, 1911, 1937-1949; journal, 1971-1972; register of mortgages and charges, 1941-1964; publicity booklet, c.1911.
Warminster Laundry Ltd : memorandum and articles of association, 1960; company minutes, 1940-1974; register of directors, 1948-1964; returns under the Companies Acts. 1959-1975; annual accounts, 1960-1974; journal, 1948-1972. |
| Admin History | The Newbury Sanitary Steam Laundry was established in 1886. In 1934 its names was changed to Newbury Laundry Ltd. From 1953 it operated dry cleaning services under the name of Jack O' Newbury, and from 1983 it carried out specialist industrial cleaning trhough a subsidiary, Micronclean (Newbury) Ltd. In 1988 the company was taken over by Sunlight Workwear Services Ltd. The Jack O' Newbury dry cleaning shops were subsequently sold to Sketchley's and the company head office was also sold. By early 1993 the Newbury site had been closed down, but the site at Bicester, formerly operated by Bicester Modern Laundry is still functioning (1994).
In 1934 a subsidiary company, Didcot Laundry Ltd, was established; it was wound up in 1988. The company subsequently acquired other businesses outside the county; in 1945 Bicester Moderb Laundry Ltd was purchased (it was disolved in 1971), and in 1948 the Castle Laundry (Warminster) was acquired. It was renamed Warminster Laundry Ltd in 1961 and dissolved in 1975.
The Oxford Sanitary Steam Laundry, established in 1886, was acquired in 1958, when its name was changed to Oxford Laundry Ltd. In 1961 the assets of Bicester Modern Laundry were transferred to it. It subsequently seems to have traded as Oxford and Bicester Laundry Ltd; it was dissolved in 1975.
The collection includes records of all the separate regional businesses mentioned above. Newbury Laundry also had interests elsewhere - for instance, a laundry in Torbay was purchased in 1945, and shares in the East Berks (Bracknell) Sanitary Laundry Co Ltd were owned in 1952 - but no separate records are held, probably because those businesses were subsequently disposed of by the parent company.
Four company reports for the Basingstoke Steam Laundry and Bath Co are also held, dating from the 1930s and 1940s. The connexion between this compang and Newbury Laundry Ltd is unclear. However, it may be significant that the directors' meetings and annual general meetings of the Oxford Sanitary Steam Laundry Co were held in Basingstoke for the first eleven years of that company's existence and that its registered office was also in Basingstoke until at least 1950. It is possible (though unproven) that the Oxford business was originally estabilished as a subsidiary of the Basingstoke company. |