This is Grandfpa William Archer (WGRA) at age 77 (one year older than I am as I write this), being interviewed by The Oxford Times (the weekly Oxford paper) about himself and his firm, Archer Cowley & Co Ltd. I will transcribe the artice for ease of reference:
“When I called at the massive warehouses of Messrs Archer, Cowley & Co Ltd, in Park End Street, I was greeted by the tall, erect, elderly figure of Mr W.G.R. Archer.
Mr Archer personally conducted me round the warehouse, and as I walked I was amazed to see the furniture stacked in near orderly lots in a minimum of space. Goods of all shapes and sizes, interlocked as intricately as the most complicated jig-saw puzzle, awaited their owners’ requirements in compact, individual piles.
Mr Archer’s family must be one of Oxford’s oldest. I was shown records which mention a member of the family as Freeman of the City as long ago as 1518. The business was founded in the 19th century by Mr James Archer, uncle of the present proprietor, and is carried on now by Mr W.G.R. Archer and his two sons.
Although for a very short while he was employed as an office boy in the firm, it seemed for some time that Mr Archer’s career would be outside the family business. As a young man he spent six years in Holland with Reeds the paper-making firm, and finds that he is still quite fluent in the language. On returning to Oxford he became a specialist in house-furnishing, and the infinite knowledge and skill which he acquired stand him in good stead to this day; for Mr Archer is counted on as an authority at Rent Tribunals in valuing furniture and household goods - he is Vice Chairman of the Oxford Rent Tribunal. It was not until nearly 20 years later that he returned to the removal and warehousing business.
At that time, the first world war had just ended, and now, looking back over 35 years, Mr Archer can recall many milestones in the firm’s development. We pored over the treasures of his scrapbook together, and I saw photographs of the progress of the huge warehouse, which was the first ferro-concreter building to be constructed in Oxford, prints of fleets of removal vehicles dating from the days when several linked vans were drawn by a steam-engine to the most modern diesel-powered vans; photographs of the occasion when the firm was called in to “move the Bodleian” into the new premises in Broad Street. As specialists in packing for export, the firm has handled many unusual goods for shipment abroad. We chuckled when Mr Archer recalled that the business had originate in the passage of a two-wheeled carrier’s cart between Oxford and Abingdon!
Bread and butter has not been the only concern in a long life-time. Following the precedent of many of his forebears, Mr Archer is a Freeman of the City, and for a number of years was secretary of the Freemen. President of the Port Meadow Allotment Association for over 20 years, he has had the opportunity to develop his hobby of gardening and fruit growing to enviable standards. He keeps bees, and has represented Oxfordshire on the British Beekeeper’s Association. In conclusion, he would not wish me to forget that he has been a life-long Methodist, with a very warm place in his heart for the old Walton Street chapel. (13.2.18).