Here is the best history of Archer Cowley I have seen. Written (by the Oxford Times’s ‘Down Memory Lane’ man, John Chisholm?) no doubt with access to the Oxford Times’s own archives and records: (with additions by pba from WGRA’s ‘back of an envelope’ account of it all):
1836 James Archer born, son of John Archer 1803-1881, victualler and brewer;
1857: James Archer begins his parcel-carrying service in a two-wheeled horse-drawn cart between Oxford, Radley and Abingdon;
1860s/1870s/1880s: Business was so good from both city and university clients that eventually he had 26 horses which were kept in a 180 acre farm at Grandpont. (I had heard nothing of this at all.).
1870 to 1925 (per WGRA’s account): ‘Horse Pantechnicon vans’ (perhaps this is just another name for the ‘lift vans’ shown on another page of this history of Archer Cowley & Co?) were put on rail for long distance removals.
1876 Mark (‘Mack’) Cowley joins the firm, but not yet as a partner of James Archer.
1878: William G.R. Archer born Shillingford, Oxfordshire, moves to Oxford with the family in about 1886, and leaves school in 1893; 1894 he travels to Holland for a holiday and stays for 6 years, working for his uncle Albert Edwin Reed as clerk at his Papier Fabriek, at Kaizersveer, Raamsdonk, returning to Oxford in 1900, and working for George Blake (his father-in-law) in his house-furnishing business in Little Clarendon Street, for almost 20 years, until July 1919.
1880s: One of James Archer’s major tasks in the 1880s was to empty the old Oxford Town Hall and equip the new.
(Added 26.8.15): 1882 James Archer buys 2 acres of land from the Great Western Railway at Hinksey as a speculative residential development. Plots of the land began to sell in 1887 and eventually 60 terraced houses were built there in Archer Road, a continuation of Marlborough Road, and which quite soon was re-named Marlborough Road, as it was really merely a continuation of that already-existing residential street, running parallel to Abingdon Road, south of Folly Bridge.The GWR’s ownership of the land may have dated from the time that the GWR intended to build its locomotive design and manufacture centre at Oxford rather than Swindon - a move scotched by the university. (This 1882 development is probably not strictly relevant to the history of AC & Co, though it may have assisted James Archer to fund subsequent development of the firm. It cannot be ruled out that he bought the land as part of or as an addition to the so-called ‘farm’ at Grandpont where he kept the horses for his transport business). Click here to go to the page from an online source describing this development in more detail.
Long distance removals went by rail with containers loaded onto flat wagons, and horses being hired to make deliveries at the other end. Click here to go to these so-called ‘Lift Vans’.
1890: R. Rippington becomes partner with M.J.Cowley and James Archer.
In 1901 (18 years before James Archer retired), the firm was one of only four in the country to have a 15 ton traction engine (a Wallis Stevens steam tractor, acquired 15th November 1901), which hauled three big containers and a water cart at a maximum speed of 7 mph. It had to stop every 15 miles to replenish the water supply. This may well be the traction engine shown in the web-page banner above, or to be seen more clearly (click here) in the full-scale version of that graphic, though that does not include the water cart.
1907 Fowler steam tractor acquired June 1907 to replace the Wallis Stevens tractor, and (the Fowler) was sold in 1923
In 1913 (6 years before James Archer retired), Archer Cowley & Co was the first in the trade to have a Foden steam wagon - acquired on October 18th 1913.
1919: 1st July: William George Reed Archer (‘WGRA’) joins M.J. Cowley and R. Rippington as partner in the firm and James Archer retires. William Archer never retired from the firm until it was sold to Cantays in the late 1960s, so he kept it and ran it as a family business for 50 years, until he was about 90 years of age. James Archer was born in 1836 and retired when he was 83 - cf WGRA’s age of 90 years, though WGRA had his sons Fred and Arthur to assist him to the end, as well as his three daughters who were all remunerated directors of the business.
1919 (per WGRA): ‘Oxford’s first concrete warehouse added at Park End Street when I (WGRA) joined the firm in 1919, and completed in 1920.
In 1921 (2 years after James Archer retired) Archer Cowley & Co was one of the first in Oxford to run a four-ton petrol furniture van. This is the Dennis van acquired August 25th 1921 at a cost of £1,184 - and sold 4th June 1934 for £40.
1922 Death of James Archer, age 86. He has no children. William Archer is the residual legatee in his will and becomes correspondingly wealthy.
1923-ish: F.G.B. Archer, second son of William Archer, joins his father at Archer Cowley & Co, at the age of about 18, after a few years service with George Blake in his house-furnishing business in Little Clarendon Street. Fred’s elder brother, Arthur, joined later, from the test department at Morris Motors/Morris Garages (MG), Cowley.
1923: William Archer acquires Somerville House, 130 Banbury Road, Oxford.
1933 William Archer becomes sole owner of the business on the death in December 1933 of R. Rippington and the retirement in the same month of M.J. Cowley, after 57 years service in the firm.
1934: One of Archer Cowley & Co’s biggest contracts was the removal of books from the Bodleian Library in Oxford to the New Science Library: 137 vanloads in 3 weeks, an average of 11,765 books per day.
1944: Death of MJ Cowley.
By mid-century, Archer Cowley & Co had an up-to-date fleet of diesel and petrol vans travelling to many parts of Britain.
1957: Saturday 16th March, centenary of the firm celebrated by a dinner at The Cadena for all staff - click here to go to a graphic of that event. Mr W. Isard, President of the National Association of Furniture Warehousemen and Removers (NAFWR) congratulated Archer Cowley saying ‘Your firm can look back on completing a century of service, and with two more generations in the business, it is well set for the future. From every point of view, family businesses are the best to work for - and the best to give service to the public". In reply, William Archer praised the firm’s ‘splendid staff’ and announced a pension scheme was to be introduced for them. On behalf of the staff, Oswald Bennett presented him with an umbrella in appreciation of his “inspiring leadership and great service”.
Approx 1969 Archer Cowley & Co sold to Cantays, 50 years after WGRA took over from James Archer, in the absence of family member(s) to take on the running of the business. Same year (1969): death of WGRA at age 91.