Skip to main content

Wales & McCulloch

I came across this clock key for sale on eBay apparently for a clock manufactured by "Wales & McCulloch". They seemed to be a London-based firm with a shop at 20 Ludgate Hill. I haven't yet managed to track down who this McCulloch was or where he came from so it's still an unsolved mystery! Any further information about Wales & McCulloch would be gratefully received. And yes.. I did buy the key :) 


Edit: Aug 2021 

Added a few other beautiful items found online, retailed by Wales & McCulloch:

Pair of antique silver caviar trays in original box retailed by Wales & McCulloch

A yellow metal Egyptian style brooch, with scarab beetle type insert in fitted case for Wales and McCulloch




A mahogany clock by Wales & McCulloch

Edit: June 2023

I found a photograph of their retail premises at Ludgate Hill, dated 3rd June 1906:

Looking east down Ludgate Hill towards St Paul's Cathedral. Wales & McCulloch's retail premises can be seen on the far left, next door to Kent Bros. Shirt Makers. This photograph is dated 3rd June 1906 which was a Sunday. All retailers would be closed as they were not permitted to be open on Sundays until 1994.


I also decided to see if I could find any advertising for Wales & McCulloch as I thought this would be interesting and perhaps provide some new clues.

The Times, 26th May 1915

First new clue - established in 1853.

The Times, 22nd May 1918


An interesting mention of "Kew A Certificate" which I believe refers to the testing of timepiece movements at Kew Observatory.


The Times, 8th Dec 1919

I wonder if a copy of their "Illustrated Xmas Catalogue" has survived to 2023!


The Times, 22nd Nov 1920

Nice advert showing the range of items they were retailing in 1920.


The Times, 18th Dec 1924

Change of premises and a possible downsizing?

Sources:

English Heritage Archives. (1906. June 3rd). Historypin. https://www.historypin.org/en/person/11736/explore/pin/73163

Wales & McCulloch. (1915, May 26). Times, 5. https://link-gale-com.rp.nla.gov.au/apps/doc/CS84214970/TTDA?u=nla&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=9ccc9c7b

Multiple Display Advertisements. (1918, May 22). Times, 9. https://link-gale-com.rp.nla.gov.au/apps/doc/CS151194294/TTDA?u=nla&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=ec66385e

Multiple Display Advertisements. (1919, December 8). Times, 16. https://link-gale-com.rp.nla.gov.au/apps/doc/CS268635528/TTDA?u=nla&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=77dc528a

Wales & McCulloch Ltd. (1920, November 22). Times, 11. https://link-gale-com.rp.nla.gov.au/apps/doc/CS185143158/TTDA?u=nla&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=eb350a0f

Multiple Display Advertisements. (1924, December 18). Times, 7. https://link-gale-com.rp.nla.gov.au/apps/doc/CS117905298/TTDA?u=nla&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=be8be1b4

Labels:

Comments

  1. Kirsten23 March 2021 at 02:25

    I found a reference to "Wales and McCulloch" in The Standard (London, UK) on Tuesday November 1, 1887.
    22-20 Ludgate Hill is the address listed.
    I tried to post the clip but blogspot didn't like it. They were selling music boxes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Neil13 April 2021 at 18:08

    Ah that’s a shame it won’t attach. Thanks for finding that though :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MacCullochs of Plaidis, Rossshire (McCulloch Motors)

This branch, known as MacCulloch of Plaidis, Rossshire, are the ancestors of the family who founded the McCulloch Motors Corporation in Wisconsin, USA.  The McCulloch Story The man behind the McCulloch brand was a true American entrepreneur. During his lifetime, he helped mechanize the whole forest industry by the introduction of the first light-weight chainsaw, made a fortune on manufacturing turbochargers for the car industry, and founded four cities. Robert McCulloch’s most unexpected move, however, might have been buying and moving the old London Bridge, brick by brick, to Lave Havasu in Arizona. Let’s take a closer look at this extraordinary man and the company he created. Early Enterprises Robert Paxton McCulloch was born on May 11, 1911, in Missouri, as the second child of three. In 1925 Robert and his siblings inherited a fortune from their late grandfather , who, among other things, had worked for Thomas Edison, implementing his power plants all over the world. After...
Post a Comment
Read more

Horatio McCulloch RSA

HORATIO MCCULLOCH RSA Horatio McCulloch RSA was a Scottish landscape painter. Horatio McCulloch was trained in the studio of the Glasgow landscape painter John Knox (1778–1845) for about one year alongside David Macnee (1806–1882) and at first earned his living as a decorative painter. He was then engaged at Cumnock, painting the ornamental lids of snuffboxes, and afterwards employed in Edinburgh by William Home Lizars, the engraver, to colour the illustrations in Prideaux John Selby's British Birds and similar works. After he moved to Edinburgh in 1825, he began painting in the tradition of Alexander Nasmyth. Working unweariedly from nature, he was greatly influenced in his early practice by the watercolours of H. V. Williams. He returned to Glasgow in 1827,and was employed on several large pictures for the decoration of a public hall in St. George's Place, and he did a little as a theatrical scene-painter. About this time by the writings of Sir Walter Scott and the expressive...
Post a Comment
Read more

William Thomson McCulloch FSAScot

While browsing an antiquarian bookshop, I picked up a copy of  The Scottish Antiquarian Tradition: Essays to mark the bicentenary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and its Museum, 1780-1980 by A. S. Bell.  It had a small tear to a page in about the middle of the book. When I opened the page, I immediately saw the name “William Thomson McCulloch” and the words “Keeper of the museum”. Needless to say I was intrigued enough to buy the book and started researching his line. I haven’t been able to connect him to any other branches of McCulloch research so far. The earliest ancestor I could confirm had origins of Port of Menteith in Perthshire - a long way from Wigtownshire! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Menteith I didn’t find much about him online but there was a lovely tribute to him in past proceedings.  https://www.socantscot.org/publications If you’d like to see my research so far, click the link below:  https://ancestry.com.au/family-tree/tools/tree/1...
Post a Comment
Read more