Answers

FOWLER, WATFORD, late 19th/early 20th century

July 2001

Stewart Mold (dolmmold @t club-internet.fr) of Le Campané, France, writes: I am searching to find out what became of my Gt Gt Aunt Clara Mold who married Henry William Fowler in the summer of 1896 I am told that they had a Jam factory in Sydney Street, Watford. Henry and his brother being partners trading under Fowler Bros. They had a daughter Dorothy who I'm told died young, I have photo's of each plus a photo of a Fowler Picnic outing. Questions are, Does the factory still exist. Did they have any more children, is there any of the family still in Watford today. Would it be possible to find a photo of the factory etc.

No joy on 1881 census for Henry William Fowler as "Henry Fowler" is just too common a name with further information such as father's name, age, and place of marriage - which you will have on the marriage certificate. There were no jam makers listed as such anywhere in Hertfordshire at that time.

Modern street maps such as Multimap show a Sydney Road (not Street) in Watford, running parallel to Whippendell Road. It is not listed in Street & Place Names in Watford and nearby Euston Avenue was not built until 1911. The area was fields in about 1880 according to a large scale Ordnance Survey map.

The Watford Central Library (run by the Hertfordshire County Council) have an excellent collection of local trade directories and other material and if you have a photograph of the Fowler Bros firm outing you could consider making a copy and donating it to them, asking them if they can give the address and dates from their trade directories, etc. (They are not likely to be interested in ordinary family portraits.)

The Watford Observer newspaper runs a weekly "Nostalgia" column so it might be worth writing to them asking if any of their readers remembers the factory. A suitably worded request could also pick up any relatives still living in the area.

Stewart Mold (dolmmold @t club-internet.fr) replied:  I have just found a bit more info from the 1902 Kelly's Directory for Herts:     Fowler, Henry William, Grocer, 152 St Albans Rd, Watford.
I should imagine this was before the Jam factory started perhaps.

He later came back with the follow wealth of information:

Apparently Fowler Bros, Jam Manufacturers were on Sydney road in 1929. There was also a H W Fowler living at 77 Rickmansworth Rd along with several other Fowlers too.

Ken Garner from the HF and PHS had made enquiries for me and said it was taken over by Chivers and then closed down, but when I got in touch with Chivers they didn't seem to think this was true, he also told me that he was told that an article had been written on the factory by the Watford museum in the High St, but when I contacted them they didn't seem to think so either, so a blank there.

 I had an E Mail from Craig Sadler, Gallery assistant, Watford Museum, saying....

  I am unable to find a copy of the article but found some info from our archives:

The company was founded in 1905 by H W Fowler and A E D Fowler. It produced Jam, Marmalade, and Mincemeat from its premises at 29/43 Sydney Road Watford. [so it was Sydney Rd and looking on the Multimap site there is a factory or something of that nature in the same place. There is an aireal photo one can beam right in, also the house on Rickmansworth Rd.]

He also located a advert produced by the firm.

"FOWLER BROS. (PRESERVES) LTD.
29/43 SYDNEY ROAD   WATFORD
TELEPHONE 4257    (3 lines)
 Jam, Marmalade and Mincemeat.

 The business was established in Watford in 1905 by H W Fowler and A E D Fowler, who are directors of Fowler Bros, (Preserves) LTD.
Which was formed in 1938 to carry on and expand the business. The company's main products are Jam, Marmalade and Mincemeat, which are distributed over a wide area, including London, Home Counties, Southern England and parts of the Midlands, goods are not packed for export. The Firm closed in c. 1960.

Of course this is excellent information.
 But I still don't know what became of the Fowler family and I have never found this elusive article.  I would also like to know if anyone can tell me who occupies the property now, there only seems to be two factory's on Sydney Street.

December 2002

Sturt Fowler (stuthesaint @t yahoo.co.uk) bring the matter up to date. He writes: My grandfather Hugh Russell Fowler passed away in December 1999 and my grandmother Edna Ethel Fowler passed away in June 2002. Together with Hugh's brother John Fowler, they owned the factory site at Sydney Road, Watford. I understand that the factory site is currently occupied by 5 different firms as a kind of mini industrial estate. Now it is owned by my father Malcolm George Fowler, My uncle Richard Fowler and Jon Fowler.

Hugh and Edna Fowler retired from Watford to Angmering on Sea, West Sussex and later to East Preston, also West Sussex. Richard lives in Alton, Hants and Malcolm lives in Swansea, S. Wales together with his 4 children Sarah, Jonathan, Stuart (myself) and David.

Looks like a definite link up here.

Since my original answer a significant number of old Hertfordshire Trade Directories have been issued on CD by ArchiveCDBooks and the following entries come from the Watford entry in the 1912 edition of Kelly's directory for Hertfordshire:

Private: Henry William Fowler, 146 Queen's Avenue

Commercial: Fowler Brothers, Jam manufacturers, Sydney Road

November 2005

Richard Westcott (lr_westcott @t hotmail.com) has kindly drawn my attention to an article in the Nostalgia (Watford) section of the www.thisishertfordshire.co.uk web site. It describes the experiences of a schoolboy working in Fowler's jam factory in the summer of 1945. It is entitled "Spooning out the wasps" and can be found by visiting the site and doing a search for "spooning".

Page updated November 2005