The history of Thornber Properties and Craggs

ABOUT THORNBER PROPERTIES AND THE CRAGGS COUNTRY BUSINESS PARK

1888
Edgar Thornber was born
The Thornbers story begins when Edgar Thornber was born at Laneside in Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge. He was the second son of Lettice and Robert Thornber, who in the 1891 census is recorded as being a fustian dyer. Because his parents were ordinary working folk Edgar began work at the age of 11, as a half-timer, going to school for half the day and working in a local mill for the other half.
1907
Established
Thornbers began, from a dozen hens kept in orange boxes in a backyard, to the biggest company of its kind in the world – that’s the amazing story of Thornbers, the Mytholmroyd-based business that transformed the Upper Calder Valley.

This is the remarkable tale of an enterprise that started in a very small way but which developed into a world leader, at its peak employing nearly 1,500 people.

1907
1901
Edgar began work
Edgar was just 13 when he began full-time work.
1906
The strike of fustian weavers
The family moved to Mayroyd in Hebden Bridge. That year an event took place which was to change Edgar’s life – the fustian weavers of Hebden Bridge went on strike. The weavers were dissatisfied with the fact that their wages were lower than those paid in Lancashire. The Hebden Bridge mill owners claimed that their transport costs were much higher – raw cotton which came into the country via Liverpool and Manchester having to be brought much further.

The strike was to last for nearly two and a half years. Meanwhile Edgar, young and energetic, was not going to sit around waiting for its end – he had ideas.

1906
1906
Beginning of breeding
Keeping poultry for showing was a popular hobby at the time, and generated great rivalry. Birds were bred and selected for their exhibition points. Farmers’ wives would have a few hens scratching around outside producing eggs during the summer, and these may well have been birds that were not considered good enough for showing. At that time no one really thought about selecting birds for their egg-laying capabilities, and the housing of poultry was rather primitive.

With time on his hands Edgar decided to turn a hobby into a business and set up a hatchery. He acquired a few orange boxes, some broody hens and some eggs and set these up in the back yard at Mayroyd, protected only by bits of sacking. The first sittings must have been a success, as we know that with his brother Ralph’s help at evenings and weekends, Edgar quickly increased the number of broody hens from around a dozen to 300.

Edgar was never to go back to work in the mill again.
1906
Scouring the countryside
Edgar spent considerable time scouring the countryside to find hens and the fertilised eggs for them to sit upon. ‘Hatching’ eggs were about three shillings and sixpence (17 1/2p) a dozen, and there were times when he was hard pressed to find the money to buy them. Edgar’s mother dipped into her modest purse to help, but it was the proud boast of the Thornbers that a total of no more than £25 was originally invested in the enterprise: rather, everything that was made, apart from modest living expenses, was put back into the business.

With such rapid expansion and success Edgar soon exhausted the local market. Very early he was placing adverts in Poultry World and other magazines. He was also travelling as far afield as Shudehill Market in Manchester to sell his chicks.

Even in those early days parent stock was carefully selected, and birds with any suggestion of weakness were ruthlessly rejected. That was how the Thornber reputation for quality was established.

1906
1906
First egg incubator
Artificial incubation was then only just coming into use. The majority of people looked at incubators with suspicion, but technology was an area that Edgar was never afraid to investigate. His first egg incubator, a ‘Hearson’, was housed in Edgar’s bedroom.

The cottage at Mayroyd however, was rented, and the blossoming poultry business was not appreciated by the landlord who lived in the big house next door.

Inevitably the Thornber family was invited to find other accommodation.
1911
Newhouse Farm
The family moved as tenants to Newhouse Farm. Now the orange boxes could be discarded as the 23-year old Edgar converted the barn into an incubator room. The four acres of land at the farm were put to good use with breeding pens.

Soon Edgar had progressed to 12 ‘Gloucester’ incubators, each of which had a capacity of 390 eggs. Initially these were oil-heated, though they were later changed to gas. The majority of business was conducted by mail order, cash with order – so Edgar was effectively able to build up his business using his customers’ money.

1911
1911
Transporting chicks
Arrangements were made with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company for newly-hatched chicks to be transported by fast passenger train.

Though tiny, apparently fragile things, a day-old chick can easily stand such treatment. The chick actually develops from the white of the egg around the yolk which provides a source of nourishment for up to 48 hours after it has hatched.
1913
Hatching eggs
Initially purebred stock was the main business; and Edgar was hatching eggs from 20-30 varieties of poultry. Gradually however, crossbred pullets for egg laying were introduced. Geese and turkeys too came on the scene. The business had been built up exclusively on livestock, but soon after the family moved to Newhouse Farm a friendship developed between Edgar and Ben Stansfield which would lead to important changes.

Ben Stansfield was a partner in a sheet metal business in Hebden Bridge. It was Ben who designed ‘Silver Hen’ chick rearers and other equipment which would be sold by ‘Thornber Bros’. As a result, in 1913, the appliance side of the business began. That same year another major step was taken: Thornbers bought Newhouse Farm.

Any optimism in 1913 was soon dissipated the next year which saw the start of the First World War. During the war years of 1914-18 the firm may have bravely used the slogan ‘Business As Usual’, but times were actually far from usual. Ralph Thornber went off into the Royal Flying Corps – forerunner of the RAF. At home Edgar carried on alone, doing his bit in the Local Defence Corps at evenings and weekends. Ben Stansfield used any time he could spare to keep an eye on the administrative side of things.

1913
1913
During the First World War
Poultry keepers found that their supplies of grain were severely restricted, although this was later helped by supplies of ‘ship-wrecked grain’ classified as unfit for human consumption. The price of hatching eggs rose to between six and seven shillings a dozen (30-40p), twice the price they had been before the war. But there remained a good demand for chicks. Other prices included purebred pullets, available from January to April each year at 12s 6d (62 1/2p), whilst ‘exhibition’ specimens ranged in price from that same price up to an astonishing £20.

During the war the appliance side of the business was cut back. By the early 1920s however, such was the demand that a mill known as Square Works was taken over by Thornbers. The sawdust produced in cutting timber at the mill was used in a ‘Kynock’ gas production plant to provide power, thus the waste from one section drove the two engines which powered the works.
1920
Second World War
During the war the appliance side of the business was cut back. By the early 1920s however, such was the demand that a mill known as Square Works was taken over by Thornbers. The sawdust produced in cutting timber at the mill was used in a ‘Kynock’ gas production plant to provide power, thus the waste from one section drove the two engines which powered the works.

1920
1928
Fire in the mill
There was a flashback from the gas plant. Burning shavings scattered over the mill causing a disastrous fire. Attending fire engines pumped water for a whole week. In total the fire cost Thornbers some £10,000.

Thanks to Thornbers and others, Mytholmroyd railway station was despatching up to 2,000 consignments of day old chicks per day.
1930
A million ducks a year
Such a terrible setback was not to deter further progress. In the early 1930s Edgar, together with a Lancashire duck breeder developed a new duck, based on the Aylesbury, which would fatten quickly and hatch all year round. At the Elphaborough Estate, which had been purchased in 1928, Thornbers were soon raising a million ducks a year.

1930
1937
Second World War
The Thornbers output was 3,500,000 chicks and ducks, Cyril Thornber joined the staff. Straight from school he passed from one department to another learning the job the hard way.

With the start of the Second World War two years later Thornbers business was not as badly affected as many others. Grain rationing was based on the numbers of stock at the outbreak of war and Thornbers stocks were very high at the time a census was taken. Even so ducks were considered a luxury and that side of the business was much reduced.

Meanwhile householders were encouraged to raise hens of their own. This created a large demand for chicks from Thornbers.
1944
Edgar Thornber died
Edgar Thornber died in 1944. Though having built up a business with an annual turnover of £200,000 Edgar was more interested in poultry breeding and flowers, rather than acquiring wealth.

1944
1948
Hybrid chickens
Cyril had been to the USA and met Henry Wallace who later visited Mytholmroyd. Wallace was an expert in breeding hybrid chickens, combining the best characteristics to produce the perfect bird. The result was the 404, which laid brown eggs, and would be the most popular chicken ever bred in Britain.
1950
Introduced battery cages
Thornbers introduced battery cages as the most economic method of rearing chickens and sold them around the world.

1950
1972
Foreign competition
Yet all was not well. Foreign competition began to eat away at the viability of British producers, and by the late 1960s the writing was on the wall for Thornbers. In 1972 the business was sold to Pentos holdings. However, Cyril Thornber managed to keep two poultry farms and his breeding stock. Cyril and his wife Dorothy moved from the family home Rose Mount to a bungalow, creating a spectacular garden there.
1974
The Elliott 803
Thornbers had sold 250 million. The breeding programme which led to the 404 was helped by the introduction of a computer in 1962. The Elliott 803 cost £30,000 and was one of the first such devices in Britain. It was used for genetic research, accountancy and data processing.

1974
1991
Cyril passed away
Cyril passed away quietly in his armchair having spent a busy day negotiating with Ministry of Agriculture officials.

Following Cyril’s death the family decided to discontinue with poultry altogether. A difficult decision after 84 years, but a necessary one. During the last twenty years Cyril’s son, Ralph Thornber, having recognised the need locally for business premises to rent, has been instrumental in turning the company’s under-used properties into units to let.
1913
Orchard Business Park
The company bought back the Hoo Hole Works, its former poultry equipment factory, and then Square Works in Mytholmroyd, its former office and joinery division. This was renamed Orchard Business Park.

The ‘Ark’ Day Nursery, the brain-child of Heidi, Ralph’s daughter, is one of the most successful in the North. It sits happily alongside several other businesses, housed in state of the art offices in the former poultry buildings in the valley.

1913
2011
Chris and Heidi Bingham
After the sale of his IT software company, Aspire Technology, Chris and Heidi Bingham, were looking for investment opportunities in the area, keen to stay local and having watched the site fall into disrepair since moving into the area in 1999, made the bold step of purchasing the redundant farm in Cragg Vale.

Unable to get funding from the banks for this ambitious project they set about renovating the buildings with their own funds to the next stage of its development and this was the start of the next phase for this inherently entrepreneurial family.
2015
The rebuild of The Craggs
After selling The Ark Heidi focused her attention on the development of The Craggs Country Business Park where the twelve, once redundant and decaying farm building have been transformed into this modern and vibrant business community.

The buildings were renovated in a number of phases and tenanted initially by a range of their own new businesses, Craggs Energy and Craggs Storage being the first.

2015
2016
Renovations
In 2016 Thornber chicks went through an reorganisation and The Craggs took over the running of The Orchard business park site.

The buildings were renovated in a number of phases and tenanted initially by a range of their own new businesses, Craggs Energy and Craggs Storage being the first.
2018
The Chapel
The Chapel was renovated in 2018 where the Chapel was added to our portfolio of our properties.

2018

With thanks to the following for the information:

The history of Thornber Properties and Craggs

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