Since 1874
History of the yard
One hundred and fifty-two years on the same ninety feet of quay, through two fires, one flood and one very stubborn bridge row.
Jonas Garrow, late of the King’s rigging reserve, buys a tannery shed at Coalwick Quay and lays the first rope on the Brant. His partner Tomas Voss keeps the books and the customers.
The proof crane is erected on the quay. Every rope the yard has sold since carries its crane number in the ledger.
Voss family takes the books outright. Their rule is written in the front: nothing usable leaves the yard as waste.
First fire, started by a spirit stove in the old tannery end. The walk survives; the drying racks do not. Rebuilt in eight weeks.
The Brant freezes for nine weeks. The yard walks rope anyway, three walks a day, and ships it by dray when the barges cannot move.
Second fire, electrical, in the office. The ledgers back to 1891 survive in the iron cabinet, which is why they are still read at the proof crane.
The walk is listed. The yard takes on its first apprentices in forty years: two of them, both still on the books.
Eleven on the yard roll, three walks a day, and the same ninety feet of quay. The rope has never once been made anywhere else.