I recently wrote about the lovely things to be found along the streets to the east of Gloucester Road and I mentioned that I spotted quite a lot of attractive coal hole cover plates along the way. Quite a few bore the name Haywards, a company that became one of the largest suppliers of this kind of thing, others had names worth further investigation.
This first of these Bartle cover plates, shown below left, is cut into into a slab of York Stone in Cornwall Gardens. It shows two different patents.
Patent 1: The outer ring/casing is made by Haywards Patent ring and includes instructions how to install the fixture:"This ring to be fixed with Portland cement / For Haywards Patent Plate 12" which indicates that Haywards intended that one of their own lids should be to be dropped into this space. Whenever I have found plates with these fixing elements visible they have mostly included the Haywards* name, however, with about 98% of cover plates being of the 12" variety, it's fair to say one size [almost] fits all. But the instructions are not meant to be visible – as per Haywards' instructions, the outer recessed lip should have been covered by cement to hold it in place, as shown by the pic on the right; a messy example I spotted in nearby Lexham Gardens.
Patent 2: These two covers advertise James Bartle's Western Ironworks in Notting Hill and are interesting because they also include "Bird's patent self-fastening plate" – something I have seen before but not really thought about or addressed until now. Who was Mr Bird? Perhaps he worked for the Bartle family and had another job making custard? Having just 'wasted' 20 mins on this in a futile nline search and found nothing but observations, I am going to have to shelve this research for another day – please do let me know if you can shed any light on Mr Bird.
Another Notting Hill company is also prevalent within the posh streets of South Kensington is R. H. & J. Pearson Ltd:
Pearsons also implemented circles within their anti-slip designs, varying the amount of circles from five to seven, as I believe the one on the left is the more recent of the two – it advertises the company's 'Patent Automatic Action' – a different way of saying 'self-locking' as seen on other makers' plates – the plate was dropped back into the hole, it triggered a catch which immediately locked it, negating the need for additional human interaction below. The pretty plate on the right sports ventilation holes allowing air to circulate within the coal bunker below.
More circles near Cornwall Gardens. Two very simple designs:
The self-locking plate on the left sports raised dots as additional non-slip and appears to have traveled all the way from Stockport! Mikey Ashworth has shared some marvelous info about John Needham & Sons here. The one on the right bears no maker's name but includes glass inserts to allow light into the space below, as also seen here in another Bartle plate:
I like these two because it shows how one design can be adapted as sold or with glass, which I assume are prisms or cones that spread the light rather than just direct it downwards.
Finally, these two – an almost smooth plate set within an octagon shape and a plate bearing the name of a local trader.
I have only ever spotted one other housing with eight sides and it's in Marylebone, near Regents Park. Neither are branded. The Farmer Brothers plate in Drayton Gardens is special because it is sited a stone's throw from the company's shop – and they are still trading today, but I can't seem to link to their website. I have not discovered any Farmer Bros plates, but surely there must be, Farmers being the local hardware store.
I now now realize that this last pair of pics looks like a diddy little hexagonal plug point next to a manhole cover! The pics here are all exactly the square format shots that I snapped on the day – I haven't shown the subject matter in proportion. FYI, the standard size cover for a cover plate (the central removable bit) = 12"/30cm diameter and I've just recalled that one of them was [unusually] slightly larger than the standard size – I think it was probably the older Pearson one with the ventilation holes.
*If you are interested in finding out more about Hayward Bros, a fascinating company, why not join me for my Southwark Ghostsigns guided walk.
