Many of us still remember the Redman grocery shops which were everywhere, being particularly renowned for bacon. (Burnley Market Hall 1976 www.bcthic.org)
Tom Redman, the founder of the business, was born in Lowerhouse, and was an important supporter, official and benefactor of the cricket club, particularly in the thirties and forties when times were very hard. When Tim Redman, Tom’s grandson contacted us asking for any information we had about his family’s involvement at Lowerhouse, all we could offer were some bare dates and a very few press cuttings. A proper tribute was long overdue. This is his remarkable story, told very, very briefly, and our tribute to one of the unsung heroes without whom the club might not still exist.
Albert and Tom Redman from Lowerhouse built not just one but two retail empires, one each! Albert moved away but Tom always kept his business local, and became a “genial patron” to the cricket club and the wider community. Tom couldn’t have done it without Albert to lead the way, and both of them needed the help and support of all the family. So to talk about Tom you have to talk about them all. That’s a lot to tell, so omissions in this brief version are probably intended, errors, particularly about the business side, are not, so please excuse.
Life (and death) in a Victorian Mill Town
On the face of it, Thomas and Sarah Ellen Redman and their large family were a fairly typical working class Lowerhouse family of the late 19th, early 20th Century, whose children were destined to follow their parents into the mill or print works. Thomas Redman worked in Drew’s Calico Print Works for about 40 years, but he was a skilled man, listed in the town directories as T. Redman, Engraver. You sense pride in that.
Sarah Ellen Redman nee Pilkington, a Lowerhouse weaver, married Thomas at 21, and had 10 children, each of the first four born in a different cotton town, the rest in Lowerhouse; three died in infancy, she even buried one child and gave birth to another in the first six months of 1878, after the family had come back home. In the 1891 census there were 2 adults and 6 children between the ages of 17 and 2, crowded into just four rooms in Bear Street (image Brian Hall Collection bcthic.org). By 1911 with more children earning, they had moved to Poets Road. She outlived her husband by some 16 years and died aged 74 in 1925, so made of tough stuff.
John Redman, the Lowerhouse Cowboy
John, the oldest child, was only an apprentice mechanic in 1891, but took qualifications at Burnley Mechanics Institute. In 1898 aged 24 he went to work for the Canadian Pacific Railway as a mining engineer in the wild west of British Columbia. Margaret Yarwood then sold her family boot-making business in Burnley and made the long journey to Kamloop to marry him. John later became a cattle rancher, so although not part of our story, John was obviously clever, adventurous and practical. So his brothers might be too.
That left 6 children at home, in birth date order they were Amy (1877), Bertha (1878), Albert (1884), Clara (1886), Thomas (1888) and Walter (1893) and that’s our cast of characters, and there was certainly a touch of the showman about both Albert and Tom.
Albert, the Fruit and Nut Case
Like all the Redman children, Albert first went to work in the mill at 11, but at 12 he was a grocer’s errand boy, at 17, in the 1901 census, a grocer’s assistant and soon he was the grocer. Within five years he had market stalls and shops in Nelson, Colne and Padiham, and locally at 211 Padiham Road and was employing all his working age siblings. He originally only sold dried fruit, nuts and vegetarian foods, possibly out of personal conviction. Albert was a Wesleyan and some Wesleyans were vegetarians.
In 1907 he opened a shop on St. James’s Street, and a stall in Burnley Market Hall. He also had a wholesale warehouse in Curzon Street. The shop soon closed, but he kept the stall for years, even after he left Burnley.
Then he made his big move. In early 1909 he married Laura Holt, off Thornhill Street, once a weaver but now of course a health food dealer’s assistant, and they went to open a shop in Manchester, leaving the existing business with Tom. At his death A. Redman Ltd was a still expanding chain of some 70 bakeries, grocery shops and restaurants based in Oldham Street. He was known in the trade as “Nuts Redman” because of the vast quantities of dried fruit and nuts he sold. In 1947 he bought the 100 bedroom Park House hotel on Blackpool prom and he and Laura moved in to run it – a far cry from Bear Street. They lived there until their respective deaths, Albert in 1957 aged 73, and Laura 10 years later. The hotel was famous for its sun lounge and Albert might be the chap in the dark suit standing near the waitresses, in this hotel postcard from 1954.
Tom and the Family Firm
After Thomas the engraver died in mid 1909, Tom the grocer sold 18 Poets Road, (3 bedrooms, hot and cold water throughout, large garden), and the family moved to Barry Street, handy for his shop at 211 Padiham Road. He also had premises on Park Lane from where he built an incredibly successful wholesale and retail grocery business which remained locally based for the next 70 years.
One very noticeable change around this time was that Tom’s Redman’s got heavily into bacon and his Padiham Road shop went from being “the Vegetarian Shop” to being “the Bacon Shop”. Although they may have exaggerated quite how healthy bacon was, in 1933.
Tom and Albert employed members of the family, wherever possible, including family by marriage. In the 1911 census, Amy and her husband John Haworth are selling health foods in Nelson, Clara and 18 year old Walter, are both in “dried fruits etc.”, she as a shop assistant and he as “an advertising manager,” Tom is a grocer and employer, and Bertha is a greengrocer, but probably at 209 Padiham Road, later part of Tom’s shop.
The Redmans attended the Lowerhouse Wesleyan Church where there were lots of sports, concerts and social events. Tom and Clara in particular were keen on performing in shows. It was also a respectable place to go courting. In the summer of 1911 Tom married Hapton farmer’s daughter Elizabeth Lishman Lee, who was related to a big Lowerhouse family of shopkeepers, dairymen, grocers – and Methodists.
In 1924 Tom’s business became a limited company, T. Redman & Co. Ltd. and they continued to spread throughout East Lancashire and beyond, committed to offering good quality food and a fair deal, often competing with the Co-op shops and their “divi”.
In the 1930s they moved their business HQ into bigger premises on Newport Street near Gannow Top, and only left there 40 years later due to the motorway clearances, finally breaking that local link that Tom had so valued.
Walter, the Quiet One…?
Standing left to right Tom Redman, Chairman, sons Thomas T. and Walter, Joint Managing Directors, and C. Nadin, company secretary, seated is Walter, Tom’s youngest brother, on his retirement.
Walter was the youngest child by some distance. He was about 12 when he left the mill to join the Redman’s business. When he retired in 1957, (see photo) he had worked for Albert for about 20 years, and then from 1924 he was a branch inspector for T. Redman & Co. Ltd. back home, for 33 years. So, you might think he had lived a fairly quiet life. You’d be wrong.
When the First World War broke out he was managing a Redman’s shop in Preston and joined up immediately with the Manchester Pals. He was awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery and his story of clearing out a German gunpost and “persuading” (grenade in hand) a dozen or so Germans to surrender is quite remarkable. He spent the whole four war years in the army and came through unscathed, physically at any rate, but probably had had enough excitement for one lifetime.
Moving from branch to branch, he married Elizabeth Ann Taylor, from Manchester, in 1920, and in the 1921 census they, and her parents, were living above the shop in Upper Wortley, near Leeds. Back in Burnley they had two children, Kathleen and Albert (not another one!). Walter latterly lived at 40 Kiddrow Lane and died in 1958. His son Albert, was a very familiar figure around Rosegrove and Lowerhouse. He was Lowerhouse CC’s second eleven scorer, and in 1950 getting married was just about accepted as a reason for missing a game! At that time Albert was a baker and confectioner in the family business on Newport Street, off Gannow Lane.
But weren’t there some sisters…?
Yes, there were. Amy, Bertha and Clara were crucial to the business. They worked in the shops and market stalls from the very beginning, and kept on working, even after they married. Before that they were weavers from being about 11. Amy (b. 1876) and Bertha (b. 1878) must have also had to help with the younger children and with the drudgery of housework. They were already in their twenties, and Clara, (b 1886), was in her late teens when they left the loom for the shop counter. Respectable wives and shop assistants rarely feature in the newspapers and all we know about them is of the “hatched matched and despatched” variety.
Amy, was 29 when she married Lowerhouse weaver John Haworth in 1905. They became early employees of Albert’s in Nelson market hall. They had one child, Harold. In 1921 John was managing the Padiham Road shop, whilst Amy was working on Albert’s health food stall in Burnley Market Hall. John died suddenly in 1925 aged only 47. Amy however lived to be 80.
Bertha was already 35 when she married a considerably younger man, Alfred Bowers, in 1913. In the 1911 census she is a greengrocer. She and Alf traded as Bowers Fruiterers at 209 Padiham Road but by 1921 she was a Redman’s shop assistant and Alf was working elsewhere. She had two sons, Jack, and Harold, and died in 1934 aged only 56.
Clara was 29 and already working for Redman’s when she married Herbert Gladstone Harrison in 1918. In 1921 he was a grocery manager and she a grocery assistant, both on Tom’s stall in the market hall, where she worked for many years. She lost her son Alan in 1923 aged 4 and Herbert in 1927 when he was 40. She died in 1951, aged 65.
They all lived locally. Bertha and Clara remained Methodists, but Amy was buried at Habergham All Saints.
So that’s how Tom the Grocer with the help of his family, became a prosperous and respected businessman and now we can look at how Tom the “Genial Patron” used that wealth and position to help others.
A Pop-up Shop (1923 style)
Firstly, he continued to help and support Lowerhouse Methodists. At their annual bazaar in 1923, he and Albert created quite a sensation with this pop-up grocery stall. They donated goods worth £100, and every penny taken was profit for the bazaar.
Cricket in the blood
Tom said that he had been associated with the cricket club all his life, and “anyone born at Lowerhouse had cricket in the blood.” His son Thomas Thackeray Redman played for Lowerhouse in the 1940s, mainly for the Seconds, including being captain in the 1947 season.
In 1915, for the first time, Tom’s name appears in the club membership list, up there with the Drews and the Dugdales and the great and the good, paying the top rate of a guinea.
Lowerhouse also held three bazaars in 1914, 1925 and 1934 when they were in desperate need of money. Albert advertised his new cafe in the 1914 programme:
In 1925 Tom was President of the Bazaar Committee; his ad is targetting the busy modern housewife:
The Club’s Rock in Hard Times
Tom Redman was mainly responsible for restoring the club’s desperate finances in the 1930s. In 1932 he founded the League’s first ever money-raising Supporters’ Club. He encouraged the club to organise the Redman Cup, an annual cricket competition for works teams, for which he provided a handsome silver trophy. The winners received a small replica and gold (!) medals. The games brought money into the club and were played on Friday evenings. Tom also did smaller acts of kindness, for example he gave players talent money for good performances, and his gardener looked after the much admired floral borders at the ground.
He went on the committee in 1934, became Vice Chairman in 1935 and Chairman from 1936 to 1939. He then caused panic by resigning, but only because he was going on a long trip to visit the New York World’s Fair and North America, and he promised to stay on the committee. So then they made him Local President, the actual (honorary) President was always the head of the Dugdale family. The new Chairman died in 1940 so Tom became Chairman again, until 1944.
In 1946 the Club was again dismayed to learn “that our Local President, Mr. T. Redman, was entering into semi-retirement and moving to St. Annes…” but were relieved to learn that “Mr. Redman…will continue his substantial material assistance.” And so he did. When the clubroom was entirely destroyed by fire in November 1949, Tom declared: “We are not going cap in hand to the League or to the clubs for assistance. We will do this job ourselves…” He started the rebuilding appeal with a donation of £100, and his wife Elizabeth also gave £25.
Unfortunately, we only have press photos of Tom, but this is a nice one from April 1954 when pro Khan Mohammad introduced Tom to his 17 year old brother and future Lowerhouse star, Miraj “Maxie” Mahmood.
Tom remained Local President until his death in 1969.
And the rest…
Tom truly loved cricket, and was President of the Sunday Schools Cricket League and of the Burnley Wartime Cricket League, but he also supported lots of grass roots sport. He was instrumental in setting up Caldervale Rugby Club, where his son Thomas T. played. He and his wife Elizabeth donated another Redman Cup to Ightenhill Bowling Club Ladies Section, of which she was President, when it formed in 1933.
Flying the Flag and raising money
During WW2 he worked extremely hard raising money for the war effort. He was Vice Chairman of the Burnley Spitfire fund and set up a Toms’ Fund, to which all Toms, including owners of cats, were asked to donate, but he particularly enjoyed a fund raising sporting event, such as this bowling tournament, to which he donated yet another Redman’s cup.
Close of business
After the death of “our” Albert, A. Redman Ltd. of Manchester carried on under the leadership of his only son, Albert (!), until the 1970s when they were bought out. Although the new owners still traded as Redmans, they quickly sold off properties including Albert’s Blackpool Hotel home, and the Preston shop from which Walter had gone to war. Albert’s old company was no more.
In Burnley, Tom had wisely stepped aside, his sons Thomas T. and Walter were joint Managing Directors and Thomas T.’s son Chris was learning the business from the shop floor up. Then Thomas T.’s premature death in 1967 aged only 54, meant Chris became Managing Director much sooner than planned. In 1976, the coming of the motorway enforced a move from the Gannow warehouse to one in Harle Syke, breaking the local link.
Chris obviously had the business in his genes, unlike his brother Brian, a racing driver. Over the years Redman’s had to severely downsize but 90 years after his great uncle opened his first market stall, Chris was still running a small chain of Redman’s shops. His grandfather Tom would have been very proud. Eventually the shops did disappear, even though some linger on, in a manner of speaking. (Photo from 1981).
Tom Redman
A man of very humble origins who never forgot his roots in Lowerhouse
- he founded a chain of grocery shops which became part of local life for some 80 years and gave employment to many;
- he raised lots of money for the war effort in Burnley during WW2;
- he was a generous patron of local amateur sport, particularly cricket, for many years;
- without him Lowerhouse Cricket Club might not have survived the depression of the 1930s, or the disastrous club room fire of 1949.
A true Lowerhouse Legend.
ac June 2025