In the year that Great Britain issued the world’s first adhesive stamp, The Penny Black featuring Queen Victoria, construction began on Westminster Palace replacing an earlier Medieval palace which burned down in 1834 and Charles Wilkes was first to identify Antarctica as a continent,  a gentleman named William Wright took up gold beating in the City of London forming what has now become the well known company in the trade “Wrights of Lymm”.  The company resided in London for some 30 years until it was then moved to the city of Manchester where the work was carried out in a cellar and passers by could watch the incredible art of gold beating take place through a grille in the pavement.  Eventually Wrights of Lymm relocated to the picturesque village of Lymm where we still reside today.
 

Penny Black Penny Black
Westminster Palace Westminster Palace
Charles Wilkes Charles Wilkes
Antarctica Antarctica

 
The Stonehouse family have been gold beaters since 1936, with Eric Stonehouse being the first family member to work for his Uncles firm, Smiths the gold beaters in Manchester, both before and after the war. He later moved up to Scotland where he worked as Works Manager for Cecil Whileys and then returned to Cheshire and formed the company C.F.Stonehouse and Sons, with his wife Alice and two sons Clive and Noel.

180 years later Clive Stonehouse and his wife Dee continue to service worldwide customers with Gold Leaf, Signwriting products and faux finish products after the opportunity arose in 1993 to purchase Wrights of Lymm and have expanded the business, supplying The Royal Households, prestigious restoration projects worldwide as well as continuing to work with many Monumental Masons, Traditional Signwriters and Artists. Over the last few years Clive and Dee have also created the brand Connoisseur Gold supplying edible gold and silver leaf to Michelin Star Restaurants, Distillers, well known Supermarkets and individuals for home use.

 

Wrights first Gold Beating factory in Lymm
Wrights of Lymm today

 

Other interesting events in 1840

  • Uniform Penny Post mail system started throughout the United Kingdom
  • The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast Of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives
  • Dutch King Willem II was crowned
  • Baltimore College of Dental Surgery was the first to be incorporated in the US
  • Born this year…Rodin (the thinker), Claude Monet, Tchaikovsky (swan lake)
  • The 2nd Grand National took place with Bartholomew Bretherton winning, a then smallest field of 13
  • Draper takes the 1st successful photo of the Moon (daguerreotype)
  • A meteorite hits Uden in the Netherlands
  • The Cunard Lines 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end.
  • New Zealand officially becomes a British Colony
  • William Henry Harrison was elected as the 9th President of the United States of America

 
We would like to thank our past and present customers over the years, it is you that has made Wrights of Lymm