W. Redhead & Son Ltd, ironmonger; a Grimsby shopfront photo c1905.

A large, original, shopfront photograph. The photographer is unknown.

William Redhead, wife Alma and son, William Henry George Redhead, ran an ironmonger’s shop in Amersham, Buckinghamshire in 1901. Between sometime after then and about 1908, they were in Grimsby. W. Readhead & Son ran a general & furnishing and ironmongers shop at 146 Cleethorpe Road. (The business was previously Cartwright Bros.). Later they moved to 177 Cleethorpe Road and upgraded to become an ironmonger, cutler and general house furnisher. It seems that the son, William Henry George Redhead, was running this business. His father obviously aimed to set his son up with a good business. Unfortunately, the business didn’t last. William Henry George Redhead of 3 Blundell Street, Cleethorpes (and formerly of 150 Cleethorpe Road, Grimsby), became bankrupt in 1908. He was in the army in Hampshire by 1910.

William Redhead was born in Greenwich in c1851. (He was the son of George Redhead, a shipwright, born in Durham.). He married Alma Elizabeth Mather in Woolwich, Kent in 1876. He was a retired ironmonger in Kent in 1911 and he died in Greenwich, Kent in 1913, aged 63.

William Henry George Redhead was born in Plumstead, Woolwich, Kent in 1883. He married Ruth Furlonger in Woolwich in 1913. He was in the army in Hampshire from 1910 to 1919 when was discharged due to sickness. He died in Ashford, Kent in 1958.

Note: William Redhead of Plumstead expressed a wish to buy Mr Ward’s business in Amersham in August 1896 (ref: a letter to a business broker in London.)

Note: The shop in the photograph appears to be 146 Cleethorpe Road. This is now part of Stevensons bedroom Centre.

Note: A son of William Henry George Redhead was killed in WW2 when his RAF bomber was shot down over Düsseldorf.

Note: The Redhead family ran a diary in the 1920s.