I was always a
snooker and billiards fan and throughout my youth I would seek out places to
play, as a lad it was usually youth clubs or church halls and as I got older I
found the social clubs that had tables. The one thing all these places had in
common was the make of the table. Almost all had the small ceramic plate
affixed to the table bearing the name E.A Clare.
Norman Clare,
who died in 1990, was Chairman of E.A. Clare and Son Ltd having followed
his father (Edward Arthur) into the business as a young school leaver in 1930.
The company, whose interest in the billiards and snooker industry encompasses
the historic Thurston name as well as those of Thos. Padmore and Sons,
Ashcrofts, Peradon, Weilding, and many others. The company was the home of
Norman's collection. His interest in setting up this collection stemmed from
when E.A.Clare and Son bought Thurston and Co. and he found many
interesting items at their old factory site at Waterloo Works, Cheyne Walk,
Chelsea. For example, he recognised an original and rare wooden billiard table
bed which was being used to board up a broken window at these premises and so
he rescued it!
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| 15 Fraser Street, the building to the left with the diamond shapes in the brick works was the remains of the drill halls of the Liverpool Scottish Regiment HQ. Later to become Mr Pickwicks club. |
As the oldest
snooker / pool / billiard business on Merseyside approached its,100th
anniversary in 2012, the grandson of the founder compiled some of it history.
The Company was founded in Fraser Street not half a mile from the current
premises in St. Anne Street and so has been part of the local Everton district
community for all its history.
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| E. A. Clare circa 1912 |
Edward Arthur
Clare, usually known as Arthur, was born in 1882 in Hornby Road, his father
David Thomas Clare being a prison officer at Walton Jail at the time, having
retired from the sea due to ill health. Arthur's father died when Arthur was
still quite young so at the age of 14 he left school in 1896 went looking for a
job. He saw a sign saying boy wanted in the well known Liverpool business of J.
Ashcroft and Co. at their Billiard Company's Victoria Street building. He was
hired and thus started his apprenticeship in the Billiard (Snooker) trade. At that time Arthur joined the firm the
Liverpool fruit and vegetable market was in the same area as Ashcroft's and one
of his 'stories' was that it was his job to empty the rat traps. He drowned the
rats in a water butt on the roof and then, so he said, flung them onto the roof
across the road - in those days it was the GPO now the back of the Met
Quarter!. At some point Arthur had an argument with Mr. Ashcroft and was
sacked! He then tried his hand as a joiner, working for a Southport business
and it seems from a reference provided by Kiddie and Co. Ltd he might have also
worked for Lancs. and Yorks. Railway.
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| Ashcrofts Victoria Street |
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| EA Clare 27 St Anne St |
Arthur Clare
went to work in Ireland and in 1912 he
returned to Liverpool he had sufficient funds to start his own Billiard
business with small premises at 15 Fraser Street, just off London Road. His
mother looked after the shop in Fraser Street
whilst he did the fitting and servicing work. In 1913 he married his
long time Liverpool girlfriend Bessie
Woolfenden.
He must have
been reasonably successful and after about eight years he required larger
premises and so moved to St. Anne Street in about 1920. In about 1925 He was
able to purchase a building at 27 St. Anne Street and set up his shop and
workshop in that building. One strange fact was that the small street that ran
at the back of his business was 'Back Clare Street'. During this period he
opened eight Billiard Halls in Liverpool
and in and around Birkenhead which were
very successful and so he further expanded his premises to include 25 St. Anne
Street. Also in the late 1920's early 1930's he introduced a maintenance
contract to help clubs with the payments spread over the year.
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| Back Clare Street 1967 |
Arthur's son
Norman joined the business in 1930 learning all aspect of the trade and so in
1935, when Norman reach the age of 21 the business name was changed to E.A. Clare and Son. At that time the business's trade mark showed that
Billiards was still the predominate game with little evidence of snooker. The
war years were also quite difficult for the small firm with Norman being away
in the Army and Arthur was ill for long periods. The business was held together
by Miss Ethel Paterson, who must have been quite a formidable lady who
efficiently kept the books, coped with air raids and the staff as well as the
material shortages. She basically ran the firm until Arthur was fit and Norman returned after the war in 1946.
Norman took over
the day to day running of the business on his return but with the
continued expansion further staff were
required. As was very much a family run business, Arthur's daughter Kathleen
joining as the cashier and one of his son-in-laws Kenneth McCormick also
joining the business after the War. Ken, as he was known, was in charge of the
buying and cost control. The business continued to grow and in the late 1950's
this further expansion by the purchased 23 St. Anne Street. This enabled them
to set up their first bowls test table and become recognised as the leading
crown green bowls business in the North of England. The firm celebrated its
Golden Anniversary in 1962 with a celebration dinner for the staff and some
members of the trade. The founder E.A.
Clare was a very proud man on that night, sadly in April 1963, after a short
illness, he died.
Later in the
early 1960's they were approached by the still very famous and long established
London Billiard and Snooker business of Thurston (late of Leicester Square) to
see if they would be interested in acquiring the business. In 1963 they bought
out the business, which continued to be run as a distinct entity under the then
Managing Director Bob Mitchell with Mr. Frank McDermott moving from Liverpool
to help run the operation. Although E. A. Clare and Son and Thurston were
run as separate businesses they used common catalogues all be it with front
covers with their separate names on them.
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| The shop 23 -27 St. Anne Street 1967 |
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| This illustration of the Ashcroft building was printed in 'The Builder' April 1883 |
In the mid
1960's another approach this time from the best known Midlands Billiard and Snooker company of Thos. Padmore and Sons Ltd. So in 1966 the partners in E. A. Clare and Son took a controlling interest in Padmore's. In the mid 1970's the
group of Companies dropped the separate front/back covers for the catalogues
and traded as Clare-Padmore- Thurston . The catalogues of that time use that
title but they were still run as separate businesses but there was a 'group'
sales and buying. In the
1960's Norman's son-in-law, Peter
Eggington, joined the firm and later his son Peter Clare (Arthur's grandson)
also joined. It was certainly a family business at that time, as Norman's
sister Kathleen was the Chief cashier with Norman's brother-in-law Ken being
Works Manager! In 1987, Norman Clare was
delighted to be approached by Peter Ashcroft, who was wishing to retire and so
dispose of his family business. Given the fact that his father had learnt the
trade at J. Ashcroft and Co. Norman jumped at the chance and so the
Snooker and Billiard part of the Ashcroft business was absorbed into E.A.
Clare and Son. Ltd. The Ashcroft building still stands in Victoria
Street.
In the late
1980's, towards the end of 1988/beginning of 1989 the three companies E. A.
Clare and Son Ltd., Thos. Padmore and Sons Ltd and Thurston and Co. Ltd. formalised their trading interest by E.A. Clare and Son Ltd. taking them over as the one trading Company of E.A. Clare and Son Ltd. Norman, by then Chairman and
steeped in the history of the trade decided that the combined Company should
trade as THURSTON.
In 1990 after a
short illness Norman Clare died, the trade lost a great enthusiast for the
industry who also had a vast knowledge of
the history of the sport. The collection of Billiard and Snooker books
and memorabilia has been maintained in the Liverpool building and the rooms
dedicated to it have been named the Norman Clare Billiard and Snooker
Heritage Collection.
Edward Arthur
Clare founded the business in 1912 and a celebration of 100 years took place
during 2012. Here's to another 100 years trading for a great Liverpool company.
