Plaque is unveiled on landmark factory chimney
THE great-great grandson of Alfred Brooks, founder of the Brooks Dye Works site in St Werburgh’s, has unveiled a plaque in honour of the former textile factory, which operated for 145 years before closing its doors in 2007.
Ninety-year-old Simon Brooks first visited the factory as a child with his father in the 1930s and he later became the fifth generation to run the family business. He retired in 2001 after more than 28 years as chairman, by which point the company was a sizable, well respected PLC operating across England and Wales.
Mr Brooks visited the site earlier this month to see the plaque fixed to the original Victorian chimney.
He said: “I think my family would be delighted with the plaque in memory of our business.
“I was the fifth generation to be involved with the business and we started small. By the time I retired we had many shops as well as working with over 1,000 hotels, including The Goring and De Vere group.
“We survived a long time and had to change our products to do so, from traditional dyeing of clothes in the 1830s for mourning to colouring the ostrich feathers for ladies’ hats, we looked after all aspects of textile care.”
Now, the four-acre industrial site is being transformed into contemporary new homes by developers Galliard Homes and Acorn Property Group.
Mr Brooks said: “The site is totally different now from its history as an industrial enterprise but the land has been well used.
“I am very glad the developers have put the plaque up on the chimney, people must wonder about the chimney and this really adds something.
“It is wonderful to see the history preserved for the next generation.”
The plaque explains the site’s history – and the red brick chimney’s ingenious use of white bricks for the “Brooks Dye Works” lettering, meaning it never has to be repainted.
Robin Squire, regional managing director of Acorn’s Bristol office, said: “We are delighted to unveil the plaque which celebrates the site’s rich industrial history as a successful family-run business which thrived for over 100 years.
“It takes pride of place on the Victorian chimney, a local landmark, at the centre of our new community. It is wonderful to pay tribute to the site’s history for the new community that will live here as our reimagined Brooks Dye Works comes to life.”
George Baffoe-Djan, head of Galliard’s Western Division, said: “We were honoured to welcome Mr Simon Brooks to the site, the great-greatgrandson of pioneering Alfred Brooks who founded the successful dye works.
“For over a century the dye works was a community with generations of employees living in the surrounding St Werburgh’s area; now, a new community is being created.”
The company was founded in 1862 by Alfred Brooks. At the height of its operation, over 600 people worked on the St Werburgh’s site during World War II, when the factory expanded its services to clean linen for the military, serving American soldiers at nearby Frenchay Hospital and hospital ships that docked in Avonmouth.