Corah’s Cortina with coffins inside

A FORMER painting manager of WM Corah in Loughborough has been in touch about a fire that destroyed the firm, and described how his first ever company car was Ford Cortina that had been previously used to transport coffins.

Mr Bryan Summerfield wrote to Looking Back and said that the premises of WM Corah stemmed the length of Aumberry Gap and most of Barrow Street.

He said that he was painter manager from January 1969 to 1975 and that the principals during his time a the firm were Bill and Arthur Shepherd and the managing director was Bill Dunsmore.

Bryan said that during his time as manager he employed up to 16 painters, and that a number of Loughborough building contractors engaged their own decorator labour.

He said: “WM Moss and Sons seemingly the largest number and WM Davies, but perhaps on a sub contractor basis.

Bryan also described the entrance to the Corah yard and said: “On close inspection the arched entrance to the yard was formed of oak blocks and not bricks and the undulations formed were created by horse and cart traffic.”

Bryan said that prior to the joiners shop fire the company manufactured coffins apart from obvious items such as windows, doors etc. He said that this ceased following the fire. He said: “My first company car was a long wheel based Cortina whose use previously had been to transport coffins.”

• Do you recognise any of the firms mentioned by Bryan?

Do you know anything more about the Corah fire? Maybe you have old photos of the firm?

If so please contact Liam Coleman on 01509 635806 or email liam.coleman@trinitymirror. com