Merrythought
 |
|
| Private limited company | |
| Industry | Toy manufacturer |
| Fate | Operating |
| Founded | Ironbridge (1930) |
| Founder | Gordon Holmes and George H. Laxton |
| Headquarters | Shropshire, Ironbridge, near Telford |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide with UK & Japan (principal markets) |
|
Key people
|
Gordon, Trayton, Oliver, Sarah and Hannah Holmes |
| Products | Stuffed toys, notably teddy bears |
| Owner | Holmes family |
|
Number of employees
|
25 |
| Website | www |
Merrythought is a toy manufacturing company established in 1930 in the United Kingdom. The company specialises in soft toys, especially teddy bears. It is the last remaining British teddy bear factory to still make its products in Britain and is located at Ironbridge in Shropshire.
The company's site in Ironbridge has a small museum and shop open to the public, and is where the toys are made. The site is a former iron foundry building on the banks of the River Severn, less than half a mile (0.7 km) upstream from the world-famous Iron Bridge itself. The vicinity is known as Dale End, lying at the bottom of the Coalbrookdale valley, and falls within the wider Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.
The origin of the firm's name is uncertain but possibly derives from an archaic word for "wishbone" – the company has used a wishbone as an emblem since 1992.
Merrythought was founded in 1930 by Gordon Holmes and George H. Laxton, with the first catalogue in 1931. The company's first products were based on designs by two former employees of Chad Valley, Clifton James Rendle and Florence May Attwood, as well as J. K. Farnell based designs. Florence Attwood produced the company’s first catalogue – an imaginative range of 32 toys including the first Merrythought teddy bear ‘Magnet’ (‘M’ series). Perhaps Merrythought's most famous individual bear was "Mr Whoppit", the mascot of land and water speed record breaker Donald Campbell. The company first produced teddy bears based on the "Woppit" character (a teddy bear himself) from the Robin comic in 1956.
The company at first rented rooms at the Station Hotel in Wellington before moving to a building in Coalbrookdale; in February 1931 Merrythought moved permanently to its present site in Ironbridge. Business grew rapidly, despite the Great Depression, with the Ironbridge site becoming the largest soft toy factory in Britain in 1935 and by 1939 over 200 people worked for Merrythought. The company's site was rented at first, but was purchased from the Coalbrookdale Company in 1956. Merrythought has operated from the same site, situated between The Wharfage and the Severn, since 1931, with the exception of during World War II when the site was requisitioned by the Admiralty (for map-making) from the outbreak of war in September 1939. During the War, the company operated from Wellington and produced equipment for war use; Merrythought returned to their Ironbridge site in 1946. The oldest of the factory buildings were constructed in 1898 with further buildings added to the site during the 20th century as the business grew.
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Wikipedia