W. H. Burford and Son was a soap and candle-making business founded in Adelaide in 1840 by William Henville Burford (1807 – 1895), an English butcher who arrived in the new colony in 1838. It was one of the earliest soapmakers in Australia, and up to the 1960s when it closed, the oldest. Its expansion, (in the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century, at the hands of son William Burford) accompanied by a number of takeovers, made it the dominant soap manufacturer in South Australia and Western Australia, until it was in turn taken over by J. Kitchen & Sons, part of the Lever Brothers empire. Its founders were noted public figures in the young city of Adelaide.
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W. H. Burford's first factory was on 4 acres (1.6ha) on the corner of Grenfell Street and East Terrace, later the site of an Adelaide Electric Supply Company's building, (AESC became the Electricity Trust of S.A. - ETSA - in 1946) and in 1989, the Tandanya aboriginal cultural centre. Initially it was little more than a tin shed staffed by half-a-dozen workers. During one of the recessions that faced the colony, Burford was forced to sell the land then lease it back to keep the business running.
The second factory, opened in 1900 at Sturt Street, on land previously owned by Tidmarsh & Co,[1] occupied 4 acres of floor space ( 19,000 sq yards / 16,000m2) and employing over 200 men. Its most salient feature was the brick chimney - 152 ft 4in (46.5m) in height and a flue diameter of 4 ft (1.2m). The boiler room housed four boilers, one of which was 27 ft long and 7 ft 6in in diameter (8.2m x 2.3m) and the largest to have been built in South Australia. The still-room had six large stills: four for distillation of stearine and two for glycerine. The building was organised so that manufacture started on the top floor and progressed by chutes or conveyors to the second floor for wrapping and packaging, thence to the ground floor, all with a minimum of handling.[2]
The factory on Adam Street, Hindmarsh which Burford took over from Apollo Soap Ltd (and continued to be called the "Apollo Works"), was the site of work mostly peripheral to the core business of soap and candle making, such as rendering down of animal fats and grinding of corn, bone, starch and blacking.
After the Sturt Street premises were destroyed by fire, a new factory was then set up in Dry Creek near the railway station where there had once been a smelter.[3] Manufacture resumed in 1922. Much was made at the time of a model suburb to serve employees of the soap works and the nearby abattoirs. "Burford Garden Suburb" as it was named, was designed by W. J. Earle, the town planner behind Cadbury's model town at Claremont, Tasmania.[4] The Dry Creek lots were snapped up immediately they were offered for sale.[5] The greater part of the Sturt Street property was sold around the same time.[6] "Burford Gardens" as the name of a suburb has since vanished, though its streets remain: Flame Ave, Gum Ave, Wattle Ave, Grevillea Ave and Bushwood Ave, Dry Creek.[5]
In Western Australia, the Victoria Park factory opened in 1897; and after taking over the Swan Soap and Candle Company Ltd., their Rocky Bay factory opened in 1899.[7] and Kalgoorlie factories opened later.
Products manufactured during the history of W. H. Burford & Son include:
When Burford's soapworks and Peacock's tannery were founded on Grenfell Street, there were no residences nearby; nothing but virgin bushland. But as the population grew nearby (and to some extent attracted by the businesses), the number of complaints about smells grew until in 1866 a case was brought against Burford in the Supreme Court. The jury appeared to be convinced by the argument that the complainants had chosen to build knowing what trades were carried on there so had no right to complain, and found for the defendant.[9]
The Council had other plans. In 1919 it offered Burfords £12,000 as an incentive to move out of the city altogether. The offer was turned down, so the Council amended the Health Act to prohibit such industries,[10] then the fire engulfed the factory and the Dry Creek facility moved a big step towards reality.
In 1885 a fire which started in a timber yard in Grenfell Street and East Terrace spread to Burford's factory, which was destroyed. This led to the establishment of a factory in Sturt Street.[11]
On 25 December 1907, the factory on Adam Street, Hindmarsh, "The Apollo Works" was destroyed in one of the greatest fires in Adelaide's history, along with neighbouring skin dealers Wilcox and Co. in River Street (then Torrens Street). The nearby factory of G. H. Michell & Sons and David Reid's tannery suffered lesser damage.[12]
In 1919 the works bounded by Sturt, Gilbert, Norman and Russell Streets were destroyed by fire and a new factory was then set up in Dry Creek; the office area was rebuilt and the rest sold.
Other early soap and candle makers of South Australia:
The other major Australian soap manufacturer was J. Kitchen & Sons of Melbourne, which dominated the Eastern States much as Burfords had South and Western Australia. Lever Brothers of England had a factory in Sydney and one in Wellington, New Zealand.
In 1924, Lever and Kitchen and W. H. Burford and Sons formed Australian Producers Partnership Pty Ltd. Burford ordinary shares were held by Lever and Kitchen; around 1962 after a few more takeovers the parent company was renamed Unilever.[15] The Burford's factory was still running profitably in the mid-50s, and the factory at Dry Creek was still listed as such in 1962; the office at 83 Sturt Street still bore the Burford's name, alongside that of its nominal owner J. Kitchen & Sons Ltd, Rexona Pty. Ltd. and Lever Brothers Pty. Ltd.[14]
William Henville Burford (24 January 1807 – 23 October 1895) was an apprenticed butcher with some experience as a tallow merchant and chandler in Cannon Street, St George's East, in the East End of London. In 1838 he emigrated to South Australia for his health's sake with his wife and three daughters on the Pestonjee Bomanjee, arriving at Glenelg on 11 October.[16] Initially he found work as a painter and glazier, and soon had one of the larger businesses in the Colony.[1] In 1840, when a recession had made those trades unprofitable, he was able to start a soap and candle factory in 134 (154?) Grenfell Street.[11] The business failed several times, but revived with the opening of the Burra copper mine in 1848, then the Moonta and Wallaroo mines around 1863.[17]
He was an alderman of the Adelaide Town Council for 1840 and 1841. During his second term he earned the nickname of "ninepenny dips" for his proposal to more than double the council rates to that figure (and "dip" being a form of candle), and was reviled for proposing other stringencies.[18] He was not elected the following year and was vindicated when the Council collapsed, bankrupt.
He was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly for the seat of Adelaide in 1857.[19] He was prominent in debates and a strong supporter of Robert Torrens' Real Property Act, but resigned in 1859.
He was a devout churchgoer, worshipping with the Independent Baptists, then Scotch Baptists and finally the Unley Church of Christ.[17]
He married three times:
William Burford (11 December 1845 – 6 March 1925) was born in a cottage at 154 Grenfell Street, Adelaide,[24] adjacent to his father's factory.
He was educated first at the Church of England Grammar School in Pulteney Street then, with brother Benjamin, at J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution in Stephens Place. Leaving school, he joined his father's business. In 1878 he and his brother Benjamin were taken into partnership, but after about eight years the latter withdrew from the enterprise.[11]
In 1868, while on holiday in New Zealand, William visited a soap works which boiled soap using steam rather than fire. On his return to Adelaide he wasted no time in getting his father to adopt this method.[4]
He was chairman of directors of the company from 1895 until his death, in his Belair home (on Sheoak Road) called "Birralee". When he took the reins, the company had 6 employees; at the time of his death it had grown to over 500 spread over several factories, though his time as a hands-on manager had long since passed.[11]
William Burford's many, many offices, services and philanthropic deeds included:
Mrs Burford was a prominent member of the Wattle Blossom League (later Wattle Day League) and held an annual function at "Monomeith", the Burfords' summer residence at Ashton.[33]
He was a life member of the South Australian Cricket Association and a member of the East Adelaide Cricket Club.
In his later years he was a serious bowls player.
He was a keen yachtsman, was a member of the Holdfast Bay Sailing Club (and Vice-commodore in 1896)[34] and with son F. R. Burford owned the yacht Empress 1894 – 1896.[35]
William married Mary Richardson (1845? – 12 May 1921) on 11 November 1867. She died at their first home named "Birralee", in Glenelg. Their 53 year marriage produced four sons and four daughters who survived childhood:
After the death of his wife, he sold the Glenelg mansion "Birralee" on Albert Tce and Seawall, in September 1921,[47] and the summer home "Monomeith", on 3 acres (1.2 ha) at Ashton, South Australia, in 1922.[48] Burford had started building Birralee, Belair in 1897. By 1921, both the Monomeith and Birralee Glenelg properties were mostly used by Mrs. Burford and her daughters.
He died peacefully on 6 March 1925 at his "Birralee, Belair" home on Sheoak Road in Belair, located next to the National Park and overlooking the Adelaide Plains. He had suffered a heart attack a year previously.[11] At some stage he had married the widow of William Finlayson jun. and she nursed him in his final years.[11]