The House of Toomer.
The History of the Toomer Family.
In this exhibition we look at the House of Toomer. From its origin as a simple ironmongers in Newbury Market Place to the impact that Toomer Family has had on the town.
Some of the collections in the exhibition illustrate the expansion of the Toomer’s business, other objects will look at the histories of individual members of the family.
Nevil Maskelyne Toomer standing in the doorway of his shop at 4 Northbrook Street. This photograph was taken between 1895 and 1910.
The Story of a Family.
The House of Toomer store has always included ‘established 1692’ beside its name, apparently based on an entry in a family diary from 1692 which stated ‘came into the house the corner of Meeting House Yard’. The Toomer family, however, were not involved in the business until much later.
From 1730, Joseph Toomer was landlord of The White Hart in Newbury Market Place but had no involvement with ironmongery, although he was influential and instituted a hiring fair in Newbury. The link to ironmongery came through his son, Samuel Toomer (1736-1813), who was apprenticed to Joseph Hawkins, a dyer and ironmonger in Newbury from the late 1600s.
When Hawkins died in 1758, he left his property to his sisters, the residue to his father, and £20 to enable the 22 year old Samuel Toomer to sort out the accounts. Samuel married Sarah Hawkins, one of the sisters, in 1759 and took over the firm, buying out the heirs of the second sister, Ann Nash.
Samuel seems to have benefited from the wealth inherited through the Hawkins family, as this enabled him to qualify as a member of the Newbury Corporation in 1760 and in both 1767 and 1783 he became mayor. Samuel and Sarah’s son Joseph was mayor in 1791, 1801, and 1814 as well as being an artist and commissioning a census of Newbury.
Joseph married into the successful Maskelyne family. He and his wife Jane referenced her famous cousins, the Royal Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne and his sister Margaret, who married Lord Clive of India, by naming their first daughter Margaret Maskelyne Mary, and their fourth child Samuel Nevil.
Samuel Nevil took over the business, followed by his son, Nevil Maskelyne Toomer. He was the last owner to bear the name of Toomer: his daughter Fanny had a son, Frederick Arthur Greet, and was listed as a widow in London when he was six years old, although the family understood Frederick’s father was Edwin Alexander Greet who was still alive in the 1870s.
The White Hart building in Newbury Market Place still survives in 2024. This photograph was taken in the 1960s.
Watercolour painting of Newbury Wharf, 1780-1790, attributed to Joseph Toomer, who was reported to be a pupil of Joshua Reynolds.
Frederick Arthur Greet inherited the Toomer ironmonger business from his grandfather and made many changes to the shop to reflect modern times. His son Richard inherited the firm, but neither he nor his sister had any children and the direct line of the Toomer family ended.
The Story of a Store.
The first Toomer’s store was at 34 Market Place, Newbury. Joseph Toomer’s son Samuel Nevil opened a shop round the corner at 4 Northbrook Street between 1825 and 1827. The Market Place premises were sold in 1850.
When Nevil Maskelyne Toomer died in 1907, he left the business to his daughter, Fanny, who entrusted the operation of the business to her son, Frederick Arthur Greet, known as Ben. Between 1917 and 1924 the firm expanded to 2-3 Northbrook Street, as a single shop with a traditional bell at the door to alert the staff when a customer entered.
Greet changed the store’s name to House of Toomer in 1926.
Greet continued to update the business and transformed the style from the original small traditional shop to a modern store that was 136 feet (41.4 metres) deep and 66 feet (20 metres) wide, with showrooms for a large wholesale as well as a retail business.
In April 1961, a fire rapidly took hold early in the morning in the cellar, but despite major destruction, the business re-opened in various outbuildings within a few days.
When Greet died in 1943, his children, Richard and Elizabeth (known as Dinah) inherited the company. Richard managed the House of Toomer until his death in 1984.
In the 1970s, the House of Toomer was expanding and embracing new technology. The company bought over the local Vincent’s ironmongery business in 1974, and installed their first computer in 1975.
By the 1980s, there were signs that the family firm was struggling. In 1984, the whole company moved from Northbrook Street to the smaller Vincent’s site in Bartholomew Street. Dinah Greet remained a major shareholder after her brother’s death but did not take an active managerial role.
Despite apparent efforts by the new owner, Tim Marrack, believed to be a cousin of the extended family, to renew the lease with the site owners, the store had to close at the end of February 1996. On 1 March 1996, Barry Forkin, electrical retailers, took over two members of staff from Toomers’ key and lock service and 500 lines of houseware stock items. The business still keeps the name of Toomers in 2024.
This photograph must have been taken after 1926 as the store is now named House of Toomer, but as the shop front has not changed much, it is probably before the new store was opened in 1935.
Greet bought the adjoining property, formerly Fielder & Co, grocers and chemists.
Interior of the store showing the damage caused by the fire.
The History of the House of Toomer in West Berkshire Museum’s Collection.
West Berkshire Museum holds in its collections objects and archive material relating to the Toomer Family and the store it operated.
Here are some objects that are in the collection that the Museum put on display for the House of Toomer exhibition.
This bollard is dated 1825, the year Samuel Nevil Toomer opened a new store in 4 Northbrook Street. The bollard was one of a pair at the entrance to Crown Place beside the Northbrook Street premises. The other was still there as recently as 2002.
NEBYM:2001.92
This longcase clock was made by Church Brown, who lived and worked in a cottage by the Swan Inn at Newtown in the late 1700s. It was owned by Dinah Greet, the last member of the direct Toomer family line. The clock was maintained for her by Mr May who lived in Newbury.
Elizabeth Dinah Greet (1916-2004), known as Dinah, was the only daughter of Frederick Arthur Greet. Her older brother, Richard Greet, took over the business after their father’s death, although she represented the family until her brother returned from being with HM Forces abroad.
She was with the Old Vic Company from 1946-1856, first as Assistant Production Manager, then as Director of Costume, before leaving to freelance as a costume designer for theatre, opera, film and some television. She designed the costumes for:
Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965), for which she won a BAFTA for Best British Costume in 1966, Help (1965), How I won the War (1967), Diamonds for Breakfast (1968), Inspector Clouseau (1968), The Looking Glass War (1969), The Italian Job (1969), and You Can’t Win ‘Em All (1970).
She believed that her father was cousin to Sir Philip Barling (Ben) Greet (1857-1936), a renowned Shakespearian actor manager.
NEBYM:2004.21
Pen and ink drawing by Victor Corden from about 1900 of Newbury’s Crown Alley, behind 4 Northbrook Street, which was occupied by Toomer’s ironmongers. The artist featured this location several times, and the view shows the architecture from the 1500s and 1600s.
NEBYM:2001.94
This collection of three 1920s table knives was sold by Toomer’s. These would have been bought as ‘blanks’ from a manufacturer, then finished by Toomer’s for selling in the store. They are stamped with ‘N.M.Toomer, Newbury’ – referring to Nevil Maskelyne Toomer – and ‘Firth Stainless.’
Stainless steel was invented in 1913, at the Brown-Firth Research Laboratories in Sheffield by Harry Brearley. He called it ‘rustless steel’. Although there were some disputes over ownership of the material, the term ‘Firth Stainless’ was registered in 1924.
As Toomer’s changed their name to ‘The House of Toomer’ in 1926 (Frederick Arthur Greet had actually been running the company on his mother’s behalf since the death of his grandfather Nevil Maskelyn Toomer in 1907 but delayed changing the name until 8 years after his mother died), these knives probably date from between 1924 and 1926. They also demonstrate that Toomer’s was apparently an early adopter of stainless steel as a material for cutlery.
The handles are made of either bone or ivorine – plastic made to resemble bone or ivory.
NEBYM:2006.14
