History of Caffyns

[2054]

Chapter 1 1865—1904


AN AGE OF INVENTIONS

The name of Caffyn has its roots deep in the past of Sussex, first appearing in the county in 1327, when Richard Caffyn lived at the village of Chitcombe, near Brede. Another Richard Caffyn was vicar of Horsham from 1560 to 1574; the name Edward Caffyn appears cut in a wall in the Tower of London, and the seventeenth-century Baptist leader Matthew Caffyn of Horsham, the “Battle Axe of Sussex”, lived to the age of 86 after many years at the centre of great controversy.

William Morris Caffyn was born in 1842, and in 1856 he was apprenticed to his Uncle Ebenezer Morris to learn the trade of “Ironmonger, Tinman and Brazier” at two shillings per week for the first year, rising to ten shillings per week for the fifth year, during which period he was required to observe the strict provisions of his indenture of apprenticeship:

“He shall not waste the Goods of his said Master nor lend them unlawfully to any, he shall not commit fornication nor contract matrimony within the said Term, he shall not play at Cards or Dice Tables or any other unlawful games whereby his said Master may have any loss with his own goods ... He shall not haunt Taverns or Playhouses nor absent himself from his said Master’s service thy or night unlawfully

Mr & Mrs W.M.Caffyn and their family. In the back row, Harry caffyn is on the left, Percy Caffyn on the right


After this period of rigorous training — not only, it would appear, in his trade but in the stem attitudes of the Victorian period —William Morris Caffyn opened his own shop on 19th May 1865 in premises adjoining the present site of Caffyns’ Head Office in Meads Road, Eastbourne. He set out to supply the wants of the time, as a “Gas and hot water fitter, Bell Hanger, Brass Finisher Tinman & Brazier”.

In 1866 he married Miss Harriet Williams, Governess at Miss Brodie’s School, Meads, and two years later the business moved to premises in Seaside Road, next to the site where the Theatre Royal and Opera House (now the Royal Hippodrome Theatre) was opened in 1883. He was also active in local life at this time, as a member of Eastbourne Cricket Club from 1862 (his cousin, William Caffyn, the Surrey cricketer, played for England against America in 1859 and Australia in 1861 and 1863) and from 1864 to 1879 he served in the 3rd Sussex Artillery Volunteer Corps.

It seems that William Morris Caffyn had a pioneering enthusiasm for the many inventions of the later Victorian age. In 1871 he obtained a licence to store petroleum in a shed at the back of his house (the certificate, signed by five members of the Local Board for the District of Eastbourne, is still in the possession of the Company) and soon added “Lamp & Oil Merchant” to the many services he was able to offer.




Caffyns Advertisment, Wilkins & Co's Eastbourne and Lewes Directory,1870





Meads Road in the 1880's. The ivy-covered building in the centre background is where William Morris Caffyn opened his first shop in 1865. The cottages on the right are on the sight of Caffyns present Head Office



In 1892 his Sons Percy Thomas and Harry Bruce joined the business and they shared their father’s keenness on new developments. Within a few years they entered the world of electrical domestic appliances and opened a branch at 1 Church Street, Old Town, Eastbourne. By 1900 William Morris Caffyn’s name appeared in the “National Telephone Directory”. In 1901 Caffyns carried out the installation of electric lighting for the Eastbourne Pier Company Ltd., and in 1903 participated in the first Eastbourne Electrical Exhibition held at the Town Hail where, as the Eastbourne Gazette reported, “Such a flood of light as that which is to be seen when the stalls are lit up has probably never before been witnessed in the Assembly Room”.

By this time WM. Caffyn & Sons were offering Electric Bells, Telephones, Gas Fitting and Repairs, as well as being tool dealers, cutlers and ironmongers. A former butcher’s shop at 12 The Colonnade was taken for the growing electrical side of the business.

There followed an event which was to have far-reaching consequences and lead to the most exciting new field of all. In the words of Mr Harry Caffyn:

“One day a young fellow who was staying at Marine Parade came along with a 4-cylinder Renault car (the first live axle car we had seen); could he stand it on the verandah outside or he would pay us for accommodation. The shop, having been a butcher’s, was fitted with wide sashes to draw up and when pushed up there was plenty of headroom for a car to get under, but there was the bottom sill. This I cut away after dark without asking the landlord’s permission, boarded over the gap and in went the first car

After a further request, this time from the Queen’s Hotel, to store and polish two cars, Percy and Harry Caffyn became convinced that the motor car had a lasting future in which their already far-sighted business should play a major role. In 1903 William Morris Caffyn sold the firm to them for £1,800 and they subsequently traded as Caffyn Brothers, converting the premises at 12 The Colonnade to hold four cars. As Percy Caffyn remarked humorously in his address to staff 25 years later: “We did not know what a garage was in those days, and we called it a coach house!”

The following year, 1904, the premises were enlarged to hold 16 cars, the name, “Caffyn’s Garage” appeared on the fascia, and Caffyns Brothers were really in business to cater for the motorist.

Turnover for the first twelve months included £300 for “Sale of Motors”, and in that year they were appointed Agents of the General Accident Assurance Corporation. At first some of the work had to be contracted out to local craftsmen and it was not long before the brothers felt the need for premises where all the activities connected with motoring could be carried on under one roof . . . and started to look around for a site for expansion.

The first Garage at 12 The Colonnade, Eastbourne in 1904 Mr H.B. Caffyn is on the left, Mr P.T. Caffyn in the centre






Letterhead of W.M. caffyn & Sons dated 24th November 1904 and showing the telephone number 0352