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Registration number:

Company name: Mawer & Collingham Ltd
Dates in business: 1900-1980

Type of business: department store retailers

Type of company: Private limited liability company

• Mint Street, Lincoln, England
• High Street, Lincoln, England

Company history

In 1900, Mawer & Collingham was incorporated as a private limited company, becoming Mawer & Collingham Ltd. Joseph Mawer Collingham, previously sole proprietor of Mawer & Collingham, became managing director and company secretary, a position he was to hold until his death in 1902. His sons, William, Cyril and Horace, and Mr. S. Graveley, previously a buyer, became directors. By the time of its incorporation, the company's trade had diversified to include wholesale and retail drapers, silk mercers, haberdashers, milliners, dressmakers, tailors, hatters, furriers, lacemen, clothiers, hosiers, glovers and general outfitters, carpet warehousemen, upholsterers and house furnishers and decorators.

The company continued to purchase neighbouring premises in Lincoln until, by 1930, the company's property constituted the island site bounded by St Peter's Passage (north), High St (east), Mint St (south) and Mint Lane (west). Whilst some of this property was initially let to other businesses, it was eventually utilised exclusively by Mawer & Collingham Ltd. Separate premises at 84 Newland, Lincoln, and 21-23 Mint Street, Lincoln, were used as staff living quarters. The company repeatedly updated and altered its store and facilities, with major refurbishment taking place in 1911-1912, 1960-1961, 1970 and in 1973. The culmination of the refurbishment provided a new restaurant, car park, new management offices and sales departments that housed, amongst many others, electrical, radio and musical goods.

In 1935, Berrills Ltd (drapers) of Spalding, Lincolnshire, became a subsidiary of the company. Mawer & Collingham Ltd ran the company under the Berrills name until its closure in 1971. Berrills itself had a subsidiary, Arden Osborn Ltd (pharmacists) of Spalding, Lincolnshire, which traded throughout the 1950s.

During the twentieth century, Ernest Albert Loeffler was a particularly prominent member of the board of directors, being managing director from 1908 until his retirement in 1946. Thereafter, he became chairman and president of the company until 1966, when he died aged 96. Several members of the Collingham family remained active on the board of directors until the company was acquired by the House of Fraser Ltd, department store retailers, Glasgow, Scotland, in 1980. The company traded as part of the Binns Division of House of Fraser in 2003.

Access points: Department stores - Retail trade