“Perambulators are one of the necessities of the nineteenth century. The children of savages may roll in the dust or be carried in a shawl, or strapped to a piece of board, but the children of civilisation ride in perambulator- elegant carriages with rubber tyred wheels, steel springs, turned handles, reversible hoods, padded interiors, and artistic decorations; and these carriages are recognised everywhere as the rulers of the footpath, and entitled to the best position in every out-door public assembly.”
Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7846, 24 April 1891, Page 6 1
The largest and most complete perambulator manufactory in Australasia was in 1896 owned by Christchurch blacksmith, James Clegg. The business was in a handsome 62-foot by 50-foot, two-storied wooden building at the intersection of Tuam and High streets at what was known for a time as ‘Clegg’s Corner’. It was situated opposite A. J. Whites’ handsome and commodious department store. A showroom occupied part of the ground floor, with the works in the upper story. Products were lifted up and down with an external hoist. Amongst the women machinists and upholsterers were girl employees from as young as 14, strong lads in the blacksmith shop, factory and working on the paint bench, and messenger boys.
A Clegg perambulator was an item of top quality design and workmanship and precise balance. Designed to last, Clegg guaranteed his products, “style and durability cannot be surpassed”, he claimed. And he knew what he was talking about when it came to perambulator manufacture, as he had a Royal Warrant.
James Clegg had come to the Colony from his home city of Manchester in 1883, followed by his wife and child a year later aboard the S.S. Doric in June 1884.2 The son of a brushmaker, James and Mary Alice Richardson, a tailoress, and daughter of a journeyman baker and mangle woman, had married in 1881. They had lived with Alice’s widowed father and younger brother, both unemployed bakers in the UK’s third most populous city.
Colonial life began for the couple in Auckland, where Clegg set up a business with Charles Smith in 1885 as ‘Smith and Clegg’ producing English and American perambulators, and invalids’ carriages. Both Clegg and Smith had worked at Brasslngton and Cooke’s factory in Manchester and “like many other Englishmen, resolved to seek [their] fortune in a foreign country”’. Together they travelled through America, “and at length reaching Auckland, where he and his friend resolved to settle and become manufacturers on their own account. At that time nearly all the perambulators used in Auckland were of American make.”3
For solidity and workmanship, their perambulators were said to be equal to the imported ones. By manufacturing their own springs, and having the brass joints and wire bodies made locally, Smith and Clegg were able to sell bassinet perambulators with wire bodies and reversible hoods at 10s each less than they could be landed in Auckland from England.
The reversible hood model – “a great favourite” – was “an improvement upon Brassington and Cooke’s design” and ranged from 30 shillings to four guineas. “Everything in their construction is of local manufacture save the trimming material and the brass caps for wheels.”
They were “in a position to make 85 varieties” including “trioyle horses for which there is a ready sale got”. Repairs were also undertaken, “in some lines at one-fourth the cost hitherto charged”.
Despite their apparent success, the partnership was dissolved shortly after in December of the same year. Both men continued their businesses separately, Clegg at Freeman’s Bay, at the foot of Wellesley Street. He joined forces with Thomas Harvey Copeman to form Copeman & Clegg in 1886 and established the New Zealand Perambulator Factory at 34 and 33 Grey Street.
Between them, they invented “The Patent Double or Single-folding Awning for Perambulators” designed to provide better shading; “Clegg’s Improved Tension Nave”, for securing sliding sashes; and “The Colonial Orne Perambulator”.
They prided themselves as practical workmen with long experience building bassinets, perambulators, and invalid carriages for local requirements. There was no other measure for”‘shape, comfort, durability and low price” according to their advertising. A “marvel of strength and elegance”, Copeman’s patented paragon wire wheels solved “the annoyance of continual repair which drained the pocket in these depressed times”.4 Bassinets with a wire body and reversible hood could be purchased for £2 – £3.10
Despite the ‘depressed times’ their business grew and they expanded into larger neighbouring premises in 1888. However, again Clegg soon decided to move on, and in 1889 parted ways with Copeman, who carried on the business. Clegg moved south and set up anew in Christchurch, establishing as a perambulator manufacture under his own name at 181 Armagh Street, “a few doors from Colombo street”.5
This move also proved successful and the business grew to become a showcase for local industry alongside other successful Christchurch businesses like Aulsebrook and Co’s biscuit factory, Skelton, Frostick and Co’s boot factory, Oates and Lowry’s cycle works.6 Clegg was noted as one of a number of ex-Aucklanders who were thriving in Christchurch.7
[1898]. File Reference CCL-KPCD13-0005
“The only part of the perambulators Mr. Clegg does not make himself are the rubber-tyred wheels with their axles, and the woodwork for the floors. The wheels and axles are imported from England, and the woodwork Is sawn out by a local firm. In the construction of the “prams” Mr Clegg first fits the woodwork of the floor together, then places this floor on a revolving platform the exact shape of the body, and weaves the wire between platform and floor. The woven wire is then fixed on to the floor and slipped off the platform, leaving a strong framework of wire attached to the floor. Around the upper edge of the wire framework a band of tough wood is fixed. The wood and wire are painted, and then the inside of the frame work is upholstered, stuffed, padded, and cushioned. The steel plate bodied perambulators are made in a similar manner, with the exception that no weaving is required. In a building apart from the main shop Mr Clegg manufactures the iron and steel work of the vehicles. There he cuts the steel plates into the proper shape, corrugates them, makes the springs, handles and braces. A great amount of ingenuity has to be exercised in the manufacture of these things, and Mr Clegg has proved that he possesses much of this valuable attribute, not only by manufacturing the above articles, but by designing and constructing most of the tools by which they are made. Not only does Mr Clegg do the blacksmithing, upholstering and carpentering work for his “prams,” but the painting and stencilling which adorn them. Some of the perambulators in the show room, lined with dark green and dark red leather, are nice enough looking to contain the most precious babies; and the same finish and good taste is shown in the construction of some miniature prams for children to use.”8
Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7846, 24 April 1891, Page 6
Amongst his customers was the wife of the Governor of New Zealand (1889-1892), Lady Onslow, who purchased a miniature pram for her daughters to play with. Called the ‘Dorothy Pram’, Clegg named it after her eldest daughter, who later became the Countess of Halifax and held the office of Extra Lady of the Bedchamber to HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.9 A facsimile was exhibited at an Industrial Exhibition in 1896 and was said to “charm the heart of any little girl who was lucky enough to become the possessor”.10
Clegg also achieved success exhibiting his products at various industrial exhibitions in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Dunedin and Tasmania.11 In the Christchurch International Exhibition of 1906-07, Clegg won two gold medals for his perambulator and gocarts.
Having grown his business from a ‘lone hand’, to employing ‘two hands’ and then ten, around 1894 he moved into a rented property on the corner of Tuam and High Streets. When it came up for purchase in 1897, he purchased it for £1500.
“The lot started at £500, and by £100 bids rose quickly to £1200; £50 bids were then taken, and £1500 was reached, at which price Mr. Clegg became the purchaser.”
Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9712, 27 April 1897, Page 6 12
Eight of his Christchurch-made perambulators were exhibited at the Dunedin Industrial Exhibition in 1894 – “these little vehicles, all strongly made, with steel bodies and springs, hardwood rims and india rubber tyres; and all highly, even artistically finished. Four of them are toys, and the others of the ordinary size, and upholstered in American leather cloth. One of the latter is on “bicycle fittings,” i.e., is suspended on four spiral springs, and has handles at each end. It is gratifying to note that Mr Clegg finds that his productions are preferred in many parts of the colony to the imported articles, on account of their superior lightness and finish.”13
Clegg disposed of his business in 1908 when the Government acquired his building for the erection of a post office. His business was split into two; Henry. Burson & Sons carried on the retail and repair side at No. 173, High Street (opposite Knight’s, Butcher), while the wholesale side was transferred to Hedge’s Brothers basket-making and wicker-work company in Timaru.14
Clegg told a Truth reporter that the tunnel rates charged by the tunnel company were largely the determining factor in his decision to sell.
“I have to bring the material from Home and some of it, the wheels especially, is very bulky. It has to be brought through the tunnel and pay the railage by measurement from Lyttelton to Christchurch. When I send the manufactured article to the North Island or to Nelson, the West Coast and so on, it has to go through, the tunnel again. In the North Island and also in the parts of the South Island named I come into competition with the Wellington, people, and in that trade every shilling counts. The factory at Timaru will deal directly with a port in both importations and. exhortations, and in my opinion it will be in a much more favourable position for the North Island trade than the factory in Christchurch. There are importations every three weeks, so that the railway charges are really a serious item.”
James Clegg. Source Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 199, 22 August 1908, Page 5
James then ran a drapery business in Armagh Street selling waitresses’ and Nurses’ aprons in the latest styles, pillow slips, Linnene washing dresses, white embroidered handkerchiefs, silk blouses in all shapes and designs, hatpin protectors, ribbed knitted undervests, ladies’ longcloth closed knickers, and Christmas novelties.
By 1915, Clegg and his wife had retired to Ponsonby, Auckland where they remained till his death in 1927, and Mary’s in 1933. They had retained property in Christchurch; a 3-roomed cottage at Redcliffs, and a 4-room house at 439 Barbadoes Street, St Albans, four houses over from Bealey Ave, which were left to nieces and nephews after their deaths as they had no children of their own.
- Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7846, 24 April 1891, Page 6
↩︎ - New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7042, 12 June 1884, Page 4
↩︎ - Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7846, 24 April 1891, Page 6
↩︎ - Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2408, 15 December 1887, Page 1
↩︎ - Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7304, 8 May 1889, Page 6
↩︎ - Star (Christchurch), Issue 5945, 10 August 1897, Page 3
↩︎ - Observer, Volume XI, Issue 743, 25 March 1893, Page 15
↩︎ - Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7846, 24 April 1891, Page 6 ↩︎
- New Zealand Times, Volume LVIX, Issue 3013, 29 December 1896, Page 3
↩︎ - Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 1177, 17 December 1896, Page
↩︎ - Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 284, 1 December 1898, Page 27 (Supplement)
Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 293, 12 December 1898, Page 5
↩︎ - Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9712, 27 April 1897, Page 6
↩︎ - Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 10418, 7 August 1894, Page 6
↩︎ - Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIX, Issue 14769, 22 August 1908, Page 7
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Lost Christchurch 