History
East Brothers Family History
Where it all began
Getting the best out of timber has been a way of life for the East family for almost a century-and-a- half – and is currently spanning 6 generations. The East’s family link to the timber trade goes all the way back to 1767 when a William East was running a hoop making business in Chiltern. But this isn’t where our story starts.
It all began with Ebeneezer who was from Cheshire, Buckinghamshire. Ebeneezer had relatives running a mill in Chesham and Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. The Berkhamsted Mill was taken over by Job East in 1840. In 1991 that mill celebrated its 150th anniversary and at the time was employing over 200 people. Just before this In 1990, London based company Lenanton took over the mill, unfortunately closing it several years later.
By 1851, Ebeneezer East was running a beer shop as well as being a wood turner in Chesham where his family were running their second sawmill. Ebeneezer’s son, George East, married his first wife at the age of 17, Sophia Horwood and by the 1860s they had decided to move from Chesham to Winchester. The motivation behind the move was due to the abundance of water power which was provided by the river Itchin.
After establishing the successful Hyde Abbey sawmill – the family also opened furniture shops in the city‟s High Street and in Jewry Street – The businesses stocked timber from estates in the area including Norman Court, with its 20,000 acres of land in the villages of West Tytherley, West Dean, Pitton and Farley, as well as Buckholt and Frenchmoor.
Winchester to West Dean
Even with the success of Hyde Abbey and his several business, George was becoming increasingly concerned over the transport development of hard road surfaces being introduced in Winchester. Not normally a problem, except when your main mode of transport for a sawmill was horse and cart. After being felled, the Norman Court timber was hauled the 16 miles to Winchester by the sawmill‟s horses pulling pole carriages, comprising a long heavy pole with a beam going across it at each end to bear the logs. The process was extremely labour intensive and the horses would not cope with the hard surfaces of Winchester on a regular basis.
So when George was offered the site at West Dean in 1886, he jumped at the chance. There, the approach roads were gravel or dirt and easier on the horses‟ shoes and hooves. West Dean already had an established wood yard, owned by Norman Court, and there were other advantages as well like fields for grazing the horses and growing crops and the village blacksmith. In 1847 the village had established a railway station with a goods yard which ran between Salisbury and Eastleigh. As such, in 1886, East Brothers had established itself in the small village of West Dean where we still reside today.
A Rescue
George went on to have 4 children with his wife Sophia, up until her death from a long standing illness. George remarried to Mary Eames, who happened to be the nurse that cared for his first wife in her dying days. George and Mary had 5 boys Bert, William, Ebeneezer, Walter and Jesse, all of which played parts in maintaining East Brothers mill, right up until George’s death on 18th August 1896. The mill was left in the hands of Mary and and the boys which had to bring the business back from very hard times at the turn of the century. The mill had to be rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1896 and the business later had to go through a period of temporary closure. Times got so hard in fact that the family took no wages and often lived off little to no food.
But the new company of East Brothers Timber was set up and it later found a saviour in the shape of Salisbury estate agent Henry Knapman, who was also agent to the Norman Court Estate. He saw a future for the business which had been providing not only employment for people in the village but also important products which made life easier for farmers and other businesses in the area. With the backing from Mr Knapman, the business grew and started making a name for itself. Transport gradually started to develop in society which allowed the mill to buy in large parcels of timber from further afar.
By this point, Georges youngest son, Jesse had taken a bigger role on in the yard. He worked the blocking bench, which was the hardest and heaviest job in the mill – and possibly the most important. The demand for brush boards was growing all the time and at Dean, the boards were cut from prime beech, dried in the purpose-built drying sheds and then packed into bags and sent off to the factories making the brushes. Jesse Leonard also supervised the drying, packing and despatching of the boards. Jesse went on to have 6 children of his own, two of which were Charlie East and Edith East.
Next Generation
Between the First and Second World Wars, there were changes in the running of the business which saw the brothers who had taken over the mill from their father George followed into management by their own children. Jesse’s sons, Charlie and Ernie and daughter Edith along with Bert’s sons, Arthur, Cecil & Percy became the company‟s next generation and kept things moving forward. The 1930s saw the steady demise of the use of horse and cart and the more frequent use of hauliers and their lorries. It also saw the introduction of electricity into the mill as well as the use of the telephone. The company saw the changes in the ages of steam, diesel and electricity and by 1947 the chairman (Charles East) along with directors Ernie, Cecil, Percy, Arthur & Bert decided to relaunch the company under East Bros (Timber) Limited after purchasing the land and the shares invested by Mr Henry Knapman.
The business grew and saw many introductions of petrol power vehicles to help evolve the companies development in society. One of the biggest challenges was hauling timber round the yard, which up until the 1950s, was done by man power. But it took a major leap forward when a crane was brought in to pick the logs up. It consisted of a driver‟s cabin in the middle, a heavily weighted down box at the back and a jib which went forward from that box, above the driver‟s head and out in front of the machine where chains hung down and were tied around the logs before the carrying part of the operation. The heavy weights in the box at the back were actually dud – but still heavy – four-inch military shells.
And one of those shells caused quite a stir in the 1960s when it was put into the River Dun in the middle of Dean by a couple of pranksters. It just happened to be Church Fete day and the fete used to incorporate a tug-of-war across the river involving teams from Dean and neighbouring villages. The shell was spotted, the bomb disposal squad was called and the tug of war had to be cancelled.
With the rest of its shells being left well alone, that old crane survived for years until the modernisation which was sparked by Andrew East‟s arrival at the mill in the 1960s.
A New Era
Charles East married Muriel and together they had four boys. Andrew, Peter, Chris and Ron. Both Andrew, Chris and Ron played substantial roles within the company, with Andrew leading the way in the modernisation of the business. At that time, the main thrust of the business had been to continue providing timber for the coal mining, brush board, furniture and building industries. But for every big order that arrived, there were scores of smaller ones from local businesses and people.
Furthermore, changes and big increases in production were just around the corner as Andrew linked up with Charles and Ernie (Charles brother-in-law from his sister Edith) to ring those changes. After serving a timber apprenticeship with the East London company Gliksten and Co and gaining a qualification in business studies, Andrew returned to Dean in 1966. By this time, Arthur, Cecil and Percy had already retired from the business which made way for Andrew to take over and lead the company from a turnover of £41,000 to more than £6million come the early 21st Century. Charles remained the chairman of the company with his son as the managing director.
Andrew looked after the business side of things, with Charles very much a hands-on mill foreman. Ernie drove the crane in the yard for several years. John East (Ernie son) worked the band rack for more than half-a-century while Chris East had a range of jobs including tree felling and running the log- moving operations in the yard. Even young Ron East did various jobs before being given the job of running the pallet-making machine when it was introduced in the 1980s.
But they had taken over a company which had fallen behind the times and Andrew needed to act fast to stop the business from falling too far behind in the timber trade. So, in 1968, he bought a 70x50ft building which was the central section of what was to became the home of a brand new band mill from Stenners and an overhead lifting gantry from Herbert Morris. A second band mill arrived in the early 1970s and by 1974 the company had 3. However money started to run thin and though a rapid expansion seemed a gamble and Andrew went to the bank and asked for a loan. Without hesitation the bank signed the paperwork and the reputation of East Brothers was under way and the justification for the increased footprint was soon repaid by the tremendous increase in turnover and profit.
Some of the earliest workers of West Dean Sawmill (1886-1907)
The workforce of East Brothers Timber in the 1930s. Many wearing sacks to protect their clothing.
George East of Berkhampstead in Hertfordshire. Founder of East Brothers Timber.
Jesse East. A man with determination to succeed.
A young Andrew East on one of the last horse & cart transport systems
Charles and Bert with the modern sawdust hopper in the background