Cherub Clothing. Charles Street. Leicester.

[Steve C]

On my recent annual visit to my Grandfathers grave at St Marys in Lutterworth, I decided to call into the Framework Knitters Museum in Wigston. Had a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours looking around the old house before seeing the old FWK machines and listening to a guide giving a talk.

I have several ancestors who are listed as FWK and this got me thinking as a more recent ancestor used to work at Cherub Clothing in Charles Street during the late 1930s and early 1940s. I have found just one photo of Cherub Clothing on the University of Leicester website and judging by the vehicles in the photo I would suggest it was taken mid 1960s.

Does anyone know whether there are any other photos of Cherub Clothing? Would especially like to see a photo of the inside 

I have also viewed the Knitting Together website which gives a brief history of Cherub Clothing. Anyone know how many people Cherub Clothing employed?

Sorry for the random request 

Many thanks in anticipation Steve

[AlanBoyd]

Cherub was a brand used by Arthur Foister Ltd, later Arthur Foister & Sons Ltd. I searched the 1921 census for people living in Leicester with name of employer = Foister and got 280 results. Looking at the first 10 of these I counted–

5/10 were some variant of Arthur Foister & Sons, James Street [the firm moved to Charles Street later]
4/10 were some variant of M C Foister, High Cross St. [Arthur Foister’s brother, a separate firm]
1/10 W Foister, tanner, Friday Street.

So, based on this rather small sample, about half of the hits are Arthur Foister-related, thus there were VERY APPROXIMATELY 140 employees of Arthur Foister Ltd. in 1921

[AlanBoyd]

Charles Street (in the 1960s?) with the Foister Building sporting an advert for Cherub at roof level (the building is just beyond the shop with awnings).

[Steve C]

Many thanks Alan for your two replies.

I appreciate you taking the time to answer with the estimated employee figures and the photo ( although I have just been reading that the building has now been converted into apartments with a bar/restaurant and nightclub ).

Steve

[AlanBoyd]

Here is a book that you might find interesting:

Mary, quite contrary: a Second World War girlhood and what happened next by Mary Essinger, 2016

I have accessed this at archive.org (link below): it describes her experiences working at the Foister factory in 1948 (I think they had moved to Charles Street by then). The book is available, used, at Amazon and also on Kindle. There are also copies available on ebay.

You can read it for free at archive.org, but it is only available 'to borrow' which simply means that you have to register at archive.org – it's free – whereupon you can see the whole book for an hour at a time.

https://archive.org/details/maryquitecontrar0000essi/page/87/mode/1up?q=arthur+foister

[Steve C]

Here is a book that you might find interesting:

Mary, quite contrary: a Second World War girlhood and what happened next by Mary Essinger, 2016

I have accessed this at archive.org (link below): it describes her experiences working at the Foister factory in 1948 (I think they had moved to Charles Street by then). The book is available, used, at Amazon and also on Kindle. There are also copies available on ebay.

You can read it for free at archive.org, but it is only available 'to borrow' which simply means that you have to register at archive.org – it's free – whereupon you can see the whole book for an hour at a time.

https://archive.org/details/maryquitecontrar0000essi/page/87/mode/1up?q=arthur+foister

Many thanks again Alan for your continued help and assistance with this topic. Really appreciate the time you have spent researching and posting your findings. Now off to locate that book 

[RogerFoi]

I've got a few photos of the Cherub Factory, but having recently moved they are stuck in the family history boxes!!
After Xmas I'll dig them out and post them.
Looking forward to reading Mary, Quite Contrary

[Steve C]

I've got a few photos of the Cherub Factory, but having recently moved they are stuck in the family history boxes!!
After Xmas I'll dig them out and post them.
Looking forward to reading Mary, Quite Contrary

Thankyou for your reply, will have to keep a look out for those photos when you post them although I am hoping to receive an email from Rootschat chat reminding me that someone has placed a response to this thread.

I did visit Leicester City centre in July this year to visit some of the addresses that my ancestors used to live and work. Took a photo of the old Cherub Clothing building in Charles Street but looking forward to viewing the ones you have 

[RogerFoi]

They are mainly of the "shop floor" eg knitting rooms etc