Clothing factory is just a stitch in time

October 1, 2003

HARMER ROAD
(Mile Cross Lane)
also Harmer Close, Crescent and Lane

ROADS named after a family who created a worldwide clothing empire which provided work for generations of Norwich men and women.

Ready-to-wear garments being made in the Havers Road factory which opened in 1948.

For more than 150 years, they were major players on the city scene and it was a sad day when the doors closed for the last time at Harmers factory in December 1989.

The proud and pioneering company had been crippled by foreign imports and high interest rates — it was the end of an era.

The story starts back in 1825 when William Harmer, pictured below, a partner in Rivett & Harmer, travelled north by stagecoach to buy cloth which would later be delivered to Norwich by horse-drawn wagon or canal boat.

Remember, these were the days before machines and the cloth was sold to tailors in the city and villages. The founder’s son Thomas took over and in 1850 was joined by his son, Frederic William Harmer, then aged 15. He turned out to be a remarkable man.

He heard of a French invention for the “stitching together of materials by machine” and promptly ordered two. These machines were some of the first sewing machines to reach England.

Frederic added a small factory to his warehouse in Bethel Street to deal with a big demand for his ready-to-wear clothing. For the next 30 years, he worked to build up the business and found the time to play an active role in Norwich life being mayor and a member of various organisations.

When he finally stepped down in 1891, his sons, J.A. and T.B. took over. By then, a big new factory in St Andrew’s Street with new-fangled electric lighting was up and running.

William Harmer.

After the First World War, the partners were joined by Russell Thomas Harmer who became the first managing director.

During the Second World War, they made millions of pounds worth of garments for the armed services, but Hitler got his own back by bombing the factory — against the odds they struggled on.

After the war a new high-tech factory was built at Havers Road with all the latest mod cons. Hundreds were employed to make clothes and the girls even had their own hairdresser.

Generations of the Harmer family continued to run the company. Richard Harmer retired in 1971 and then Tom Harmer took over as managing director.

There were various changes before the company folded in the winter of 1989 — hundreds of people in Norwich and in other factories across Norfolk and Suffolk lost their jobs.

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