Frederick Tibbenham
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Frederick Tibbenham was a British cabinet maker and businessman in Ipswich, Suffolk. His company held a Royal Warrant for the production of furniture, and he also formed a construction company, working with some notable architects to design and build homes. During the two World Wars his factory made wooden aircraft propellors.
Tibbenham started his working life as a picture framer. He progressed to cabinet making, and in 1904, established the firm of Frederick Tibbenham Ltd, furniture makers in Ipswich. The company made high-quality reproduction pieces, particularly in Tudor or Elizabethan style, which were frequently exported to the US.
During World Wars I and II, Tibbenham switched the output of the factory to wooden propellers, of which there are a considerable number in private and public collections, and an equal number of photographs of the factory's manufacturing process. He also tried - unsuccessfully - to persuade the British army to commission the production of wooden bullets.
Between the World Wars, Tibbenham branched into construction in partnership with a number of notable architects, and as the Tibbenham Construction Company, (architect Stanley Hamp) exhibited a cottage at the 1926 Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition. Tibbenham had earlier trialed the building methods with Oakhurst and Tudor House in Northwood, Middlesex, a pair of Arts & Crafts oak-framed houses, which are two of the total of four remaining Tibbenham buildings, and are now Locally Listed.
After the Second World War, Tibbenham was obliged to alter the production of the factory to 'Utility' pieces, which failed to keep the factory working, and it closed in the mid-1950s, having suffered the effects of the new purchase tax, after being a subject of a debate in the House of Commons. [1]
Only four known Tibbenham buildings survive. The clubhouse for Ipswich Golf Club, opened in 1927, was build on a not-for-profit basis by Tibbenham for £3200.[2] Oakhurst, a Tibbenham Construction Company house, and a number of links to Tibbenham articles and information can be found on the Facebook page Friends of Oakhurst [2]
References
- ^ [1] Retrieved on 1 July 2012. Mr Albert Cooper (Ilford South), contribution to Parliamentary debate on Purchase Tax, 15 Nov 1955
- ^ "A brief history of Ipswich Golf Club". Retrieved 1 August 2012.
External links
- A woman fitter working on an aeroplane propeller at Frederick Tibbenham Ltd in Ipswich. Photograph from the Imperial War Museum photographic archive, hosted at the First World War Digital Poetry Archive, University of Oxford. Accessed 1 August 2012.