| Description | The majority of the file comprises letters from Richards' managing director Raymond Dinsdale to various libraries, archives and other organisations requesting information on the firm's history, and their responses. The responses often include photocopies of articles and occasionally copies of original material. The latter includes: copies of drawings of gas lighting apparatus for John Maberly by Boulton Watt & Co. in 1814 and 1815 (from the Boulton & Watt Collection at the Library of Birmingham, reference MS 3147/5/808); a sketch of John Maberly by Abraham Wivell; bank notes issued to John Maberly & Company (from the Institute of Bankers in Scotland); and a sketch of Baxter's ground at Broadford (1829).
The file also includes Cluer's initial approach to Richards, his reports to the firm, draft chapters and outlines, and a final report recommending that due to a lack of sources a film might be better means of marking the firm's bicentenary.
Other documents in the file include: an inventory of title deeds of heritable properties belonging to Richards Limited; news cuttings of long service presentations to staff; a small black and white aerial photograph of Broadford Works; a print of a factory (possibly Broadford Works) with three chimneys with water and five figures in Victorian dress in the foreground; black and white images of Gilcomston dam and Gilcomston steps; and a brochure for Richards' CT500 fire hose. |