page_title: Elliott Brothers (builders merchant)
section_title: The early days
hierarchical_section_title: Elliott Brothers (builders merchant) / The early days
caption_attribution_description: English: An advertisement inserted in the Hampshire Advertiser on 17 October 1840 by Mrs Charlotte Young of Southampton announcing that her husband's business is to be transferred to Thomas Christopher Elliott
context_page_description: Elliott Brothers is a builders' merchant based in Southampton, United Kingdom. The company's headquarters is in Millbank Street, Northam and it has a chain of outlets in and around Hampshire and Dorset. It also operates an online tool warehouse that serves the whole of the United Kingdom. Elliott Brothers and Elliotts Premier Roofing constitute the two components of the holding company, Elliott Brothers Limited.
  The company can trace its origins to October 1840 when 26-year-old Thomas Elliott took over the Southampton business of Robert Young who had died earlier in the year. Young's business had been based at Godfrey's Town on the banks of the River Itchen about 0.5 km south-west of the headquarters of the present-day company. Within five years Thomas had purchased a nearby cement works and had extended the range of products sold to include cement, lime, bricks, chimneypieces and many other items. Over the ensuing 40 years until his death in 1886 Thomas continued to expand the firm though at a slower rate. Meanwhile, his brother John was involved with the building and restoration of several churches around Southampton and in Sussex until his death in 1891.
context_section_description: After his 1826 advertisement announcing his relocation, Robert Young had never advertised his business and it had remained small. However, when Thomas Elliott took over the business an advertisement to that effect did appear in the Hampshire Advertiser of 17 October 1840.
  Young's stores and works in Godfrey's Town had been on the west bank of the lower reaches of the River Itchen. During his first two years, Elliott also based his operations there. But he was determined to expand and, in the late summer of 1842, the opportunity arose to purchase the business of the London Cement Works. The proprietor was one William Hale and, as implied by his 1841 advertisement, the cement was not produced in London but rather was manufactured on the 'London principle'.
  Elliott took the opportunity to purchase the cement works and, on 17 September 1842, an advertisement to that effect appeared in the Advertiser. They were situated on the banks of the River Itchen adjacent to Millbank Wharf, Northam, only 0.5 km (0.31 mi) north of the Godfrey's Town stores that Elliott had purchased from Robert Young. Godfrey's Town was also known as Crabniton and is marked as such on the 1871 Ordnance Survey town plan of Southampton. With the acquisition of Hale's works, Elliott could add Roman cement, Plaster of Paris, various types of lime and gypsum to his stock list. The Millbank works became the base of Elliott's operations and has remained as such ever since.
  In his bid to expand the business, Elliott inserted frequent advertisements in the Advertiser and also in the Southampton directories of 1843, 1845 and 1847. The 1845 advertisement, perhaps for the last time also mentions the commission agency that he and John had been operating both in Southampton and Chichester. Soon after, that activity was discontinued.
  In 1843, Thomas Elliott took a lease out on a property just across the river at 2 Bridge Road, Itchen. It became the home not only of Thomas himself, but also for John and Maria. It was also used as an office by both brothers. To get to the Millbank site, Thomas would have crossed the river by means of the Itchen ferry and the Woolston Floating Bridge that had been constructed in 1836. By the time of his marriage in 1847, Thomas Elliott had moved to Portswood Villa in Portswood leaving the use of the Bridge Road property. to John, Maria and Agnes, the daughter who had been born to them in 1844.
  By 1849, Thomas Elliott had extended his business to the sale of bricks, tiles, chimney pieces, dairy fittings, baths, washstands, cattle troughs and paint. Meanwhile, John was engaged in a survey of old churches for the diocese of Chichester. He had become honorary architect to the Sussex Diocesan Association and had already participated in the rebuilding of several churches in Sussex.
  In the late 1840s, Thomas was involved in the building of about 30 houses on Millbank Street, a road that ran north-east from the wharf. It is very likely John too partook in the project as he had already published an essay on the construction of cottages. Also in the late 1840s, by taking out leases on adjoining land, Thomas doubled its original acreage of the Millbank site. In the 1850s and 1860s both Thomas and John Elliott were involved in the sale and rent of property.
caption: Hampshire Advertiser, October 1840
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