Thomas R.G. Shute

Thomas R.G. Shute
File:Shute, Thomas R.G..jpg
Born	1802
Died	1881
Residence	The Rookery, Watford
Occupation	business
Society Membership membership ASL ordinary fellow ASL Foundation Fellow left 1867.12.17 resigned elected_ASL 1864.05.30

Notes

Notes From Elsewhere

To its north stand the Rookery , pink-brick and early-18th-century, with its stable ... Watford Manors . In the middle of the last century there was a silk mill belonging to Thomas Rock Shute , called Rookery Silk Mill , situated a short distance ...

Thomas Rock Shute, born at Sydenham, Kent in 1802 and thus a very young man for his position. Whether Shute's family had any previous connection with the silk industry has not been discovered; at any rate, he evidently made a success at Watford, since he continued there until his death in 1881. Then the mill closed down, becoming in turn a steam laundry and a piano factory; today, after a destructive fire, its remains (with recent extensions) house several small firms of engineers and joiners
A rich and varied history lies beneath the present Marks & Spencer store in Rickmansworth. The
car park on 195 High Street conceals the foundations of a silk mill built in the early 1830s by a young
silk throwster named Thomas Rock Shute. Silk was produced in the mill for half a century until
1881. For a brief period, from 1885 to 1891, the building became a jam factory owned by Charlotte,
wife of William Plaistowe, a confectionery trader owning a substantial business based in King’s
Cross, London. The Franklin brothers, Frederick and Albert, bought it in April 1891, and moved
their soft drinks manufacturing from a sweet shop at 171 High Street. The soft drinks business had
started life as Franklin Bros in 1886, but the business changed in 1897 to Franklin & Sons when
Frederick bought his brother out. Production of soft drinks continued for nearly a century until 1987
and it remained a drinks distribution warehouse until 1990. The mill site was added to on four
occasions. The mill was demolished in 1991 to make way for the current M&S store.
Thomas Rock Shute, born on 23rd July 1801 at Sydenham, Kent, took over the Rookery silk mill
in Watford in 1826 and is named in Pigot’s Directory for Hertfordshire in that year as a Silk
Throwster. Ill-health had forced the semi-retirement of his older brother, Richard, thus enabling
Thomas Rock Shute to inherit the Watford mill from his father. Under Thomas the mill
prospered. He decided to expand the business and sought a new site. He selected
Rickmansworth because there was an easily accessible and inexhaustible supply of clean water,
not only from the River Colne’s tributaries but also from wells. Rickmansworth was also blessed
with an abundant supply of labour whereas he was short of workers in Watford. The village had
plenty of females between the ages of 10 and 20 and, furthermore, the cost of labour was lower
compared to wages paid to workers in London. Rickmansworth was, conveniently, located close
enough to Watford to enable Shute to bring trained staff across to establish manufacturing and
bring on local labourers. The Grand Union Canal was very accessible for transport as there had
been a junction to Rickmansworth town wharf since 1815 for Dickinson’s paper mills at
Batchworth. Construction of the mill began in 1831 and was completed in 1832. Thomas Rock
Shute also built a second mill in Chesham.