Reference
X704
Title
Records of Richard Elphick, later Frederick Thomas Cox, printer, stationer and newsagent, Market Square, Potton. Also including examples of printed material.
Date free text
1900-1986
Production date
From: 1900 To: 1986
Admin/biog history
Notes on the Elphick family of Biggleswade and Potton and their printing and publishing business.
1894. (Kellys directory). Charles Elphick, general printer and proprietor and publisher of the Biggleswade Chronicle (established 1891) 3, Hitchin Street Biggleswade.
1901.Elphick Brothers stationers and newsagents founded, Market Square, Potton
1906.(Kellys directory). By this date the Biggleswade Chronicle premises’ moved from Hitchin Street to Shortmead Street Biggleswade. The business at Potton was managed by Richard Elphick alone, Charles Elphick’s younger brother.
1940. September. Retirement of Richard Elphick, the stationers at Potton was carried on by his nephew, Frederick Thomas Cox, formerly of 40 Biggin Hall Crescent, Coventry.
1942. 23 March. Death of Charles Elphick at Shortmead Street, Biggleswade, aged 70 years. Buried in Biggleswade cemetery 27 March
1943. 21July. Death of Richard Elphick at Westbury Lodge, Potton, aged 65 years. Buried in Potton cemetery 23 July.
Richard Elphick was a Strict Baptist (informant Mrs. E.D. Wilkins).
The family appear to have come from the Huntingdonshire area (?). An Edward William Elphick ran a house furnishing business in Huntingdon, pre-1914. [see X704/203 for billheads].
The business was sold in November 1985
Scope and Content
COMPLETED PRINTING ORDERS: 1948 (Number 2173) – 1968 (Number 6105) in numbered bags. Includes : example of item printed and/or old order showing revisions and, sometimes, instructions from the person/society placing the order.
The survival rate is uneven:
Numbers 2173 - 3263 Few only
Numbers 3452 - 3736 Most
Numbers 3778 - 4050 Most
Numbers 4104 - 4643 Few only
Numbers 4694 - 6105 Most
How to order:
First request the printing day books, see X704/2-8, which give details of the work ordered. For example; day book X704/3 shows that an order, Number 3481, was placed for 800 Potton Gala Day programmes on 11 June 1951. To see the original programme prefix the order number, in this case 3481, with the reference X704 i.e.X704/3481
N.B. Some stray items from this main series are in section X704/51-204, catalogued by county and parish.
Level of description
fonds