Z1515

Gifts of Geoffrey Farr

1862-2003

From: 1862 To: 2003

The bulk of the records in this collection comprise the official business archive of G.F. Farr & Sons (later Farr & Daughters) and its subsidiary companies. The business was founded in 1907 when the depositor’s grandfather, George Frederick Farr, set up a workshop fixing sewing machines and other small domestic appliances at his home at 29 Collingdon Street in Luton. The firm expanded rapidly over the following decades and, following a decline in local trade, business gradually turned towards large scale engineering contracts with manufacturers around the world. George was joined in the business by his sons George Dudley Farr and Frederick Herbert Farr in the 1920s and the firm formally became a limited company known as G.F. Farr & Sons Limited in 1954. From 1965 it was run by George Dudley Farr’s son Geoffrey, the depositor of these records. The Collingdon Street engineering works closed in 1967 and in the years that followed Farrs expanded into the heating, electrical, building and decorating supplies trades. They bought up a number of local companies during this time, including Ferguson Edwards Limited, W. H. Palmer and G. H. Bryant. The firm’s business premises – including factories, showrooms, and offices – remained focused in the Collingdon Street and Liverpool Road areas of Luton until they were sold off in the late 1970s. A few years later, in 1981, Geoffrey Farr purchased a nursery at Caddington and ran a successful garden centre there until it was sold to the Wyevale group in 1987. A second garden centre was developed at Maulden and was run by Geoffrey Farr and his daughters until its closure in 2003. [For a more detailed history of the business see ‘Farr’s: The History of a Family Firm’ by Geoffrey Farr, a copy of which is available in the archive searchroom]. Geoffrey Farr served as High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1998/1999 and a large number of papers in this collection concern his engagements during this year [Z1515/6]. He has also deposited several deeds for properties not owned by Farr business [Z1515/7].

The main run of business records created by G.F. Farr & Sons were deposited at Bedfordshire Archives in 2013 (accession 10459). The Inkerman Street deeds (ref: Z1515/7/2) had already been transferred here by Luton Museum in 2012 (accession 10416) and the papers relating to Mr Farr's year as High Sheriff of Bedfordshire arrived as a seperate deposit in 2016 (accession 10755).

fonds

LUTON, G.F. Farr & Sons Limited