The Beginning
Jerry Glasswell, 1896 - 1984, Founder
Jerry Glasswell was the third child of fifteen, born to Buckler and Agnes Glasswell near Wisbech in 1896. When he was 18 months old the family moved to Bury St Edmunds where life was happy but often on the breadline. "We knew the depths of poverty and it was this experience that spurred me on later in life" Jerry used to say.
When he was 7, Jerry took his first job, showing the initiative that was to stay with him for the rest of his life. Working one hour a day house cleaning, he earned just 6d a week. Leaving school at 12, he went into service in Lincolnshire, but soon returned to Bury to become an errand boy for International Stores in Abbeygate Street. Jerry became an apprentice there, and, by 1914, was earning 4s (20p) a week. At 17, he rode off to do his duty with the Suffolk Regiment but, after the war, re-joined his old firm where he rose to the position of Manager of the Stowmarket Store. Within a year, he had taken charge of a larger store at Seven Kings in London and, on the strength of his new job, married Ethel Maud Read, daughter of a local employer.
During a successful career with International Stores, he had acquired three properties in Chadwell Heath, two of which he converted to flats to help secure his family’s future, now including a son Leslie, born in 1923 and daughter Peggy born in 1929. However, in 1938 Jerry decided he wanted to run his own business and, having spotted rows of chimneys in suburban London, started his own chimney sweeping business and later a successful window cleaning firm, employing a team of four, including son Leslie.
A Monument to Self Denial
After the war, Jerry returned to Bury to work with his father as an
auction porter for local firm H.C.Wolton & Sons. On release from
the RAF, Leslie joined him, working in the auctions rooms, but whilst
on leave during the war, they had often talked about opening their
own furniture shop. And that's what happened, in May 1946. Their first
shop in Brentgovel Street was to become the foundation of the biggest
family run home furnishings company in East Anglia, developed over a
period of 60 years under the direction of Jerry Glasswell, his son Leslie
and grandson Paul. Jerry's proudest moment was the opening of the St.Andrews
Street store, what he called a “monument to self denial”.
Everything he had earned had been ploughed back into business and was still being
re-invested up to the late 1970’s. Jerry died on 3rd May 1984
Everything Stops For Tea, A Token of Appreciation
While Jerry Glasswell had wanted to make his mark on life, he never forgot the community that had supported him. That’s why, back in 1954, he started a Christmas distribution of tea and sugar to pensioners in the area. In a newspaper interview in 1971 he explained his reasons. “Some years ago I felt that the people who had helped me to get on in life were those of my own age. So I decided that at Christmas I would give every pensioner two pounds of sugar and a quarter of tea.”
The first distribution was made in Bury, but was later extended to Haverhill, Saffron Walden and Stowmarket. To receive gifts, senior citizens were asked to call at the shop and show their pension books. They came in their thousands and Jerry was often there having a chat with customers whom he regarded as friends from the old days. It was not a charity, but a token of appreciation and thanks to all the people of the district who had supported the firm over the years. Jerry said in 1975, “I look forward to this as a family occasion. I meet old customers, old friends and people I served with in the First World War”.
Earlier, in 1955, in an advertisement announcing the second distribution, Glasswells said: “we have been fortunate in the past year due to the support of our many customers, and we would like to pass on a little of this success to those less fortunate.”
After the 1955 distribution, the Bury Free Press reported that Jerry and Leslie, and members of the staff distributed two pounds of sugar and a quarter of tea to 750 pensioners in the first hour. A number of people over 80 were each given 10s (50p) and a widow of 89 received a £5 note. In fact supplies ran out, but more were quickly brought in so that no one went away disappointed. At the time of Jerry’s death, on 3rd May 1984, the firm had given away more than £100,000 worth of tea and sugar over 30 years. That year, Leslie decided to discontinue the seasonal distribution. It was the end of an era.