Birmingham based company that was listed in the 1930 and 1938 commercial directories as Ludlow Bros (1913) Ltd., galvanized holloware manufacturers, Western Road, telephone number MITcham 0848. Listed as Ludlow Bros. Ltd. in the 1954 telephone book.

Note that ‘Hollow-ware’ refers to buckets etc.

A credit note offered for sale on eBay, dated 1943, shows its address as 132 Western Road, which was part of the former Holborn Union workhouse at the corner of Bond Road. The site today is occupied by Asda.

credit note extract Ludlow Bros dated February 1943

According to Graces Guide to British Industrial History, the company was founded privately in 1868 and became public in 1913, hence that year in its name in the directories. At the time of the credit note, the ‘1913’ was typed over, suggesting that the company name had changed but stationery hadn’t yet been changed.

Birmingham Daily Post – Friday 14 June 1940

BOUND AND GAGGED IN HIS OFFICE Two men, one armed with a pistol, on Wednesday night entered the warehouse in Western Road, Mitcham, of Messrs. Ludlow Bros. (1913), Ltd., of Birmingham, and bound and gagged the firm’s London manager, Mr. F. J. Hutton, after forcing him to open the safe. They then made off with £15. Mr. Hutton, who lives at Maybury Street, Tooting, said yesterday: “I was seated in my office alone when the two men came in. One of them pointed a revolver at me, holding it at his hip, and said, ‘These things are liable to go off.’ “They commanded me to open the safe, and one of the men bound and gagged me with a serviette while the other took the money. I was struck from behind. One of the men had a handkerchief tied over the lower part of his face. I recognised one of them. He was a man I had seen before in the course of business.” Mr. Hutton, who was tied hand and foot, managed to free himself and inform the police, who took possession of the pistol and the serviette which the bandits left behind.