Gloving in yeovil
AE Holley & co
Small Glove Manufacturers of Sherborne Road
AE Holley & Co was a small glove manufacturing company of the early 20th century owned and run by Albert Edwin Holley. The company was active in 1919 when it was listed in Kelly's Directory of that year as glove manufacturers of 218 Sherborne Road.
The next entry was in Kelly's Directory of 1935 which listed Albert Edward Holley (rather than Edwin - a typo?) as a company of glove manufacturers at 218 Sherborne Road and at 12 Great Western Terrace.
Albert Edwin Holley was born in Yeovil in 1881, the son of electrical telegraph lineman John Holley and his wife Melina née Hyde. In the 1901 census the family were living at 60 Sherborne Road and Albert listed his occupation as a glove cutter. In the autumn of 1903 he married Mary Jane Bicknell at Yeovil and they were listed in the 1911 census living at 218 Sherborne Road with their baby daughter Phyllis. At this time Albert was listed as a 'worker' in the census meaning he was employed by someone, but he clearly had ideas of working for himself.
By 1919 his company, AE Holley & Co, was listed in Kelly's Directory as seen above. It was clearly one of Yeovil's very small glove manufactories, sited in his own home, and presumably he cut the gloves from bought-in leather while Mary did the sewing. The business clearly expanded as indicated by the two addresses listed in the 1935 directory.
Mary died in 1955 and Albert died in 1975 in Yeovil, aged 94.
