User:Victoria Hallam/sandbox

Wood Bros (Furniture) Ltd was founded in 1924 by Herbert and Stanley Wood. They came from a family of furniture craftsmen, from the East End of London. In 1924 they set up a small company called 'Wood Bros (Furniture) Ltd' in a stable attached to a public house in Bethnal Green, East London. They crafted bespoke and small batches of household furniture made from oak and ash. The brothers decided to follow one design trend with their furniture and this was 'Tudor' style.

By 1939 the company had expanded and needed to move to larger premises. They decided to move to a larger workshop in an up and coming area of North London called Brimsdown. The second World War started soon after they had set up the workshop and Wood Bros (Furniture) Ltd worked for The Ministry of Supply for the War years.

After the Second World War, Herbert and Stanley Wood decided to go in different directions. Stanley wanted to concentrate on the Office and Contract furniture market whilst Herbert wanted to focus on reproduction furniture for the home. The brothers separated amicably on 22nd June 1946 and Herbert Wood kept the original company name.

In 1946, Wood Bros re-started making oak reproduction furniture and launched the brand 'Old Charm'. Old Charm was a distinct Tudor and Elizabethan style oak furniture range.

In 1954 Herbert Wood decided to build a purpose built factory, warehouse and showroom in the small historic town of Ware, Hertfordshire. By the end of 1955 the new factory was up and running.

In 1958 Herbert Wood began to experiment with different materials in new markets and Lurashell furniture was born. Lurashell was a revolutionary glass fibre concept. Glass fibre shells were padded with deep layers of foam and then covered in the eclectic colours of the 1960's. It met a strong resistance from the traditionalists in the trade, but slowly and inevitable it won a place in the furniture market. Lurashell was part of the modern Furniture Movement in Britain. Herbert Wood was a pioneer of innovation and a forerunner of design. Lurashell involved many design inputs from prominent furniture designers at the time: Michael Inchbald, Christopher Honey, Eero Aarnio, Walter S Cheney and Warwick Evans all had a hand in some of Lurashells designs. (PHOTO)

Lurashell was very popular with the cruise liners of the 1960's with The P & O Shipping Company outfitting lounges on both The Camberra and The Oronsay cruise ships. Cunard's company had Lurashell in their first class lounge on The Queen Elizabeth 2nd Cruise Liner. There is even a piece of Lurashell on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. (PHOTO)

In the mid 1970's Lurashell finished producing glass fibre furniture as sales started to decline due to a public resurgence in traditional wooden furniture.

Through out the Lurashell years, Wood Bros (Furniture) Ltd was still manufacturing the oak reproduction range 'Old Charm'. It was exported all over the world. In May 1960, a mobile exhibition of 'Old Charm' reproduction oak furniture began a three month tour of Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland. In 1972 Wood Bros (Furniture) Ltd won the Queens Award for Exports. (PHOTO)

Between 1972 and 2006 Old Charm was manufactured exclusively at the Ware, Hertfordshire, UK factory. Herbert Wood died in 1995 at the age of 85. He never retired and came into the factory everyday until a few days before he died. He left behind an established furniture business which had three generations of family members working within it.

In 2006 Wood Bros built a factory in China. They invested time, knowledge and money into the fast growing production location.