Business records

Several national companies have been based in the borough including :

Goodyears, Courtaulds, Lucas, Tarmac and Chubbs. Prominent local firms include Banks's Brewery, Bilston Steelworks, Electric Construction Company, Bayliss Jones and Bayliss, Guy Motors and John Thompson.

Chubb's Lock Works at the end of the nineteenth century.

We have various general sources that give information about local businesses including the Wolverhampton Official Guides that were produced from the 1920s to the 1980s. The Wolverhampton Chamber of Commerce was involved in the production of these publications and has also deposited records here.

A page from Illustrated Towns of England Business Review
- Wolverhampton Special Edition 1897.

In addition, we have a useful collection of printed materials on many local companies including catalogues, in-house magazines and newspaper cuttings.

You can find out which companies have deposited records here by contacting us. If we do not have any records you can search the National Register of Archives database to see if they have been deposited elsewhere.

If your ancestor was the owner of the firm, or a director, records such as the directors' minutes will be of interest. Employees may appear in records such as wages books or staff registers but these do not usually survive. Personnel records are rare and generally confidential for one hundred years.