The Dyke Family, Hanley

Description:Oliver Dyke (1860-1924) with his wife Caroline and children, Lionel (born 1893), and Gordon (born 1895) and Clarice (born 1891). Oliver Dyke founded Bratt & Dyke's department store. Lionel and Gordon took over the company in the 1920s.

Draper Oliver Dyke opened a shop in Hanley in 1890 with the financial support of Northwich draper and entrepreneur Henry Bratt. The business was successful and a new department store building, originally known as ‘The Central’ was built nearby on the site of the Roebuck Inn on the corner of Stafford Street and Trinity Street, opening in Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee year on 26 June 1897. Oliver died in 1926, but his sons Gordon and Lionel took over the business. A new 3rd floor was added in 1937 at a cost of £5090 – by this point the shop spread over four floors on multiple levels. Gordon Dyke's sons, Stanley and Tony, took over the management of the company in the 1950s. In 1965 Bratt & Dyke bought Brookfields gentlemen’s outfitters shop on the corner of Greengate Street and St. Mary’s Gate in Stafford. The company built a new shop here before closing in 1973. This building was briefly Court’s furnishers is now a branch of MacDonald’s. The company was sold as a going concern in the late 1980s and the Hanley store closed a year or so later.