Free Trade office, Stafford

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Date:1909 - 1914 (c.)

Description:Pictured in front of the Free Trade Union offices at 65 Eastgate Street, covered in posters stating the case for Free Trade, is Stafford Town Councillor Arthur Finney who was appointed as the Free Trade Union's Staffordshire and Shropshire representative in 1909 and was well known locally as a lecturer on tariff reform in the years leading up to the First World War. The son of a Stafford shoemaker, he died in 1917 aged 50. This glass plate was probably taken by Weiss & Fowke of Stafford.

The Tariff Reform League wanted to see the British Empire transformed into a single trading bloc, to compete with Germany and the United States. It favoured imposing duties on imports - as did Germany and the United States - and the channelling of the money raised from these duties into social reforms. High import duties, the League claimed, would make increasing other taxes unnecessary. However opponents claimed that protection would mean dearer food, especially bread. The Free Trade Union was formed in 1905 to fight against the aims of the Tariff Reform league.

Charles Fowke was based at the Victoria Road studio from about 1904, at first in partnership with Paul Weiss (Wise). The partnership was dissolved in 1916 and Fowke carried on until about 1937. Bertram Sinkinson was a celebrated Stafford photographer, who took over the premises of C.E. Fowke at 15 Victoria Road, Stafford in 1936-7. Sinkinson was later president of the Royal Photographic Society, 1953-1955. He was awarded an OBE in 1957 and was Mayor of Stafford in 1959 and died in 1985.


Timeline

The timeline shows resources around this location over a number of years.

1790s
Performance Advertisement, New Stafford Theatre
Performance Advertisement, New Stafford Theatre

Advertisement for two plays preformed in the fist year of the New Stafford Theatre ...

1830s
Stafford Theatre Advertisement, Paganini Concert
Stafford Theatre Advertisement, Paganini Concert

Advertisement for a concert performed by Signor Paganini at Stafford Theatre, from ...

1900s
Walking match, Stafford
Walking match, Stafford

Participants in a walking match in Stafford. walking competitions and contexts ...

1950s
William Salt Library, Eastgate Street, Stafford
William Salt Library, Eastgate Street, Stafford

A rainy day at the junction of Tipping Street and Eastgate Street in the early 1950s, ...

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Donor ref:D.1363.5.1.4845a (201/36064)

Source: Staffordshire County Record Office

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