Telephone: 01773 581 458 • Email: info@pughs.co.uk
Charles Ernest Pugh (I) was born in Hackney in 1845.
Following his marriage to Emma Henstridge in 1867, Charles went on to establish a shop selling paraffin and glass. The couple had four children: Ernest, Robert, Laura and Charles Tudor (II) (1873-1933).
In Victorian times a law was passed forbidding the use of glass, which would allow passers by to see directly into the bars of public houses. It was common to obscure the glass with sandblasting or acid treatment. The three sons trained to make these panels more attractive with designs cut into the obscured area.
They approached many of the drinking establishments in London with their designs. They were very successful and formed a company called Pugh Brothers and examples of their work can still be seen in several establishments today.
Unfortunately, in the early 1900s, the brothers fell out and came to the decision that Charles (II) should leave.
After this separation, the other two brothers continued with the successful running of Pugh Brothers until the early 1920s, at which point they decided to sell the company to one of the larger glass merchants in the industry: John M Newton. Following the sale, they then emigrated to Australia. In fact in 1974 our company was approached by the Victoria and Albert Museum to see if we had any connection with Pughs Brothers as they were thinking of staging an exhibition of Victorian brilliant cut glass. A lot of their research led to the work produced by this company but unfortunately at this time we had little to offer them.
Upon the split, Charles (II) decided to set up his own business trading under the name Charles Pugh, but had little success, coming close to bankruptcy on several occasions. Due to his sporadic and unreliable nature in the letting market, he was unable to hold down a single premises in which to carry out his work for long periods of time. He had the habit of leaving the premises when the landlord quite reasonably pressed for overdue rent.
Finally, in 1917, he invested in a shop in Warren Street off Tottenham Court Road, allowing him to properly get his business off the ground. At this time he started trading as Charles Pugh (Glass).
Immediately after World War I, Warren street became the centre for the second-hand car market in London. At this time nearly all cars were glazed with ordinary glass. Safety glass was only used in the most expensive cars. Nearly every car coming into Warren Street for exchange had at least one glass that needed replacing. It was the case of being in the right place at the right time, we were consistently being asked to replace glass in cars.
Charles was still struggling to make a sustainable profit from his work, which led him to consider yet another moonlight flit from his premises. However, his eldest son, Charles Tudor (III) (1906-1994), joined him at the shop when he turned 14, persuading his father to stay and keep the business going after recognising the serious potential that the business had. Before long Charles (known as Charlie) was soon in charge of the business, he was joined by his two younger brothers Jack Tudor (1911/2005) and Ronald Tudor (1913/1995) once they had finished school. With his sons in the business Charles (II) participated less and less.
Following a law passed in 1930, in which it was decreed that safety glass should be mandatory for the front windscreens of all new vehicles, and for older vehicles by the year 1935, Charles (III) foresaw a huge upsurge in business. This prompted him to consider an additional avenue for their existing business, the production of their own laminated glass. In order to do this, the company leased premises in Spring Place, Kentish Town. This led to an extremely busy period of time for the company, as they worked tirelessly to complete work as the date of the new law approached.
With this surge in business, there naturally came a profit, which was used to go into the production of toughened glass. Thus, in 1935, the company was able to not only register as Charles Pugh (Glass) Limited whose principal activity was to fit windscreens, but also a new company Tudor Safety Glass Company Limited for the manufacture of laminated and toughened glass as well.
Just before the war there was a further plan to expand the fitting side of the business and a unit was bought in Bournemouth for the purpose. This was to be Ronald's project.
In 1938 Charles (III) lodged three patents for improvements to laminated or compounded safety glass and the manufacture thereof and the manufacture of tempered glass.
In 1940, the project to expand the fitting business was abandoned as Ronald was called up to serve in the Royal Air Force.
The shop in Warren Street was also bombed in 1940, completely demolishing it and forcing the fitting operation to be moved to the Spring Place premises to be carried out alongside the laminating and toughening work.
Bad luck ensued for the company, with a fire breaking out in the Spring Place premises at the end of the war, completely demolishing the laminating equipment and ancillary operations. The fire was not caused by enemy action, but most probably from sparks from the overhead railway. Upon this disaster, further premises in Regents Park Road (Chalk Farm, London NW1) were taken on.
During the war the company manufactured glass for aircraft and tanks.
Originally the interlayer used for laminating glass was celluloid, which made a very good safety glass, but turned yellow with age. Later this was superseded by acetate.
In 1949, a new interlayer, polyvinyl butyral, came onto the market in America. This was very much more efficient eliminating the use of chemicals and a very laborious process needed for celluloid/acetate. The issue with the new material was, in order to obtain any, it had to be bought in large quantities. It was not suitable for small productions. This left the company with a decision either to withdraw from the market or increase the scale of their production. Opting for the latter, Charles (III) decided that export would be the only answer to achieve the larger quantities. Over the next ten years, he visited many countries (South America, Europe, Middle and Far East and Australia) offering our new "Vinylex" Safety Glass. He was very successful and before long the only problem was making enough of the product to satisfy the orders being received.
In 1952, Charles Tudor (IV) (1935/-), son of Charles (III) joined the company. Initially his work was split between the Kentish Town and Chalk Farm units so that he could gain a good understanding of the manufacturing processes. Also at this time saw the introduction of curved windscreens to British cars. The company had no knowledge of how to bend the glass needed to make these curved windscreens. So in 1952, Ronald and Charles (IV) went to a company in Amsterdam to work in their factory for a few weeks to learn how to construct glass bending ovens and formers to obtain the required curvature in glass.
They returned to England to commence replicating the Dutch system in the Chalk Farm unit. Unfortunately this was not straightforward. The Dutch company had been producing curved glass for decorative and architectural purposes, which did not need the accuracy or quality required for windscreens. A great deal of experimenting had to be performed.
Unfortunately Charles (IV) was conscripted for National Service in 1953 leaving Ronald on his own to work on the development in any time he could spare whilst running the works.
In 1955, we made the first production run of curved laminated windscreens to be sold.
On being discharged from the RAF, Charles (IV) was put in charge of the toughening plant in Kentish Town and Jack was transferred to Chalk Farm to relieve the pressure on Ronald.
With more and more new cars with curved windscreens coming on the road. The business increased dramatically and the capacity at the Chalk Farm unit was to prove woefully inadequate for the sales the company was achieving. In 1959, another unit was purchased at Queenborough, Isle of Sheppey (Kent) for production of both flat and curved laminated glass. This was to be run by Ronald and manufacturing in Chalk Farm was to be run down. This unit traded under the Tudor Safety Glass Company name.
With the Queenborough unit manufacturing and the demise of manufacturing at Chalk Farm. Jack was now able to concentrate his efforts in the building of the fitting business. We had continually been fitting windscreens since 1917, but the manufacturing side had come to dominate the business. He also concentrated on building up the best stocks and attracted many of the London fitting companies to purchase from us. Initially our stocks were mainly our own manufactured glass, but with the ever increasing variation of cars on the road each with their own unique shapes, we needed to purchase glass from other manufacturing companies. The premises in Chalk Farm were soon emptied of the manufacturing equipment so that we could increase our stock holding.
Jack had approached Pilkington Brothers for supplies from their subsidiary Triplex many times in the past, but had always been refused. Finally in 1968, they offered us a Triplex agency with a promise of very much-increased purchasing. At the same time, the Windscreen Fitting Trade in London was crying out for supplies where they could be drawn on a daily basis. We were being used more and more, to a point where we started a delivery service to fitting companies in the surrounding areas.
In 1969, the business in Queenborough was expanding quite rapidly. So Charles (IV) was sent to help Ronald.
In 1971 Tudor Saftey Glass Company Ltd was sold to Pearsons (a large company owning Lazards Bank, Chessington Zoo, Royal Doulton) who already had interests in several glass companies. After 18 months Charles (III) and Ronald retired and Charles (IV) went back to London to join Jack in Charles Pugh (Glass) Ltd.
Pearsons renamed Tudor Safety Glass to "Doulton Safety Glass" and proceeded to purchase as many of Tudor's customers to give their newly acquired factory guaranteed work. In the mid 1980's Pearsons sold all their windscreen interests to the South African company Belron. Belron traded the Queenborough business as Solaglas and the other companies as Autoglass. The Queenborough business was then sold to Pilkington who still owns the business today.
With the imminent likelihood of the UK joining the European Union, most of the continental car manufacturers were increasing their representation in Britain. It seemed certain that there would be a requirement to supply the glass to these vehicles. Jack and Charles (IV) saw the opportunity and purchased the premises in Holmes Rd Kentish Town, just around the corner from the Spring Place unit.
Charles (IV) who had many contacts with the European glass manufacturers during his time at Tudor Safety Glass was able to arrange to import the necessary glass from companies such as Saint Gobain who is still one of our largest suppliers.
In 1974, Evelyn Eisenbraun, the daughter of Charles (III) returned to the business and joined Jack in running the fitting business in Chalk Farm. She was actively involved in setting up National Windscreens.
During the late 70's, Charles Pugh (Glass) went from strength to strength increasing the distribution business delivering throughout southern England.
In 1980 as the business was expanding quite rapidly and was running out of room. A unit across the road in Kentish Town was purchased to facilitate the ever growing demand of bulk storage.
1981, saw the introduction of a Burroughs mainframe computer to deal with stock control and accounts. Totally unlike todays computers, it was so large it had to have a crane to lift it into the building. This blocked off the street for quite a while.
Having been at the Chalk Farm unit for over 35 years. It was decided that the fitting business would relocate to part of the new unit in Kentish Town.
In 1982 Edward Tudor Pugh (1965/-) joined the company followed by David Tudor Pugh (1964/- ) in 1983. Both are sons of Charles (IV) and both worked in the Kentish Town branch.
In the mid 80s a further building was purchased in Holmes Rd in the same vicinity of the other buildings.
With the exit of Autowindscreens from National Windscreens in 1987, two new fitting businesses were opened in Nottingham and Leicester. A new company was formed to accommodate these, Charles Pugh (Windscreens) Ltd.
It seemed to be a repeat of the 1960s, as soon as we opened we were being asked to supply the surrounding fitting companies with glass.
Realising an opportunity, Charles (IV) decided that we should start an additional distribution business in the East Midlands. Later in 1988, Charles (IV) moved out of London to open a temporary location in Stanton by Dale, Nottinghamshire.
Adrian Miller joined the company in 1988 as Finance Director with the intention of moving the accounts department from London to Pinxton.
1989 saw the purchase of a 42,000 sq ft unit in Pinxton, Nottinghamshire and the distribution business moved there from its temporary location.
In 1991 the Kentish Town fitting business was transferred out of Charles Pugh (Glass) into Charles Pugh (Windscreens).
Deliveries out of Pinxton increased significantly and in 1993 a new distribution centre was opened in Salford Manchester.
With prior knowledge of his father's imminent retirement, David relocated to Pinxton in 1994.
Charles (IV) retired from the daily runnings of the company in 1995. Although he continued for a number of years as Chairman.
Slowly Pinxton was becoming the hub of operations for the company and less and less deliveries were being made to Holmes Rd. So it was decided to sell one of the properties and condense the operation into the others.
1996 saw the opening of a further distribution centre in Wednesbury, Birmingham.
Ed relocated to Pinxton in 1997.
In 1998 a trade counter was opened in Leicester.
1999 saw the opening of yet another distribution centre in Glasgow.
In 2000 a trade counter was opened in Leeds.
The last of the Kentish Town premises was sold in 2004 and the distribution business was moved to Enfield
In 2005, the business in Salford, Manchester was relocated to a recently purchased unit in Trafford Park.
A distribution depot was opened in Southampton in 2007.
2007 also saw a trade counter open in Staples Corner, London.
Due to restructuring of the business in 2009 the Glasgow and Southampton depots were closed.
Throughout the 2010's the company goes from strength to strength, working and improving its existing business in the UK.
In Hackney, Charles Ernest Pugh (I) was born in 1845.
Following his marriage to Emma Henstridge in 1867, Charles went on to establish a shop selling paraffin and glass. The couple had four children: Ernest, Robert, Laura and Charles Tudor (II) (1873-1933).
In Victorian times a law was passed forbidding the use of glass, which would allow passers by to see directly into the bars of public houses. It was common to obscure the glass with sandblasting or acid treatment. The three sons trained to make these panels more attractive with designs cut into the obscured area.
They approached many of the drinking establishments in London with their designs. They were very successful and formed a company called Pugh Brothers. Examples of their work can still be seen in several establishments today.
Unfortunately, in the early 1900s, the brothers fell out and came to the decision that Charles (II) should leave.
After this separation, the other two brothers continued with the successful running of Pugh Brothers until the early 1920s, at which point they decided to sell the company to one of the larger glass merchants in the industry: John M Newton. Following the sale, they then emigrated to Australia. In fact in 1974 our company was approached by the Victoria and Albert Museum to see if we had any connection with Pughs Brothers as they were thinking of staging an exhibition of Victorian brilliant cut glass. A lot of their research led to the work produced by this company. Unfortunately at this time we had little to offer them.
Upon the split, Charles (II) decided to set up his own business trading under the name Charles Pugh, but had little success, coming close to bankruptcy on several occasions. Due to his sporadic and unreliable nature in the letting market, he was unable to hold down a single premises in which to carry out his work for long periods of time. He had the habit of leaving the premises when the landlord quite reasonably pressed for overdue rent.
Finally, in 1917, he invested in a shop in Warren Street off Tottenham Court Road, allowing him to properly get his business off the ground. At this time he started trading as Charles Pugh (Glass)
Immediately after World War I, Warren street became the centre for the second-hand car market in London. At this time nearly all cars were glazed with ordinary glass. Safety glass was only used in the most expensive cars. Nearly every car coming into Warren Street for exchange had a least one glass that needed replacing. It was the case of being in the right place at the right time, we were consistently being asked to replace the glass in the cars.
Charles was still struggling to make a sustainable profit from his work, which led him to consider yet another moonlight flit from his premises. However, his eldest son, Charles Tudor (III) (1906-1994), joined him at the shop when he turned 14, persuading his father to stay and keep the business going after recognising the serious potential that the business had. Before long Charles (known as Charlie) was soon in charge of the business, he was joined by his two younger brothers Jack Tudor (1911/2005) and Ronald Tudor (1913/1995) once they had finished school. With his sons in the business Charles (II) participated less and less.
Following a law passed in 1930, in which it was decreed that safety glass should be mandatory for the front windscreens of all new vehicles, and for older vehicles by the year 1935, Charles (III) foresaw a huge upsurge in business. This prompted him to consider an additional avenue for their existing business, the production of their own laminated glass. In order to do this, the company leased premises in Spring Place, Kentish Town. This led to an extremely busy period of time for the company, as they worked tirelessly to complete work as the date of the new law approached.
With this surge in business, there naturally came a profit, which was used to go into the production of toughened glass. Thus, in 1935, the company was able to not only register as Charles Pugh (Glass) Limited whose principal activity was to fit windscreens, but also a new company Tudor Safety Glass Company Limited for the manufacture of laminated and toughened glass as well.
Just before the war there was a further plan to expand the fitting side and a business unit was bought in Bournemouth for the purpose. This was to be Ronald's project.
In 1938 Charles (III) lodged three patents for improvements to laminated or compounded safety glass and the manufacture thereof and the manufacture of tempered glass.
In 1940, the project to expand the fitting business was abandoned as Ronald was called up to serve in the Royal Air Force.
The shop in Warren Street was also bombed in 1940, completely demolishing it and forcing the fitting operation to be moved to the Spring Place premises to be carried out alongside the laminating and toughening work.
Bad luck ensued for the company, with a fire breaking out in the Spring Place premises at the end of the war, completely demolishing the laminating equipment and ancillary operations. The fire was not caused by enemy action, but most probably from sparks from the overhead railway.Upon this disaster, further premises in Regents Park Road (Chalk Farm, London NW1) were taken on.
During the war the company manufactured glass for aircraft and tanks.
Originally the interlayer used for laminating glass was celluloid, which made a very good safety glass, but turned yellow with age. Later this was superseded by acetate.
In 1949, a new interlayer, polyvinyl butyral, came onto the market in America. This was very much more efficient eliminating the use of chemicals and a very laborious process needed for celluloid/acetate. The issue with the new material was that, in order to obtain any, it had to be bought in large quantities. It was not suitable for small productions. This left the company with a decision either to withdraw from the market or increase the scale of their production. Opting for the latter, Charles (III) decided that export would be the only answer to achieve the larger quantities. Then over the next ten years, he visited many countries (South America, Europe, Middle and Far East and Australia) offering our new "Vinylex" Safety Glass. He was a very successful and before long the only problem was making enough of the product to satisfy the orders being received.
In 1952, Charles Tudor (IV) (1935/-), son of Charles (III) joined the company. Initially his work was split between the Kentish Town and Chalk Farm units so that he could gain a good understanding of the manufacturing processes. Also at this time saw the introduction of curved windscreens to British cars. The company had no knowledge of how to bend the glass needed to make these curved windscreens. So in 1952, Ronald and Charles (IV) went to a company in Amsterdam to work in their factory for a few weeks to learn how to construct glass bending ovens and formers to obtain the required curvature in glass.
They returned to England to commence replicating the Dutch system in the Chalk Farm unit. Unfortunately this was not straightforward. The Dutch company had been producing curved glass for decorative and architectural purposes, which did not need the accuracy or quality for windscreens. A great deal of experimenting had to be performed.
Unfortunately Charles (IV) was conscripted for National Service in 1953 leaving Ronald on his own to work on the development in any time he could spare whilst running the works.
In 1955, we made the first production run of curved laminated windscreens to be sold.
On being discharged from the RAF, Charles (IV) was put in charge of the toughening plant in Kentish Town and Jack was transferred to Chalk Farm to relieve the pressure on Ronald.
With more and more new cars with curved windscreens coming on the road. The business increased dramatically and the capacity at the Chalk Farm unit was to prove woefully inadequate for sales the company was achieving. In 1959, another unit was purchased at Queenborough, Isle of Sheppey (Kent) for production of both flat and curved laminated glass. This was to be run by Ronald and manufacturing in Chalk Farm was to be run down. This unit traded under the Tudor Safety Glass Company name.
With the Queenborough unit manufacturing and demise of manufacturing at Chalk Farm. Jack now was able to concentrate his efforts in building of the fitting business. We had continually been fitting windscreens since 1917, but the manufacturing side had come to dominate the business. He also concentrated on building up the best stocks and attracted many of the London fitting companies to purchase from us. Initially our stocks were mainly our own manufactured glass, but with the ever increasing variation of cars on the road each with their own unique shapes. We needed to purchase glass from other manufacturing companies. The premises in Chalk Farm were soon emptied of the manufacturing equipment so that we could increase our stock holding.
Jack had approached Pilkington Brothers for supplies from their subsidiary Triplex many times in the past, but had always being refused. Finally in 1968, they offered us a Triplex agency with a promise of very much-increased purchasing. At the same time, the Windscreen Fitting Trade in London was crying out for supplies where they could be drawn on a daily basis. We were being used more and more, to a point where we started a delivery service to fitting companies in the surrounding areas.
In 1969, the business in Queenborough was expanding quite rapidly. So Charles (IV) was sent to help Ronald.
In 1971 Tudor Saftey Glass Company Ltd was sold to Pearsons (a large company owning Lazards Bank, Chessington Zoo, Royal Doulton) who already had interests in several glass companies. After 18 months Charles (III) and Ronald retired and Charles (IV) went back to London to join Jack in Charles Pugh (Glass) Ltd.
Pearsons renamed Tudor Safety Glass to "Doulton Safety Glass" and proceeded to purchase as many of Tudor's customers to give their newly acquired factory guaranteed work. In the mid 1980's Pearsons sold all their windscreen interests to the South African company Belron. Belron traded the Queenborough business as Solaglas and the other companies as Autoglass. The Queenborough business was then sold to Pilkington who still owns the business today.
With the imminent likelihood of the UK joining the European Union, most of the continental car manufacturers were increasing their representation in Britain. It seemed certain that there would be a requirement to supply the glass to these vehicles. Jack and Charles (IV) saw the opportunity and purchased the premises in Holmes Rd Kentish Town, just around the corner from the Spring Place unit.
Charles (IV) who had many contacts with the European glass manufacturers during his time at Tudor Safety Glass was able to arrange to import the necessary glass from companies such as Saint Gobain who is still one of our largest suppliers.
In 1974, Evelyn Eisenbraun, the daughter of Charles (III) returned to the business and joined Jack in running the fitting business in Chalk Farm. She was actively involved in setting up National Windscreens.
During the late 70's, Charles Pugh (Glass) went from strength to strength increasing the distribution business delivering over southern England.
In 1980 as the business was expanding quite rapidly and was running out of room. A unit across the road in Kentish Town was purchased to facilitate the ever growing demand of bulk storage.
1981, saw the introduction of a Burroughs mainframe computer to deal with stock control and accounts. Totally unlike todays computers, it was so large it had to have a crane to lift it into the building. This blocked off the street for quite a while.
In 1982 Edward Tudor Pugh (1965/-) joined the company followed by David Tudor Pugh (1964/- ) in 1983. Both are sons of Charles (IV) and both worked in the Kentish Town branch.
Charles (IV) who had many contacts with the European glass manufacturers during his time at Tudor Safety Glass was able to arrange to import the necessary glass from companies such as Saint Gobain who is still one of our largest suppliers.
In mid 80s a further building was purchased in Holmes Rd in the same vicinity of the other buildings
With the exit of Autowindscreens from National Windscreens in 1987, two new fitting businesses were open in Nottingham and Leicester. A new company was formed to accommodate these Charles Pugh (Windscreens) Ltd.
It seemed to be a repeat of the 1960s, as soon as we opened we were being asked to supply the surrounding fitting companies with glass.
Realising an opportunity, Charles (IV) decided that we should start an additional distribution business in the East Midlands. Later in 1988, Charles (IV) moved out of London to open a temporary location in Stanton by Dale, Nottinghamshire.
Adrian Miller joined the company in 1988 as Finance Director with the intention of moving the accounts department from London to Pinxton.
1989 saw the purchase of a 42,000 sq ft unit in Pinxton, Nottinghamshire and the distribution business moved there from its temporary location.
In 1991 the Kentish Town fitting business was transferred out of Charles Pugh (Glass) into Charles Pugh (Windscreens).
Deliveries out of Pinxton increased significantly and in 1993 a new distribution centre was opened in Salford Manchester.
With prior knowledge of his father's imminent retirement, David relocated to Pinxton in 1994.
Charles (IV) retired from the daily runnings of the company in 1995. Although he continued for a number of years as Chairman.
Slowly Pinxton was becoming the hub of operations for the company and less and less deliveries were being made to Holmes Rd. So it was decided to sell one of the properties and condense the operation into the others.
1996 saw the opening of a further distribution centre in Wednesbury, Birmingham.
Ed relocated to Pinxton in 1997.
In 1998 trade counter was opened in Leicester.
In 1999 saw the opening of yet another distribution centre in Glasgow.
In 2000 trade counter was opened in Leeds.
The last of the Kentish Town premises was sold in 2004 and the distribution business was moved to Enfield
In 2005, the business in Salford, Manchester was relocated to a recently purchased unit in Trafford Park.
A distribution depot was opened in Southampton in 2007.
2007 also saw a trade counter opening in Staples Corner, London.
Due to restructuring of the business in 2009 the Glasgow and Southampton depots were closed.
Throughout the 2010's the company goes from strength to strength, working and improving its existing business in the UK.