 | |
| Company type | Private (subsidiary of Geberit AG) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Bathroom fittings |
| Founded | 1849 |
| Founder | Thomas Twyford & Thomas William Twyford |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | Sanitaryware |
| Website | http://www.twyfordbathrooms.com/ |
Twyford Bathrooms is a manufacturer of bathroom fixtures based in Alsager, Cheshire, England.
Thomas Twyford and his son Thomas William Twyford established what is now known as Twyford Bathrooms in 1849 in Bath Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. The worldwide demands for new sanitaryware soon required the building of an all new factory in 1887 at Cliffe Vale, Stoke-on-Trent. This was the first purpose built bathrooms factory in the world.
Today it is owned by Geberit AG, which is a leading European manufacturer of sanitation equipment, following the 2015 acquisition of Finland-based bath and toilet firm Sanitec for $1.4 billion.
In 1999, Twyford Bathrooms were made holders of the Royal Warrant of Appointment to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
1680: Joshua Twyford (1640-1729) was the first Twyford to make commercial pottery near Shelton Old Hall, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. Specimens of his work can be seen at the Potteries Museum in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, including a salt glazed stoneware teapot inscribed 'Sarah Twyford'.
1729: Joshua Twyford died. The precise date production ceased at Twyford's original factory is not known, but the Twyford family continued potting in the district with the possible lapse of a generation.
1827: Thomas Twyford was born.
1849: Thomas Twyford established two factories where washbasins and closet pans of an elementary nature were made. The first was his Bath Street Works in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. The factory still exists but the street has been renamed Garth Street. The second was his Abbey Works in Bucknall, Stoke-on-Trent. Twyford commenced exporting to America, Russia, Australia, France, Germany, Spain and many other countries.
1849, 23 September: Thomas William Twyford was born, in Hanover Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
1870: The "Annus Mirabilis" of the water closet. 1870 was the start of thirty years of massive growth of the Twyford company and a flood of sanitary invention.
1872: Thomas Twyford died. Thomas William, at age 23, took over the running of the blossoming company.
1883: Thomas William Twyford introduced the first all-ceramic, free-standing, one-piece, washout, pedestal closet, the Unitas. This incorporated the WC pan with an integral trap as one piece of pottery without the need for a surrounding wooden cabinet. The Unitas was exported throughout the world and the name itself is used to this day in the Russian language to mean "toilet" - see унитаз (Russian).
1887: Twyford's Cliff Vale factory was built as a "model" factory. The new factory's toilet facilities and systems of ventilation were treated by government inspectors of factories as a pattern for the whole of Staffordshire. Every workman had his own opening window.
1889: The first washbasins with combined overflows were introduced by Twyford.
1896: Twyford formed into a private limited company.
1901: Twyford built a factory in Ratingen, Germany, but vacated it in 1914 during the First World War. It was not reoccupied by Twyford but the Keramag company was established and produces sanitaryware at the factory to this day. Keramag is a member of the Sanitec Group.
1919: Twyford became a public limited company.
1921: Thomas William Twyford died. He was recognised as a leading pioneer in the application of principles of hygiene to sanitary appliances. He became known as the "father of British bathrooms."
1929: A silent, black-and-white movie film showing the sanitaryware processes was commissioned as a marketing tool by the new Twyford management.
1945: Reconstruction of Etruria Works started and the first tunnel kilns were installed.
1953: The Cliffe Vale Fireclay factory was reconstructed, having suffered bomb damage during World War II.
1956: Construction at Alsager, Cheshire, of a vitreous china factory was started on a 52-acre (21 ha) site. The first stage was completed in 1958.
1960: Twyford commenced manufacture of vitreous china in India, with Hindustan Sanitaryware & Industries Limited.
1962: Twyford established a factory in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
1970: Twyford commenced manufacture of vitreous china in a new factory located in Melbourne, Australia.
1971: Twyford acquired by the Building Products division of Reed International. [1]
1973: Reed International acquires Curran Steels, adding its pressed steel and acrylic baths to the Twyford product range. [1]
1976: A£5 million expansion scheme for the Alsager vitreous china factory was completed.
1992: MB Caradon invested £13 million in a new national distribution centre and new head office, showroom and administrative block on the Alsager site, which became the largest single unit devoted to vitreous china production and distribution in Europe. The site at Alsager now covers 70 acres (28 ha).
1996: George Rimmer joined as Commercial Products Director and oversaw a joint venture with Bushboard promoting Twyford as a market leader in the UK commercial sector.
1999: Twyford's 150th birthday
2001, January: HSBC sold Twyford Bathrooms to the Sanitex Corporation of Helsinki, Finland. Sanitec is Europe's largest producer of ceramic sanitaryware in Europe and is quoted on the Helsinki stock exchange. Twyford Bathrooms was re-established with the Twyford, Doulton and Royal Doulton brands of bathroom products.
2001: Twyford introduced the first British-made, specially designed, valve operated toilet suite to the UK market, the View suite.
2005: Twyford's brand logo was redesigned.
2007: Twyford's Sola range was completely overhauled and the Rimless Pan was launched.
2007: Twyford Galerie Flushwise – the dual flush 4-litre and 2.6-litre water efficient suite – launched and won the Water Wise Marque award. [2]
2010: The company's parent group Sanitec announced the closure of the Alsager factory in July 2010, with all manufacturing moving to factories outside the UK. [3]
2011: Production halted after 162 years. The factory in Alsager, Stoke-on-Trent was closed to make way for a supermarket; however, the offices remain.
2012: Planning permission for a supermarket was refused [4] due to the impact on surrounding businesses. In October 2012 Twyford's Bath Street Works in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent was finally demolished. On 28 December 2012 Twyford's Garner Street "Etruria Works" sustained an enormous fire, with many of the businesses in the last original Twyford's industrial units being affected.
Staffordshire is a landlocked ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south-east, the West Midlands county and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and the county town is Stafford.
Stoke-on-Trent is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of 36 square miles (93 km2). In 2022, the city had an estimated population of 259,965. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surrounded by the towns of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Alsager, Kidsgrove and Biddulph, which form a conurbation around the city.
A flush toilet is a toilet that disposes of human waste by using the force of water to channel it through a drainpipe to another location for treatment, either nearby or at a communal facility. Flush toilets can be designed for sitting or squatting, in the case of squat toilets. Most modern sewage treatment systems are also designed to process specially designed toilet paper. The opposite of a flush toilet is a dry toilet, which uses no water for flushing.
Alsager is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located to the north-west of Stoke-on-Trent and east of Crewe. The town's population was 13,389 at the 2021 census.
Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. The town is the main business, commercial and cultural hub of the wider Potteries area.
The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Tunstall and Stoke in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of ceramic production in the early 17th century, due to the local availability of clay, salt, lead and coal.
Burslem is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. The population of the town was included under the Burslem Central ward and had a population of 6,490 in the 2021 Census.
Thomas William Twyford (1849–1921) was an English pottery manufacturer. He invented the single piece, ceramic flush toilet. At the time of Twyford's death he was recognised as a leading pioneer in the application of principles of hygiene to sanitary appliances.
Stoke-on-Trent Central is a constituency in Staffordshire. It has been represented by Gareth Snell of the Labour Party since 2024. He previously represented the constituency between 2017 and 2019. He succeeded Jo Gideon of the Conservative Party who defeated him in the general election of 2019. She announced in early 2023 that she would not be seeking reelection and accordingly left office at the dissolution of that parliament.
Etruria is a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.
Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapidly successful and was soon one of the largest manufacturers of Staffordshire pottery, "a firm that has done more to spread the knowledge and enhance the reputation of British ceramic art than any other manufacturer", exporting across Europe as far as Russia, and to the Americas. It was especially successful at producing fine earthenware and stoneware that were accepted as equivalent in quality to porcelain but were considerably cheaper.
Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of English pottery. From the start, the backbone of the business was a wide range of utilitarian wares, mostly stonewares, including storage jars, tankards and the like, and later extending to drain pipes, lavatories, water filters, electrical porcelain and other technical ceramics. From 1853 to 1901, its wares were marked Doulton & Co., then from 1901, when a royal warrant was given, Royal Doulton.
Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, decorative techniques, and "a glorious pot-pourri of styles - Rococo shapes with Oriental motifs, Classical shapes with Medieval designs and Art Nouveau borders were among the many wonderful concoctions". As well as pottery vessels and sculptures, the firm was a leading manufacturer of tiles and other architectural ceramics, producing work for both the Houses of Parliament and United States Capitol.
The Sentinel is a daily regional newspaper circulating in the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire areas of England. It is owned by Reach plc and based at Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
Shelton is an area of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England, between Hanley and Stoke-upon-Trent.
Cliff Vale is a district of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and lies to the immediate south of Etruria and just east of Basford and Hartshill. Cliffe Vale is in the valley of the Fowlea Brook, now better known as Etruria Valley. There are industrial and employment uses along the A500, and new residential developments along the Trent and Mersey Canal. The Shelton New Road (B5045) passes through from east to west. The area is sometimes called Cliff Vale by the city council, and is part of the Hartshill electoral ward.
Dudson is a British company that manufactured tableware, glassware and porcelain, in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. It is one of the oldest brands of its industry in England, founded in 1800.
Fowlea Brook rises in Staffordshire and flows through the northern parts of Stoke-on-Trent, England. It is a tributary stream of the River Trent, and is 6 miles (9.7 km) long.
Curran Steels was a manufacturing company in Cardiff, Wales, founded as the Edward Curran Engineering Co and known locally as Curran's.
Colin Melbourne was an English sculptor, ceramicist, painter and academic. He is known particularly for several statues that stand in various locations in Stoke-on-Trent.
