H G Cuff and the Champion family of Dursley

Business and photographic records of Cuff family and Champion family includes Australian records and extracts from newspapers about the Champions in Hobart.

<p>See also GPS/124/29-37 for photographs of Champion and Hall works and GPS/124/38-41 for photographs of J B Champion works, 1920s-1930s; D5910 for business and personal records of J B Champion and sons (primarily Samuel Stewart Champion), 1904-1924; Gloucestershire Record Office D7442/22 for genealogical tables and notes about the Champion family; and Gloucestershire Record Office D8934 for records about the opening and the bankruptcy of the Champion and Hall business, 1910 &amp; 1939, and about William Champion's pub in Tasmania, 1857</p>

Documents donated by Miss C Cuff

H G Cuff was the donor's father; he was a saddler and harness maker based at 48 Parsonage Street, Dursley. This saddlery business was founded by William Champion in 1778. It was carried on and expanded by members of his family throughout the nineteenth century. The Champions became leading citizens of the town, and Samuel and John Benjamin also worked as bailiffs. John Benjamin and his father acquired the site of the Dursley Old Brewery in Long Street and built the Reliance Works where they continued the manufacture of rope, matting and twine, and later carpets and rugs. In 1892 the saddler's shop was sold to Walter Harry Fox who had been working there for the previous twenty years. After the war, during the depression years of the 1920s and 1930s, business was poor. Mr Fox only employed one man, Hubert George Cuff, often only part-time, until 1935 when Cuff took over the business. The saddler's shop closed in 1945 because the rent was too high but Mr Cuff continued to do some work at home, mostly for R A Lister's company.

The majority of this collection concerns the Champion family, of which two men particularly stand out, John Benjamin Champion and William Champion. J B Champion lived from 1843 until 1930; he set up the Reliance Works business in the 1860s. He was also chairman of the Board of Guardians, Parish and District Councils. J B Champion was appointed a magistrate in 1901 and was active in local politics (see D8829/3/3, 5/4 & 5/8).

William Champion lived from 1801 until 1871; he was a hatter in Dursley until April 1823 when he was tried at Gloucester for receiving stolen goods and sentenced to 14 years transportation. By 1829 he had established himself as a hatter in Hobart Town, Tasmania in Australia. His conditional pardon was granted in 1833 and his family (headed by his father Peter Champion) arrived as free settlers in 1834. William Champion succeeded as a hatter, brewer, publican and hotelier. He also introduced bell ringing into the southern hemisphere (see D8829/5/3).