Chares Dickens and Thurston

Articles | Chares Dickens and Thurston

Dickens converted a room at Gads Hill Place into a billiard and smoking room. He even added special tiles to protect the walls from cue damage.

The tiles that Dickens had fitted to his Billiard Room to prevent cue damage to the walls.

January 1865

Jan 1866 Cheque for Billiard accessories

Section of letter to William Howard Russel (Times Correspondent) inviting him to Gads Hill

Acknowledgement :- Gads Hill Place

Please do not hesitate to ask should need any advice on snooker, billiards or pool or wish to make a purchase. Thurston has the most comprehensive range accessories available.

Visit our e-shop – www.thurston.co.uk

email – thurston@eaclare.co.uk

Phone – 0151 482 2700

For further information on Dickens home Gads Hill follow this link

https://www.gadshillplace.co.uk

Peradon “The World’s Best Cue Maker”

(this was a message that Walter Lindrum wrote in a book to Fred Peradon in 1947) (also “1000 breaks in every cue”) The book “Billiards and Snooker by Walter Lindrum”, the World’s greatest Billiard player, was sponsored by Tooheys , it is an iconic Australian beer brand and brewery. The book had been in the…

46/48 St. Anne Street

E. A. Clare & Son Ltd. building in Liverpool Whilst having major building work carried out on the 46/48 St. Anne Street premises, the building was surrounded in scaffold for many months. During the work old Lamb & Watts items turned up and a rainwater hopper with initials and a date, which made us interested…

E.A. Clare Son Ltd

As the oldest snooker / pool / billiard business on Merseyside in 2012 celebrated it’s 100th anniversary , the grandson of the founder has compiled some of it history complete with pictures of the personalities including the staff and managers over the years. The Company was founded in Fraser Street not half a mile from the current premises in St. Anne Street and so has been part of the local Everton district community for all its history.

E. A. Clare Cushion Plates

Peter Ainsworth in April 2023 had put together an intersting article on the firms cushion plates and their historical referance. He kindly gave permission to publish them withing our article.

Thos. Padmore & Sons

This famous Birmingham Billiard (Snooker) business now trading under the name of Thurston has a long and enviable reputation not just in the UK but also anywhere the sport of Billiards has been played. It se

Thurston & Co

Thurston claims to be the ‘oldest’ Billiard business, having been founded in 1799. John Thurston was the person who, by the introduction of slate for the bed of tables and rubber in the cushions, made tables that all other table makers have copied ever since.

Thurston’s Association With Napoleon

This article was prompted by Peter Ainsworth who had heard Peter Clare mention in a You Tube video by David Smith of Cuesnviews of the supply of Billiards equipment to St. Helena in 1819. This prompted further research as Peter Ainsworth had mentioned an article in the August 1925 edition of the Billiard Player.

File Returned by The Victoria & Albert Museum

In 2017 contact was made by the Victoria & Albert museum (V & A), they had recently found a file of Thurston papers and wished to return them. Some 30+ years earlier a number of files had been lent to the museum containing old drawings etc. but most had already been return. The file which the V & A found ha

Peradon

A short history of the firm with mention of the other firms (J.Nidd, MacMorram, Weildings & E.L.Fletcher & Son) that help make it as it is today.

J. Ashcroft & Co

n May 2009 Peter Ashcroft the great grandson of the founder was able to provide a great deal of the background information, as well as pictures, used in this article. Peter Clare the compiler of the article i

E.J. Riley

An authoritative history of the E. J. Riley Ltd. business was written by the grandson of one of the founders of the business, which was published in the book – Billiards & Snooker a Trade History complied by Mr. J. R. Mitchell (the retired Managing Director of Thurston) and published by the British Sports & Allied Industries

Burroughes & Watts

The main part of this article was written by Peter Ainsworth, the dedicated historian and researcher into all things written about the Billiard game. The information that he has put together for the article on this famous Billiard business is remarkable. Some of the pictures are from Peter Ainsworth others are from

Cox & Yeman

A brief history of one of the other great London Billiard Companies, which for a time was one of the three major Billiard firms.(read Thurston history and Burroughes & Watts history)

Geo. Wright & Co.

Sadly there is little in the Heritage Collection concerning this Billiard firm but with help from Peter Aisworth some salient details have been recorded and if any one can provide further information it would be of great interest. Currently the only picture of a table made by them is take

Raper & Sons

The Billiard & Snooker Heritage Collection, sadly, does not have much information or catalogues of this once famous Manchester Billiard firm. What we can glean from the papers is that it was founded in 1845 in Spear Street, Piccadilly, Manchester.

Bar Billiards Ltd.

In 2013 Peter Clare with the help of Peter Ainsworth put together a an all too brief history of Jelks. As a result Ivor Champion (bar-billiards.com) spotted the scan of the Jelks ‘Automati

SamsBros.

Whilst trying to research the history of Bar Billiards and its origins three U.K. business names come to the fore. Bar Billiards Ltd, Jelks and Sams Bros. These three business are the names originally associated with the introduction of the game of Bar Billiards into the U.K. Both Jelks and Bar billiards Ltd. have been covered

Orme & Sons Ltd.

At the height of their fame, Orme & Sons attained recognition as one of the most important billiard table manufacturers in the country, a status which only a handful of manufacturers outside London ever achieved.

W. Jelks & Sons

As result of and email to the ‘Snooker Heritage ‘ web site asking about a table supplied and installed by W. Jelks & Sons and finding that there was only a couple of letters and a brochure or two in the collection, it seemed further research was required.

John Bennett & Company

In December, 1941, and incendiary raid on London completely destroyed the John Bennett & Co’s building at 120 Newington Causeway, London SE1. All existing records of the Company were lost until an extraordinary inci

Bar Billiards -The story of the tables & the game

There are several articles about the history of Bar Billiards in the U.K. Basically all agree that the game was imported into the U.K. after being seen in Northern Europe in the early 1930’s.

Billiard Chalk

I should perhaps also briefly refer to the Billiard Chalk. It seems that chalk was used on the ends of cues even before the leather tips were used, in order to try and prevent or reduce miscuing. It is perhaps interesting to note that even today we use ordinary white chalk on the wooden chuck in a lathe in order to grip a Bowling Green Bowl firmly during the turning process. Originally the chalk used was white, but this made such a mess of the playing surface that the green and blue Chalks were introduced, which were not so noticeable on the green playing surface of the Billiard Cloth.

Billiard Cloth

When you hear or read the cloth that covers the slate and cushions of a Snooker (Billiard) table described as BAIZE you can almost hear the sharp intake of breath in Stroud (West of England – Strachan) and Pudsey (Hainsworth) where the last mills in the UK that produce Billiard / Snooker cloth are based. Why the intake of breath – well baize is a wool /cotton mix material used for covering card tables and notice boards, whereas the cloth used on Snooker tables is a specialist quality pure wool material with a raised nap and is a much more costly engineered product. A far superior material than baize!

Billiard Irons

The Billiard Table iron is quite a heavy piece of kit weighing in at approx 8 kilos ( 17.62 lbs). The iron should be used after the cloth has been brushed to help lay the nap. It should not be too hot as this can scorch the cloth and like the brushing is always used from the baulk end to the top of the table. It is also recommended that the start position for using the iron should be varied across the baulk end so that the when the iron is at its hottest (after being taken off the heat) is not always placed on the table in the same position as this could also mean that the cloth could be ‘heat damaged’

Billiard/Snooker Table Beds

Prior to 1826 Billiard tables (when I mention a billiard table you can substitute the word Snooker!!) had wooden beds. These beds were by no means level and it is recorded that Thurston sent out their fitters to ‘flog’ the bed i.e. they went and tried to plane off the high spots. An example of a full size wooden bed is in the Collection and there is also an 8ft portable table with a wooden bed.

Bromborough Institute

An email was received on 3rd July letting E.A. Clare & Son Ltd. know that Bromborough Village Institute, built in 1908, had an ‘old’ Bayliff table which had a E.A. Clare remodel plate indicating that the last time it had been worked on was in 1954. Nothing really unusual in that BUT the table was stored under the floor.

Harris Cast Iron Tables

In 1998 The Norman Clare Heritage Collection, had donated to it, a most exciting new piece for the collection. It is a cast iron framed full size billiard table.

Kicks – Static Electricity

During the 2013 Betfair World Snooker Championships the match between Graham Dott and Shaun Murphy was interrupted due to Graham Dott having suffered several sever static electic shocks.

Marsden & Saffley Cast Iron Billiard Table

If you have looked at the article under the heading Norman’s Lectures call the ‘The Construction of a Billiard Table’ you will have read a brief paragraph, shown below, on the Marsden & Saflet Cast Iron Billiard Table.

The British Factory House

In 2014 we received an enquiry from The British Factory House in Oporto to renovate their ‘Billiard’ table. After some emails to and from asking questions and receiving pictures it became obvious that this was an early example of a Billiard table.

Unusual Snooker Table Installations & Storage

Over the years Thurston’s have supplied, installed and worked on Snooker/Billiard tables in many places and countries. Some of these have been quite unusual. Here a just a few examples that might be of interest.

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