Toye, Kenning & Spencer, Newtown Road, Bedworth

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 4 Aug 2021

This plain commercial building is home to a rare survivor of the Coventry and Bedworth ribbon weaving industry, which largely collapsed in the 1860s. Whereas Cash's in Coventry survived by specialising in woven name tapes, Toye, Kenning & Spencer make coloured ribbons, braids and laces, for products such as military medals and uniforms and masonic regalia; the company holds a royal warrant for "Supply of Gold and Silver Laces, Insignia and Embroidery", hence the royal coat of arms displayed on the building. Metalwork is made in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, while the company has a shop in the west end of London. In its present form, the company dates from 1962, but it has its origins in 1685, when the Toyé family, French Protestant refugees ('Huguenots'), arrived in London, where they set up in the textile business they had practised in France. The Toye family continues to play a part in the business, which is privately-owned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toye,_Kenning_%26_Spencer

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