Albert Cox came to Rushden, from Erith, Kent, as chief engineer for Messrs John Cave & Sons, in 1893. He was born in Grimsby in 1867, and had served an engineering apprenticeship at Woolwich Arsenal. He began making machinery for the shoe trade in 1899, in partnership with Fred Brown, at first in a workshop over Mr Chettle's horse stables in Fitzwilliam Street. They registered patents on some of his machines.
The partnership was dissolved in about 1914, and Albert worked with his eldest son, Albert as Cox & Son. After service in WWI his son Edgar, born in 1896 in Rushden, joined the business.
In the depression before WWII, Edgar Cox left the business to start up a general engineering business E Cox (Engineers) at 65 Moor Road.
In 1938 his son left school and joined his father in the business.
|
