Web Page 1086
13^th October 2012

Top Picture: RJ Winnicott and workforce building houses in Portsmouth 1907. Mr Winnicott is the third from the left in the front row

Bottom Picture: 5ton Winnicott Commer Lorry in the mid 1930’s and pictured in Southsea.

RJ. Winnicott (Builder)

Within Portsmouth there several well known and well respected building firms; GA Day, Trollope and Colls and RJ Winnicott. It is the later I have an interest in as he was my great uncle. I remember very little about him, in fact I can only ever remember meeting him once. He and Great Aunty Daisy lived in East Cosham House (picture on the side bar), a very large detached building in its own grounds on the north side of the Havant Road near St Colman’s church and I only remember visiting here on a single occasion and we never got further than the hallway!

All I can remember about Great Uncle Bob was that he was Lord Mayor of Portsmouth the year I was born in 1946 and that he owned a Rolls Royce.

I am indebted to the company web sit for the following information although as it has not been updated since 2004 some of the information may be out of date.

The founder of the firm, Robert John Winnicott (Great Uncle Bob), began his business in Portsmouth in 1904 at the age of 21.  He started in a small way - building walls and extensions and carrying out general repairs for private clients, but he was soon asked to build houses for these same clients.  By 1907 he was buying land and building houses in the Copnor area of the town. The business developed successfully and he was able to keep a number of the houses as investment properties, selling the rest.  During the First World War he signed up and served in the Fleet Air Arm and the business was carried on by his staff.  

After the War he took up the reigns of business again and his activities moved to speculative house building and continued from offices and workshops in Copnor, moving from one side of Copnor Road to the other side in Moneyfield Lane. At this time a further company, "The Grit Company" was formed with other Portsmouth builders. This company then went on to construct houses at Eastney and began the Cosham (Wymering) Estate for the Portsmouth Council.

 By the mid 1930s "RJ's" son Harold had joined the business and contracting work was added to their activities, in addition to the already successful speculative housing branch of the enterprise and the firm became a Limited Company in 1938.

During the Second World War, the work force was involved in much defence work in and around Portsmouth, including the making of aircraft components in the company’s joiners' shop.  Harold Winnicott then followed his father aviation lead and served in the RAF during the War.

In the late 1930’s, "Deerleap", a large house and grounds in the Rowlands Castle area was purchased by the company as a land bank for housing development.  However, with the intervention of Second World War this went by the wayside.  Instead, after the war, a branch of the business was established together with a small retail outlet catering for a growing DIY market.  By this time contracting was taking a greater role in the business and by the end of the 1950’s speculative house building had ceased.

When the founder (great uncle Bob) of the company died in November 1971, aged 88, his grandson Robert took over the business.  In 1975 the company moved out of the Portsmouth premises to a newly constructed joinery shop and offices at Rowlands Castle. This was followed in 1976 by the building of a new retail outlet facing The Green. In 1991 a second hardware shop in Emsworth was added to the business, a third was then opened in Romsey in 2000 and in 2006, the fourth in Alton.

Following Robert's retirement in 2004, the fourth generation of the family moved in to run the business.  Robert's eldest son Adrian joined the firm in 1988 to run the retail hardware side of the business along with cousin David Wagg. Adrian's younger brother Paul, who joined in 2001 to run the construction division.

During its history there have been several families from which two generations or more have served the company, some achieving 50+ years  service. 

 

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Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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