George and his family lived next door to the Baker Street yard, which remained the firm’s headquarters until 1960. George’s typical day started at 4am and when not working he would be attending to his horses or be out riding. The original yard, having survived the Blitz, was left derelict in the 1980s and demolished in 2000 to make way for a nightclub, itself now vacant.

At this time the firm’s other premises included a joiners shop, stables and yard in North Street and a Wharf in Lime Street, where bricks, sand and gravel from Lincolnshire were unloaded. The company used horses until 1947, taking them down to the ‘Oss Wash every evening, and the accident books from the time are full of equine-related injuries. Houlton used the Franks bricks from Barton-Upon-Humber for many years, brought across the River Humber to the Lime Street Wharf on special brick sailing barges.

<< Back to History