The Rural Voice, 1994-08, Page 33Bainton's Old Mill — A century of
quality in wool and leather
It began as a family business 100 years ago
this year, and Bainton's Old Mill is still a family
business, but who could have dreamed
what the company would have become.
In 1894 Allan Bert Bainton, his
brother Frank and his sister Jen
moved to Blyth to set up Bainton
Brothers, a wool -pulling and
tannery operation. At the time
Allan Bert was working at a
tannery in Wingham. His brother
Frank worked in the woollen mill
in Teeswater. Their sister Jen
was the company bookkeeper.
The two brothers rented an old
tannery building on the north side of
Blyth Brook, just north and east of the
current building. They bought sheepskins
and hides from butchers from such centres
as Owen Sound, Kincardine, Goderich, Exeter and
Mitchell. Local trappers provided furs. Some of the
furs were custom tanned in Blyth. All the sheepskins
were processed in the little factory. The wool was
taken off the skins, processed and sold to the woollen
mills that dotted the area. The skins were tanned and
made into mitts, work gloves and leggings and sold
through the family's first factory outlet.
In 1898, however, tragedy hit when the mill burned.
The brothers moved to the south side of the river and
rebuilt on the present site. In 1925 they added a wing
to the north side of the building and installed
machinery to manufacture yarn and blankets from the
wool they were processing at the plant. Basket weave
blankets, regular brushed -wool blankets, auto robes,
horse blankets and yarns for hand -knitting were all
sold through the factory outlet, and traded to farmers
for their raw wool.
When Allan Bert died in 1930, his son Franklin,
only age 20, came
into the business. By
now cars and trucks
were in use (the
Canadian Pacific
Railway line had been
built past their back
door in 1907) and
hides were arriving
from larger packers in
Stratford, Ingersoll,
London, Kitchener,
Guelph, Owen Sound,
Toronto and Montreal.
In 1934 Frank
Bainton Sr. died, and
Franklin, at just 24,
was on his own to run the company. He kept
building the company and in 1946 added an
addition to the east of the old building,
refacing the old building with matching
red brick. Skins were now arriving
from all across Canada, from
Prince Albert and Edmonton in
the west to New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia in the east. Up to
5.000 sheepskins were
processed each week. With the
great growth the downtown
building could no longer cope.
In 1963 the processing facilities
were moved to a new plant
outside Blyth.
The downtown building was now
used only for office and general storage
and a small retail outlet selling gloves,
blankets and some woollen products.
The entire Bainton family was involved in the
business. Franklin's wife Cenetta and their daughter
Glenyce joined the effort in the early 1960s after
graduating from the University of Western Ontario.
The family saw the opportunity to expand the retail
operation to meet the growing demand for leather
products.
This ushered in an era when Blyth and the Bainton
name became synonymous across North America
with quality in leather and woollen products. People
flocked to Bainton's to snap up bargains in jackets,
coats, pants and sheepskins. In 1979 the growth in
the business prompted the company to build a new,
modern processing plant adjacent to the 1963 plant.
In 1987 the family tradition continued when the fourth
generation of the Bainton family joined the business.
Having grown up in the leather and woollen
business Franklin, Jayne, Amanda and Richard Snell
(children of Glenyce
and her husband
Richard Snell) were
the logical choices to
take over Bainton's
Old Mill. Sadly, in
1992 Franklin Bainton
passed away before
he could witness his
company's 100th
birthday. But his leg-
acy lives on and the
Bainton name will live
into the next century,
guided by the same
family that started it
all back in 1894.0
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FACTORY OUTMFT
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Bainton's Old Mill, begun in 1894, its reputation is still growing.
AUGUST 1994 29