The Eyre Brothers:

 Publishers with a Westcountry Interest

and

 Some Account of the Life of

George Pallant Butcher

 

WATCH THIS SPACE - More information relating to G P Butcher and the link to Eyre is coming to light. This will be continually updated (latest update 30th April 2022).

Contents:

Click on the headings in blue to go directly to the relevant section.  

PART ONE

Foreword (below)

1.                  Introduction (below)

 

2.                  Eyre´s Publishing History

2.1         The Watering Places 

2.2         Directories and Other Works 

2.2.1    Trade Directories

2.2.2    The Wales Register

2.2.3    Eyre´s Shillng Guide

2.3         Hotels of the United Kingdom 

2.4        Eyre Brothers’ Post Office Plymouth ... Directory 

2.5        The Later Eyre´s Plymouth Directory Publishers 

2.5.1    W H Hood

2.5.2    J G Hammond

2.5.3    Theophilus Creber 

2.6        Plymouth District Directory Maps 

2.6.1    George Philip & Son

2.6.2    W H Maddock

2.6.3    Brendon & Son

2.6.4    John Smith

2.6.5    Theophilus Creber

3.     G P Butcher

                3.1       Before the Eyre Brothers - The Years 1872-1880

3.1.1 Percy, Butcher & Co.

       3.1.2 Butcher, Cole & Co.

3.1.3 Butcher & Co.

3.1.4 G P Butcher

 

                3.2       Paternoster Row and Paternoster Square 

                3.3       George Pallant Butcher

                3.4       Post-1904 and the Kelly Conundrum

3.4.1 Post-1904

3.4.2 The Kelly Conundrum

PART TWO

4.                  Locations of Percy / Butcher / Cole / Eyre Bros. Works

        4.1 Directories 1873 - 1904

 

4.1.1        Percy, Butcher & Cole Directories 1873- 1881 

4.1.2        Plymouth Directories 1880 - 1904 

4.1.3        Eyre Brothers - Other Works

4.1.4        Eyre Works by Later Directory Publishers

             4.2 Businesses Operating from Paternoster Square & Buildings 1882 

             4.3 Acknowledgements & Sources of Illustrations

4.3.1         Acknowledgements 

4.3.2         Sources of Illustrations 

Foreword

 

As an ex-Torquinian and a map collector my main area of interest has always been Devon town and county maps. During the course of researching The Victorian Maps of Devon back in the 1990s and The Tourist Maps of Devon in the early 2000s, I soon came across a little-known London publishing company. The Eyre Brothers output was not large, but the first works I came across were related to the flourishing tourist trade and included a set of county maps, and a directory of Plymouth with locally produced maps; hence my interest in the company. Unfortunately, there were no records of them I could consult.

 

This monograph reads a little bit like a detective novel and that is intended. When carrying out more detailed research one often uncovers material later on which could have helped from the outset. In my case I had discovered as much as I could concerning the Eyre Brothers and had come to a dead end. I had completed my manuscript and had a preliminary copy printed (a friend has the only known copy!) when I was given an important tip-off. The search began again. From looking for two or more brothers called Eyre (my wife and I had named them George and Harald in the meantime) I had to concentrate my efforts on discovering who Mr Butcher was. This is the result of several years of research into the Eyre Brothers and their predecessors.

 

There is still a lot to be discovered concerning George Pallant Butcher and his career as a directory publisher. If this monograph goes a little way to helping another researcher find out the whole story, then I will be happy with what I have managed to compile sitting at a desk in Stuttgart, Germany, and unable to inspect the majority of the works listed in the following pages.

 

On that note, I am extremely grateful to all those institutions (i.e., all their staff) for answering my many questions, sending me images and helping to compile this list of their works and their locations. Another researcher able to visit all the libraries will certainly add to (and correct) the information presented here.

 

This is an attempt to collate all known information about the publishing company of Eyre Brothers to date. If there seems to be too much of a focus on their maps I apologise, but it is as a map collector and map collator that they fascinate me. I hope very much to provide a sketch outline for others to follow up.

 

Part One is devoted to the Eyre Brothers and the works that either they published themselves or those published after they ceased trading but by others who carried on their name. Part Two is a list of all their known work together with a list of all the works attributed to Mr Butcher in his career before he started with the Eyre Brothers. In addition, there is a short diversion to describe the area where they all set up business as all their business addresses were concentrated into a small but significant area of London.

 

Part Two is a list of all known work attributed to Mr Butcher in his career before and after he started with the Eyre Brothers. In addition, there is a short diversion to describe the area where he set up business as all the business addresses used were concentrated into a small but significant area of London. Part Two concludes with a list of the libraries where their works can be studied as well as a full list of sources for the many illustrations which I have been fortunate enough to collect.

 

Kit Batten

Stuttgart, Germany

May 2022

 

1.  Introduction 

The Eyre Brothers were London publishers who flourished for a brief period in the last quarter of the 19^th century with premises from 1877 at 10, and from 1879/80 at 26 & 27, Paternoster Square, Paternoster Row (until c.1886). Their output seems to have been limited to a small number of guides to the hotels and to the typical watering places of England and Wales and one city directory. Although a complete run of the 16 editions of the Plymouth directory that bears their name (1880-1904) is known there are comparatively few examples of the directory extant (c.55 copies in total) and many of their other publications are known only through a single example or simply an advertisement.

 

Most of what we know about their output has to be gleaned from the few extant works and the adverts they published within. Even the leading on-line catalogue for the UK will only reveal 5 of the 14 titles produced by the company and none of those produced by their successors.[i] Other volumes were promised but it may turn out that more were intended than saw publication.

 

The first two recorded works attributed to the Eyre Brothers are a guide to The Watering Places of the South of England and a Coal Trades´ Directory both published in 1877. Nothing is known about the identity of the brothers, but all the evidence points towards a single person, George Pallant Butcher, being responsible for publishing their works.

Fig.1. View of Torquay by Rock in Watering Places of the South of England

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[i] The JISC Library Hub Discovery catalogue gives 3 titles under Eyre Brothers as publishers or 5 by entering Eyre Bros. Putting Eyre as part of the title gives only two results. Even by omitting the two Welsh directories, the specific trade directory-diaries, the Shilling Guides (but including Sussex) and the French directory (only agents), but including Dr Abbott´s seaside guide fifteen works were announced and 12 have so far been located. 

Small Print

The moral right of Kit Batten to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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NOTE on COPYRIGHT: The inclusion of illustrations has only been made possible by the assistance of various institutions who made images available. The inclusion of an illustration in my work does not allow the reproduction of this illustration by a third party and permission must be obtained from the owner.

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