“The House Of Sound Repute” Colmore Row, Birmingham (and Wolverhampton)
The National Archives in Kew have the company registered in 1935 – further investigation needed to determine how long the Birmingham shop was open. Our guess is until 1939 when war broke out. TBC
I have a 1936 steck art deco piano with the name priestly Birmingham on it…
I have a piano from them that my grandfather bought at a knock-down price during the war so I assume they were still going into wartime.
I received a Priestly piano as a present from my grandparents in 1947/48 whilst living in Birmingham.
It is now out here with me in France and about to be given to a neighbour for their musical grandchildren to enjoy.
I think about £70 was paid for it and that it was second hand. I have had hours of enjoyment from playing this piano and it still sounds quite pleasant.
The store was started by William Henry Priestley (1841-1909), and closed somewhere around 1929-1931. My Father was a Priestley, and a boy at the time, and remembers the complete change in lifestyle associated with the loss of the family’s money. The family story is that the final nail in the coffin came with the decision not to stock wirelesses in the store, because they would only be a passing fad!
My maternal grandmother was Martha Priestley, born 1864 and raised in London. Her father was a piano manufacturer. She married James Moylan, an Irishman. They emigrated to Western Australia about the turn of the 20th Century.
My great uncle (my paternal grandmother’s younger brother) Leslie Rowland Harrison is listed as a pianoforte tuner at Priestley’s in the 1921 census, while living with his family at 41 Birchfield Road. He later emigrated to South Africa.
My maternal grandfather William Leslie was working at Priestleys as a sales manager in the 1921 census, living at the City Hotel.
He was a piano tuner by trade and his parents had a piano manufacturing shop in Glasgow. He was the “black sheep” of the family having walked out on his wife and 3 young children in 1920 and never offered them any financial support. He later married again bigamously.