ABOUT KENT

KENT HISTORY           

GB KENT & SONS PLC

Based in Hemel Hempstead

In the past we G.B Kent & Sons used to make King William IV's toothbrushes, we now hold the Royal Warrant for brushes and are probably best known for our hand-made hairbrushes, though we are still in the toothbrush market too. Kent was founded by William Kent of Barnard Castle in 1777 in the reign of George III. Until the beginning of the last century we made our brushes in London, but for the last eighty-five years or so we have been out at Apsley near Hemel Hempstead, where we now have modern premises. Much of the manufacturing, though, is carried on by hand and the smell of the wood shavings and is much, one suspects, as it was in 1777.

In the earliest days William Kent produced brushes for boot-tops, bitts, hair, cloth, hat and flesh, and exhibited no false modesty in promoting his wares. 'These brushes, which are entirely different to any hitherto offered to the public', said our first advertisement on the front page of The Times, 'are so decidedly superior in principle as to convince at first sight the most incredulous. By their peculiar arrangement they at one action remove the dirt or dandruff and polish the surface, at the same time leaving the most beautiful gloss on the coat that can be imagined.'

George Barton Kent, from whom the company takes its name (G.B Kent), held Queen Victoria's Warrant and ran the business from 1854 to 1900, presiding over a massive expansion in the range of products and the number sold. By the end of the century Kent were making so many bone-handled toothbrushes that we were using the leg bones of 600 bullocks a week. Alan Cosby, the present Chairman and Managing Director, says that the company is keen to retain 'all the skills and expertise of this traditional art' and we are one of the few companies able to repair ancient family brushes (click here for more details), very often ones made by ourselves, even when it means 'hand drawing' - literally sewing in each new bristle tuft by hand. It is fascinating to see how much craftsmanship and how many ingredients are needed for even the most seemingly workaday product.

An early visitor to our original factory once observed: 'bristles from Russia, Siberia, China and India; badger hair from Germany and the Balkans; whalebone from the Antarctic; fibres from Mexico, Brazil and Africa; beech, cherry, birch and sycamore from the English countryside and tropical timbers, ebony and satinwood from the forests of Ceylon, the West Indies, South America and Indonesia'. There have been some marginal changes since then, but you can see why, in the fine tradition of our original advertisement, we still claim to be 'The World's Finest Brushmaker'.