THE Corby family traded at Headington Quarry in Oxford for nearly 100 years.

They started as wheelwrights and later expanded into coach building, undertaking, house building, brick making, coal selling and farming.

It is a remarkable success story which has not been fully recorded until now.

Thomas Corby, who was born in 1835 and grew up in Tackley, set up the business in about 1861 after completing a seven-year apprenticeship at Islip.

His great grand-daughter, Mary Hughes, who has been researching her family history, writes: “In those days, Headington Quarry was a distinct village, not attached to Headington or Oxford.

“Thomas lived and worked at the junction of Quarry Road and Gladstone (formerly Elms) Road. He built the house and occupied it on November 5, 1875. It is easily recognisable by its portico.

“Thomas had nine children, the youngest of whom, Reginald, died at the age of three when he fell in the sawpit.

“I can only surmise that Thomas would have fashioned the coffin as he was the local undertaker.”

When Thomas died in 1888, the business passed to two of his sons, John and Charles, who continued in partnership until they retired in about 1950.

Two carts built by the firm have survived. One, a small builder’s cart, is at the Swalcliffe Museum, near Banbury. It is hoped to put the other, a haywain, in the traditional Oxfordshire colours of red and yellow, on public view in the near future.

The haywain, which would have carried harvest crops from the field to barn and goods to market, was used by a Mr Franklin at Home Farm, Woodeaton.

Among other memorabilia is a funeral bill sent to Mr J Parsons in June 1929 totalling £9.

It described the firm as “wagon, van, cart, trolley and trap builders, tyre and general smiths and farriers” and promised “repairs neatly and expeditiously executed with well season materials, best workmanship and at moderate charges”.

Another family member known to have worked for the firm was John Corby’s son Teddy, who completed his apprenticeship there but left when he married as he wasn’t paid enough.

In his sixties, he made models of the wagons he had made as a young man. They are now in the possession of his daughter, Betty.

In the early 1960s, the family gave a large number of tools and other artefacts to the Oxfordshire Museum Service, but few details of how the business developed were supplied at that time.

Now Mrs Hughes is trying to compile a comprehensive history of Corby Brothers Wheelwrights.

She tells me: “They made floats for Burton’s dairy, and Vallis the bakers was a household name in the Corby family.

“I would be very pleased to hear from anyone who has memories of the business.”

Email your memories to memory.lane@oxfordmail.co.uk or write to the usual address.