Shropshire Teddy Bears Chad Valley, Merrythought and Victoria

Like most people of my age, as I child I treasured my Chad Valley teddy bear.
Whilst not a Steiff, for many British children Chad Valley along with Merrythought was as good as it got.
And for a child from Shropshire it had the added benefit of having been birthed in Wellington.
In 1916 when a Birmingham business, Johnson Brothers, acquired the former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at the top of New Street in Wellington.
The company was already a popular toy producer and acquired the premises in order to expand its range to include fabric dolls and teddy bears.
By the early 1920s, the Chad Valley Wrekin Toy Works was born, which specialised in teddy bears and dolls.
Wrekin's engineers were innovative and had mastered a new, cheaper and more flexible way of making dolls.
Instead of filling them with composition, a shredded cardboard, they used felt.
And instead of sewing around pre-made, fragile china faces, they had begun to shape these in celluloid, an early plastic.
The acquisition also yielded a library of good-selling designs, as well as a highly-prized sales department with a near-full order book.
I understand they also had manufacturing facilities in Orleton Lane and Tan Bank.
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