Ede and Ravenscroft

Ede and Ravenscroft are a company probably best known in today’s society as supplying academic gowns and hoods for graduation ceremonies. They have, however, a long and fruitful history in making ceremonial and legal gowns, owning the Royal warrant as "Purveyors to the British Royal Family". They have supplied all coronation robes for English monarchs since William and Mary in 1689, when they were established, making them the oldest tailors in London!

It was originally founded by the Shudall family, who were experienced tailors and haberdashers and ran their business from Holywell street, an old London street that lay where the Strand is today. In Victorian times Holywell Street was occupied “chiefly by old clothesmen and the vendors of low publications” (Cunningham, P 1850) and demolished at the end of the era but in the 17^th century it was ‘the centre of the tailoring trade, with many individual tradesmen working alongside one another and combining their skills as the need arose (Campbell, U 1989) This therefore was an optimum location for the business and enabled it to grow.

Willam and Martha Shudall tailored for individuals mainly and a great deal of their clientele was involved in the Church or the State. Their day book shows cassocks, gowns and coats being made for clergymen and robes being made for knights of the Order of the Garter. In this time coronation gowns were made and altered by the Shudall’s for the coronations of the monarchy.

King George III in his coronation robes in  1761. This robe is believed to be the oldest still in existence and is kept in the Royal Dress Collection at Kensington Palace.

William died in 1757 and Martha retired in 1770, leaving the business to a possible employee or partner Francis Stone. There were no coronations in this time due to George III’s 60 year reign but he continued to make robes for the knight. On his death in 1797 the business was left to William Webb, who took on an apprentice, Joseph Ede, in 1811. Ede worked successfully later becoming Webb’s foreman.

In 1827 Webb moved to Fleet Street After Williams death in 1831his son succeeded and the company went into decline and was bought by Ede’s uncle Thomas Adams. It was renamed Adams and Ede and in 1834 Joseph Ede was appointed robemaker to His Majesty King William IV and later Queen Victoria. Under his running the company grew in prosperity again.  In 1837 with the change in monarchy Joseph Ede would have got a lot of business, selling mourning bands and weepers to the mourners of William IV as well as selling new coronation gowns, altering older gowns and coronets for the coronation of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria on her coronation in 1838

Ede’s son, Joseph Webb Ede, was appointed after his parent’s death and the business became Ede & Son. In 1868 he was appointed robemaker to Queen Victoria and moved from Fleet Street to Chancery Lane, where the company remains today. In 1871 Josheph Ede married Rosanna Ravenscroft, daughter of a successful wigmaker Burton Ravenscroft and the joining of Ede and Ravenscroft was formed. The companies did not officially merge until 1902, Joseph Ede died six months after their marriage and Rosa continued his business with her brothers, her eldest brother Burton Ravenscroft ran the wigmaking business and moved to a closer location.

Ravenscroft is a fascinating business in itself. It was founded in a similar time of 1726, where wearing wigs was at the height of fashion for men and women. The founder Thomas Ravenscroft sold his wigs to the fashionable elite as well as the legal profession. Legal wigs were made of black horsehair and needed to be curled and powdered almost daily and this created a lot of business.

Bar wig and Full bottomed wig made with white horsehair. 

Interestingly Humphrey Ravenscroft, grandson to Thomas, developed a wig made of white horsehair which didn’t need curling and powdering, called the forensic wig. He patented this in 1822 and it remains the same today. He later adapted the full bottomed wig in a similar manner, so that it did not need curling or powdering, in 1835.

The business remained in the Ravenscroft family until the 1970s

The company continues to make the robes for the monarchy, peers, parliament, court dress, clerical dress, civic dress and academic dress with very little completion. Their catalogue and details can be found here http://www.edeandravenscroft.co.uk/

I have really enjoyed finding out about Ede & Ravenscroft’s history. Though it doesn’t really tell me anything towards helping me make the gown accurately it is in an interesting part of social history and demonstrates how such a successful tailors has been established.

On Wednesday Abi and I decided to email the ceremonial specialist at Ede and Ravenscroft as we were really interested in the company and seeing how they produce the gowns.

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are writting to enquire about the possibility of visiting Ede and Ravenscroft.

We are second year construction students on the BA (HONS) Costume with Performance Design course at the Arts University Collage at Bournemouth.

We are undertaking a project where we will create a replica of a traditional Mayor's Gown and are interested in learning more about how you make the gowns as a professional company.

Any help would be much appreciated and we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Faithfully,

Abigail Booth and Katie Price

Unfortunately we were not able to visit. Though this is disappointing it is understandable as they are the largest company of this kind running. I appreciated the fast and polite response however and think that it was worth us trying.

Dear Abigail and Katie,

Thank you for your email requesting a visit to our gown department.

Unfortunately, we will have to decline this request.  As you will appreciate we do receive many requests and regrettably it is impossible to help everyone. 

However, I should like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in Ede and Ravenscroft and to wish you every success with your project.

Many thanks
Katherine

I would now like to find different places to visit, possibly other manufacturers or tailors and I will be researching trying to find a collection that has a good amount of civic robes. Though I know the gown has hardly changed since its medieval origins it would be nice to find an older example to look at to see how sewing techniques have altered.

Whilst researching Ede and Ravenscroft I found that the company have kept a day book basically since they were founded. This is held at the Guildhall Library in London and is something I would really like to go and see as it would be interesting to find out about the kinds of fabrics they use, the amount and the quantity by which they were being made at different times.