Showroom & Office
117 HALLGATE,
COTTINGHAM
EAST YORKSHIRE,
HU16 4DA.
Tel: 01482 842134
Fax: 01482 847634
P&D Carpets Ltd, Hallgate, Cottingham - Showrooms

Carpet & Curtains Specialists and Suppliers

P&D Carpets Ltd – a brief history.

In 1892, in Cottingham, a business was formed that has stood the test of time, two World Wars and three generations of the same family. The names of Paley & Donkin, in fact, are known to virtually everyone in Cottingham village, largely as a result of the longstanding manufacturing business that operated there. Originally established by Mr Robert Ernest Donkin (the co-founder ‘Paley’ did not remain with the business), the company remains a true family firm in the guise of P&D Carpets Ltd.

What few people know is that the manufacturing side of the Paley & Donkin business was originally based at Snuff Mill House, only later moving to Station Mills on the site of the old gas works. At inception, the company manufactured ‘press cloth’, which was essentially like a carpet but without a pile, designed for use in the extraction of oil from seed (and made to withstand a pressure of two tonnes per square inch!).

A youthful Keith Donkin manning the P&D looms.
Carpet 1st

Using gas driven engines to power the looms, Paley & Donkin Ltd became one of Britain’s most successful press cloth manufacturers. Even during the 1950’s, when advancing technology began to reduce the need for press cloth (oil was extracted by centrifuge instead), the company continued to enjoy world-wide trading activity. Only the Suez crisis in 1956 closed this chapter of the business history, bringing an end to the shipment to Egypt of 10 tons of press cloth per fortnight.

By this time, the business was in the hands of Bob, Rex and George Donkin (all now deceased), with Bob and Rex taking the decision to branch out into worsted yarns, spinning for the hosiery industry in the Midlands. George, meanwhile, stayed on the weaving side and diversified into the carpet industry, becoming a specialist carpet manufacturer and producing – amongst others – 100% pure wool, face-to-face Wilton. It was Keith, George’s son, who operated the first loom at the Station Mills premises (see photograph).
From a sketch by D.E.Backhouse

The company finally stopped manufacturing carpets in 1979, when the existing showroom in Hallgate was first opened. The business has now passed into the third generation of the family, and is run by husband and wife team Keith & Lynda Donkin.

© P&D Carpets Ltd. 2004