This collection is comprised mainly of correspondence between Joseph Preston & Sons and other businesses involved in the manufacture of watches, clocks and chronometers. There are also some personal letters to Harry Pybus from relatives, including his uncle Job Preston (1840-1923), who had his own company in Sheffield, J. Preston, specialising in photographic chemicals.

See item level records for further details.

Administrative / biographical background
Joseph Preston & Sons was a manufacturer of watch and chronometer movements based in Prescot in Lancashire. The business was established by Joseph Preston (ca 1804 – 1871). One of his sons, also called Joseph Preston (1846 – 1901), continued the business after his father’s death. He was assisted by his nephew Henry ‘Harry’ Pybus (1874 - 1952), who was born in West Derby in Liverpool and moved to Prescot as a teenager to work with his uncle. Harry Pybus would become the last watchmaker to use a typical Lancashire watchmaking workshop for the purpose for which it was built, continuing until his death in 1952. Further archives of Joseph Preston & Sons are held at the London Metropolitan Archives and the Merseyside Record Office.