History
Albert Hymas, as a company, goes back 4 generations and over 120 years, starting with Albert himself, born in Burton Leonard in 1868, one of nine children of John and Sarah Hymas.
In March 1899, Albert, after seeking his fortune in the gold fields of Klondike, Canada, returned to Yorkshire. Despite having found no gold, his enthusiasm and determination was undiminished.
He decided to try to make a living as a builder and a quarryman.
Albert began by quarrying stone from Klondike Quarry, nr Pateley Bridge, then from other quarries including Killinghall, New Park and Crimple. His first houses were built in Starbeck, Harrogate for £50.00 per house. He and a team of two labourers worked so hard, it’s said that they laid bricks at twice the standard rate.
A horse and cart brought in supplies from his quarry in Killinghall to Harrogate at the breakneck speed of two trips per day.
Founder Albert Hymas
Driving For Victory
In 1913, Albert bought the first petrol-driven wagon used in Harrogate. This made it possible for Albert to run supplies up from Killinghall much more quickly.
Requests for haulage and hire came flooding in, including one from the town council, which had bought diesel engines from a surrendered German submarine.
While he was too old to fight himself, many of his employees were called up, so Albert pulled his 14-year-old son, John Leslie, out of school to work as a bricklayer in the family business, much to Leslie’s chagrin. Alongside Leslie, the company also employed injured ex-servicemen.
Leslie was eventually called up in 1918, serving during the last stages of the war, to be de-mobbed a year later in 1919.
John Leslie Hymas
Albert at St Peters Church
Over the next couple of decades, Albert continued to build houses, schools and public buildings in Harrogate, including the Central Cinema on Oxford Street (1919), the tower of St Peter’s Church (1926) and, as leading contractor, on the town’s municipal offices in Crescent Gardens (1930) and the Odeon Cinema on Station Bridge (1933).
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, when work was thin on the ground, Albert, to avoid laying men off, built family homes on The Grove, Harrogate, including one for John Leslie and his family.
It continued to be the family home for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Indeed Richard Hymas, the current MD of Albert Hymas Ltd, still lives just a few streets away.
The Grove, Harrogate - 2007
Albert Hymas Haulage Fleet 1937
Following the death of Albert in 1934, and then the outbreak of the World War Two, the building arm of the business became less important than the haulage.
Leslie took over the stewardship of the company, but, while he worked hard, for him the business was always a means to an end: the provision of education for his six sons and daughters.
Leslie turned Albert Hymas into a limited company in 1957, then welcomed his third son, Michael Albert, in 1962. By the time Michael assumed full control in 1972 finances were back on an even keel.
Michael diversified the haulage arm of the business, adding to the already thriving local market Spanish deliveries five days a week and transporting racing pigeons to Eastern Europe.
Releasing Racing Pigeons
Michael Albert Hymas
Former Cement Works at Killinghall
Michael was fortunate he didn’t have to run the business during wartime as his father and grandfather had done, but throughout the 1970s, the British economy was battered by the energy crisis, strikes and labour unrest, leading Michael to work in candlelight through the power cuts in the offices Albert had built in The Grove.
After developing cancer in 1972, and to meet the new demands of the economy, Michael’s view of the world changed; he needed to provide financial security for his young family if he was unable to provide for them.
Michael changed his business structure, starting the self-drive hire business Readydrive in 1978, which flourished over the next 25 years. He also consolidated and developed the builder’s merchants and haulage arms of the business.
He also focused on developing commercial property, and over the next few years, he bought a number of properties in and around Harrogate. His innovation and hard work meant that Leslie’s death in 1980 made little impact on the day-to-day running of the business.
Throughout this time, he was supported in the business by his wife, Mary, who took an active role as director and company secretary.
Michael & Mary's Children, Richard, John, & Sarah
Richard Michael Hymas
As Michael’s family grew older, he was joined in the business by his son Richard, at first during school holidays and Saturday mornings, then later, on a full-time basis.
At the time of his death in 2003, Michael had secured the financial future of not only his family, now stretching down to his two granddaughters, but also of the business itself.
The solid foundations laid by previous generations allowed Richard, with considerable help from the staff and Michael’s widowed wife Mary, to successfully move the business forward into the fourth generation.
Albert Hymas Ltd is a company that has never lost the tenacity and determination, honesty and straightforwardness of its founder; as reliable and dependable as the Yorkshire stone it was founded on.
To be continued…