HOMFRAY TRUST
We work with the Homfray Trust; a charity created by Henry Homfray over a century ago
Homfray & Co. became a company in the 18th Century when Francis Homfray
started iron mining at Penydarren. In 1804 Samuel Homfray took delivery of an engine from Richard Trevithick which he used to win a bet against Richard Crawshay, one of the wealthiest men in England at the time, to build the world's first locomotive (Crawshay's grandson, William, married Mary Homfray a few years later in 1808). In winning his bet Samuel delivered the World's first locomotive journey on the works tramway, running a train thirteen miles and winning Samuel one thousand guineas, a fortune at the time. Thirty years later Robert Stephenson found a practical use for Samuel's experiment.
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Henry Homfray founded the second incarnation of Homfray & Co in1891. He returned to Yorkshire (historically the family home) with his wife Marie Theresa Woodward to produce carpets. The company expanded to employ over three thousand people in Yorkshire as well as having operations in Portugal, Pakistan and Australia. In 1952 Homfray & Co. was the first company to make carpets by the tufting process on a narrow machine at Albert Mill, Halifax.
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Today the Homfray Trust supports charitable funds and organisations connected with Yorkshire. Henry Homfray's great, great, grandson, Richard Murray Wells, acts as trustee.