Thomas Pearson 1812-1886
In 1852 at the age of 39, Thomas Pearson, living in St Nicholas Street with his wife and children, was already a well established watch finisher in the city. Indeed he had as one of his apprentices a member of one of Coventry's foremost Jewish families, Philip Cohen, who later became a prominent manufacturer with his own business in Chapelfields. The idea of living outside of the cramped and unhealthy city on the select new little estate out at Earlsdon apparently attracted Pearson and he became one of the first settlers there, building a little house with its own topshop where he and his sons could work, on what was then Cromwell Street (now Berkeley Road South). Over the years the Pearson family became greatly respected as one of the most outstanding in terms of its contribution to the local community. Devout Wesleyan Methodists and supporters of the Temperance Movement, it was mainly through the efforts of brothers, Tom and Arthur, both watch finishers, having been apprenticed to their father, that the Methodist Church took root in 1873 in Earlsdon and flourished. From Brown Boots in Earlsdon by Mary Montes |
