| AdminHistory | George King Harrison was born around 1826. When he left school his father arranged employment with the Stourbridge and Kidderminster Bank, so that he could learn about finance and business. He later went into partnership with his cousin William King Perrins in a fire brick manufacturers previously owned by Joseph & William King at Lye. This became Perrins & Harrison. They built up similar works at Cradley and Wilnecote in Warwickshire as well as collieries. The partners later purchased a small firebrick works at Brettell Lane owned by John Wheeley. When Wheeley later went out of business they acquired his Hawbush estate and very soon the Nagersfield colliery and site. The Hawbush estate supplied a fine quality of clay and the Nagersfield pits soon joined it in providing clay. William Perrins retired in 1875 to leave the business in the sole hands of George King Harrison. The company became George King Harrison Ltd. He built an electric railway from the Nagersfield pits to the Brettell Lane works to transport the clay. He married a Miss Ashworth from Lancashire. He served as a County Councillor and as a Justice of the Peace, and died in 1906. |