Sam Coster of Mongers Architectural Salvage recently bought a load of unused antique sanitary and brass ware from a Victorian terraced house which had been passed down through generations of a Sheffield plumber's family. In the attic and cellar were fittings from the 1940s and earlier, still wrapped in their brown tape and newspaper wrappings.
 
Unused new Belfast sinks from the 1950s, unused Deco cisterns and W.C. pans in green and pink, an assortment of unused basins, a vast number of new 1 1/4inch wastes, unused new bronze and brass half-inch bibcock taps for sweating to lead bought in 1941 and still wrapped in copies of the Halifax Courier, and a load of chrome bib taps with backplates with Hot and Cold indices - although Sam says it was a sign of the times in wartime Sheffield that there were many more hot than cold taps in the pile.
 
The sanitary ware makers included Twyfords Ltd of Cliffe Vale and Trent Ware by Johnson Brothers (Hanley) Ltd - both of Stoke on Trent - and Armitage Ware by Edward Johns & Co Ltd of Armitage near Rugeley.
 
The indices of some of the taps were marked 'Sanitor', which from 1935-55 was the trade name of Woodhouse & Co Ltd of Foundry Road, Hexthorpe in Doncaster. The brass bibcock taps had a plain shank without a backplate so Sam Coster is cutting a ⅜" BSP thread on the taps so that they can be spigoted to a new ⅜" to ½" bush and then to a modern wall mount.
 
The hot taps cannot be converted to use with cold water, even though both have traditional black rubber washers, because the jumpers in hot taps are fixed but in cold taps they are a plunger type which prevents back pressure contamination.
 
The green Deco low-level cistern still has the paper fitting instructions glues to it, headed 'Quiet filling of the cistern' and 'Points to observe in fixing'. For quiet filling it recommends filling from a storage tank, or if on the mains supply an in-line valve to reduce flow should be installed. The flush pipe, described as a 'flushbend', should not be cut, should be mounted sentrally, and should avoid blocking the pan flush rim. Flushbend joints must be airtight to avoid a 'sluggish discharge'. An often overlooked point nowadays is that the flush handle or 'cistern lever' should not be fitted in the horizontal position but slightly raised at an angle of about 30 degrees as this gives 'the easiest position for starting the flush' - and easiest for finishing it too.
 
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More about Woodhouse & Co Ltd: 1873 Established in Doncaster 1873 [F. Birchall A Short History of the Plumbers Brassfounders' Industry in Rotherham and Doncaster (1946)], by Mr. Wannop and Thomas Woodhouse. 1878 Charles Henry Woodhouse and Thomas Osborne recorded. 1883 partner George William Thirwell added, trading as Woodhouse, Osborne & Co. with Woodhouse as manager and partners as travelling salesmen. 1887 Opened showroom in Nottingham. 1890 Partnership dissolved, renamed Woodhouse & Co. 1898-9 Major dispute with workforce. 1901 Joint stock company with capital of £60,000. 1906 Opened showroom in Leicester, of the £25,000 capital £20,000 was owned by C.H. Woodhouse. In the First World War it made brass grenade casings.