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My Family

Fullwood's of Wolverhampton

My family begins with my great grandfather, James Treen Fullwood, born Wolverhampton in 1865, who acquired a tyre vulcanising business called "Staffordshire Motor Tyre Repair Co".

The business purchased for approximately £100 in 1908, was situated in Queens Square, Wolverhampton. As the business prospered, James expanded his business into new premises at Chapel Ash Wolverhampton. For over fifty years the family business was managed by James and his sons: Harold, Jim and Henry (aka Harry).

Click on the thumb nail photographs below to see James' first premises in Queen Square and then later at Chapel Ash which became the headquarters of Fullwood Tyres.

Staffordshire Tyre Company
The Staffordshire Tyre Company formed first, expanded with the creation of Shropshire and Modern Tyre Services companies. Operating in total at least 16 retail outlets throughout the West Midlands.  Each of 3 separate retail tyre business were HQ'd at Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury and Walsall respectively. After James Treen FULLWOOD's death in 1939, the overall management of the companies passed to Harold Fullwood.

Harold Fullwood b.1893
As well as running the Fullwood tyre business, my Grand Uncle, Harold * and his son Edward * FULLWOOD both proudly performed public service by both becoming  Aldermen and subsequently Mayors of Wolverhampton during the 1950's and 1960's respectively. (* Photographs published with the kind permission of the Wolverhampton Express & Star Newspaper).

Harold lived at "The Grove" a large property off Wood Road Tettenhall. During World War II, a German bomber looking for the nearby  aircraft factory of Boulton Paul, dropped its bombs by mistake on the Grove. Harold bought the house after the war and then set about rebuilding the Grove to its former glory.

Sunbeam Land Speed Record car
At its peak FULLWOOD Tyres were not only supplying tyres to the public but also to a number of motor vehicle manufacturers in Wolverhampton. These included Guy Motors who manufactured buses and the Sunbeam Motor Car Co who manufactured everything from bicycles, motor bikes, aircraft to Land Speed Record (LSR) cars.

Eventually the Chapel Ash headquartered business was subsequently sold to the Goodyear Tyre Company in the early 1960's.

The Sunbeam "1000 horse power" is the Wolverhampton built car which captured the 200 mph land speed record at Daytona Beach in 1927 using two aircraft engines. The "Slug" as it was nicknamed can now been seen in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Hampshire in the UK. James Fullwood was given by the Sunbeam Motor Co. of Wolverhampton one of only eleven prototype models of the car. It is still kept in the family by a great great grandson of James.

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