A rare archive chronicling the fascinating history of Gardiner s of Bristol, which was founded in 1825 by Zachariah Cartwright as a small blacksmith and ironmongery business and which on Cartwright's death was taken over by his nephew who subsequently went into partnership with Alfred Gardiner in 1860. As the business flourished, Alfred's sons John and Thomas joined the firm and the name Gardiner Sons & Co Ltd was taken in 1893, by which time the company had two manufactories producing all types of ironmongery. In1897 a large new factory in St Philips, known as the Midland Ironworks, was opened. In 1930 Gardiners acquired the Queens Hotel in Clifton, renamed it Beacon House and, apart from a period during the war when it was let to another Bristol firm who had lost their premises during the blitz, ran it as their flagship showroom before selling it in the mid 1950s to Debenhams. In 1958 Gardiners moved to the Broad Plain buildings previously occupied by Christopher Thomas, the soap and candle manufacturers, who were from the 1880s until 1954 when their then owners, Lever Brothers, decided to cease soap manufacturing in Bristol. In 1971 Gardiners was joined in Broad Plain by J H Haskins of Shepton Mallet who sold furniture and carpets. In the early 1970s the business was sold and eventually became part of the Hawker Siddeley group, but following a management buyout in 1989 the business is once more independent and still trading from its Broad Plain premises.