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Harborough Museum
The Symington Factory

The Symington Factory

R & W H Symington & Co Ltd developed from the foundation of a small drapers and corset making business run by James and Sarah Symington. They married in the mid-1830s and their large family included sons Robert and William Henry who went into partnership using a factory workshop system, and American Singer sewing machines to make mass produced, ready to wear corsets for Victorian women.

The company grew, and from its original rented premises in an old carpet factory opposite The Square it built new factory buildings premises across the road, employed outworkers in and around Market Harborough and built smaller factories across the midlands. By the 1930s the company was an international concern with factories in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

With the aim of ‘dressing every woman in the world’ the company became famous for making reasonably priced fashionable foundation garments for women with almost every type of figure and with a wide range of incomes. The invention of the Liberty Bodice in 1908 and the ‘Avro’ and ‘Liberty’ foundation garment ranges in the 1920s and 1930s made Symington’s a household name. Their ruched ‘telescopic’ swimsuits for women and children were popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

The Symington factory buildings were iconic. They dominated the centre of the town with their large windows which filled the sewing and work rooms with light, and their distinctive drainpipes which were based on the decorative stitching on their corsets.

In 1967 the Courtaulds group took over the Company and in 1980 it sold the Adam and Eve Street factory building to Harborough District Council. Production in the remaining factory across the yard ended in May 1990.

Now The Symington Building, the former factory has recently been transformed into a hub for Harborough District Council and Leicestershire County Council services.

Opening hours

Tuesday-Friday

10am-6pm

Saturday

10am-4pm

Contact us

Send a message

Tel: 0116 305 3627

Address: The Symington Building, Adam and Eve Street, Market Harborough, LE16 7LT (Car Park: LE16 7XA)

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