The Howes Bros
![Picture](/uploads/2/4/2/0/24204342/7845644.jpg)
In the 1842 tithe, George occupied two adjacent houses and gardens, owned by Henry Pearce. By 1851 the second house was occupied by his brother John and family; John worked as a furrier in Watley's End for the rest of his life. George now owned a house, garden and factory and, from the tithe map, this property is the current 4 Common Road, Watley's End. Both homes were the same size, 13 perches, but George's rates were £3 15s to those of John at £2 12s 6d. It would seem Henry Pearce died by 1861 because then John's property was owned by Mrs Pearce. George Howes moved a little distance away and was in a house and factory of his own. It is interesting to compare the church rates in 1861/2: John still £2 12s 6d, George in his factory £12, and their father Jason, now back at Cloister's and living with his journeyman hatter son Isaac, £11 13s 1d.
![Picture](/uploads/2/4/2/0/24204342/1381703973.png)
Some time after 1851, George Howes moved upmarket and into the Watley's End factory house. The estate, now called the Old Factory House, was owned by Thomas Morris, a London hatmaker by then living off the rents of his properties. From 1770, the Old Factory House played a central role in the industrial history of the Winterbourne hamlet of Watley's End, first as a hat factory and, later, as an outpost for a Bristol wholesale clothes manufacturer. The building on Factory Road stands out from all of its neighbours through its classic Georgian design: its very confidence and character suggests out-of-area money. Alongside, there are four original hatter's cottages, once part of the estate. Most of the manufacturing processes took place in many surrounding outbuildings, long since demolished. However, there are small, cubicle rooms on the top floor, correctly sized for feltmaker's bowing garrets. The sale to George Howes may have taken a few years to be
finalised, but George and family did eventually move in on an annual lease. The
four terraced cottage occupiers were now hatting families George Harcombe, the
late John Skidmore and George Maggs senior and agricultural worker Thomas
Walker. Within 10 years, Howes, with 12 men and two apprentices, supplied the
wholesale hat trade from his manufactory. Among George Howes's employees were
two of his sons: George, a hat finisher, and Gilbert, an apprentice, who was to
marry Louisa Yalland. These were the two men who, by the turn of the century,
turned their father's firm into the great Bristol
hat company.
In 1863, when Morris died and his estate was sold, Howes was still resident at the Old Factory House for which he paid £70 a year. The auction at the White Hart, Old Market Street, Bristol, was in five lots: a 'capital freehold residence with fertile garden; extensive buildings now used as a hat factory, but suitable for any other purpose requiring cheap coal and water, or for a private residence, let to Mr Howes as yearly tenant; a fertile arable field of about three acres, and four cottages with large gardens adjoining; also two capital cottages and gardens; situated on the road leading to Hick's Common; also a valuable well of water; the whole occupying about six acres'.
Following the sale, the Howes family moved out; George senior was shortly to be a retired 'gentleman' in Hambrook.
It is likely that the move to Bristol of the Howes hat business followed shortly after the sale of Thomas Morris's Old Factory House estate in 1863; George Howes died the year before. The firm talked of a 'growing connection' that made it 'wise to remove to Castle Street' to number 51. The property was probably in a court behind the street, previously occupied by George Stabbins, a Bristol-born hatter, employing 10 men, who moved to Castle Green. The Howes's 'growing connection' involved making both felt hats and caps and was likely centred on George Howes senior's close friend, Charles Garlick. Garlick's family were long-term hatters, originating in Westerleigh. They moved to Watley's End about 1817 where Charles was apprenticed in 1837 to Isaac Simmonds whose factory still stands in 2008 in North Road. Charles's apprentice fee of £6 was paid by Miller Christy, then head of the Christy firm. It can be assumed that the friendship between Garlick and Howes, two contemporary young men and fellow Methodists, began here and continued when Garlick left Watley's End in 1846 for Bristol to set up his own factory in the same Castle Street at number 85. Garlick's factory became an emporium, with the Howes brothers, George and Gilbert, the likely hat and cap suppliers. Garlick was one of the executors of George Howes's 1862 will, a regular practice for village hatters who chose their trusted city partner to safeguard their intentions. For over 100 years, Castle Street are immediate area was the manufacturing centre of the Bristol hat makers; the Howes stayed until about 1873. While they moved the manufactory, they kept 'large warehouses and offices' in Castle Street and offered for them for use in 1885. Howes are recorded as receiving two boxes of wood extract in the ship Seine from Rouen in 1872.
The move to 168-176 Newfoundland Road with a 130-strong workforce denotes a continuing business success; the new purpose-built premises were 'commodious'. There remains a question of whether outside funding was found. Both brothers both married well before their move. In 1868, George wed Matilda Bailey in Long Ashton, Somerset, just two miles from Bristol. Matilda's father, George, was a master builder. Two years later, Gilbert made quite a catch with Louisa, the daughter of John Yalland, a building contractor from Devon with a Bristol workforce of around 100 men. As already noted, Yalland lived at a 12-acre estate at the Manor House Fishponds, close to Henry John Pearse. He was evidently a self-made man of much stature in the Bristol construction world although little material is apparent.
Some of the papers concerning the factory build exist. In 1871, Yalland bought land at Howes Road (perhaps named by Yalland for the intended factory), formerly Earls Mead, Baptist Mills, St Paul's, and 13-15 Monk Street; Howes Road and Monk Street are adjacent streets off Newfoundland Road and enclosed the factory site. A year later, a manufactory, hereditaments and premises at Newfoundland Road were sold by Yalland to Gilbert and George Howes for £465 so the contract seems to have been fully commercial. The uneven site, 78 feet by 273 feet in the south west and 287 in the north east, was part of a larger plot. Yalland agreed to pull down three cottages and some buildings and carry the rubble away.
In 1863, when Morris died and his estate was sold, Howes was still resident at the Old Factory House for which he paid £70 a year. The auction at the White Hart, Old Market Street, Bristol, was in five lots: a 'capital freehold residence with fertile garden; extensive buildings now used as a hat factory, but suitable for any other purpose requiring cheap coal and water, or for a private residence, let to Mr Howes as yearly tenant; a fertile arable field of about three acres, and four cottages with large gardens adjoining; also two capital cottages and gardens; situated on the road leading to Hick's Common; also a valuable well of water; the whole occupying about six acres'.
Following the sale, the Howes family moved out; George senior was shortly to be a retired 'gentleman' in Hambrook.
It is likely that the move to Bristol of the Howes hat business followed shortly after the sale of Thomas Morris's Old Factory House estate in 1863; George Howes died the year before. The firm talked of a 'growing connection' that made it 'wise to remove to Castle Street' to number 51. The property was probably in a court behind the street, previously occupied by George Stabbins, a Bristol-born hatter, employing 10 men, who moved to Castle Green. The Howes's 'growing connection' involved making both felt hats and caps and was likely centred on George Howes senior's close friend, Charles Garlick. Garlick's family were long-term hatters, originating in Westerleigh. They moved to Watley's End about 1817 where Charles was apprenticed in 1837 to Isaac Simmonds whose factory still stands in 2008 in North Road. Charles's apprentice fee of £6 was paid by Miller Christy, then head of the Christy firm. It can be assumed that the friendship between Garlick and Howes, two contemporary young men and fellow Methodists, began here and continued when Garlick left Watley's End in 1846 for Bristol to set up his own factory in the same Castle Street at number 85. Garlick's factory became an emporium, with the Howes brothers, George and Gilbert, the likely hat and cap suppliers. Garlick was one of the executors of George Howes's 1862 will, a regular practice for village hatters who chose their trusted city partner to safeguard their intentions. For over 100 years, Castle Street are immediate area was the manufacturing centre of the Bristol hat makers; the Howes stayed until about 1873. While they moved the manufactory, they kept 'large warehouses and offices' in Castle Street and offered for them for use in 1885. Howes are recorded as receiving two boxes of wood extract in the ship Seine from Rouen in 1872.
The move to 168-176 Newfoundland Road with a 130-strong workforce denotes a continuing business success; the new purpose-built premises were 'commodious'. There remains a question of whether outside funding was found. Both brothers both married well before their move. In 1868, George wed Matilda Bailey in Long Ashton, Somerset, just two miles from Bristol. Matilda's father, George, was a master builder. Two years later, Gilbert made quite a catch with Louisa, the daughter of John Yalland, a building contractor from Devon with a Bristol workforce of around 100 men. As already noted, Yalland lived at a 12-acre estate at the Manor House Fishponds, close to Henry John Pearse. He was evidently a self-made man of much stature in the Bristol construction world although little material is apparent.
Some of the papers concerning the factory build exist. In 1871, Yalland bought land at Howes Road (perhaps named by Yalland for the intended factory), formerly Earls Mead, Baptist Mills, St Paul's, and 13-15 Monk Street; Howes Road and Monk Street are adjacent streets off Newfoundland Road and enclosed the factory site. A year later, a manufactory, hereditaments and premises at Newfoundland Road were sold by Yalland to Gilbert and George Howes for £465 so the contract seems to have been fully commercial. The uneven site, 78 feet by 273 feet in the south west and 287 in the north east, was part of a larger plot. Yalland agreed to pull down three cottages and some buildings and carry the rubble away.
Howes Bros moved into this building on Castle Street.
Most of Castle Street was flattened in the war.
![Picture](/uploads/2/4/2/0/24204342/3359373.jpg)
In 1918, the factory was heavily hashed area and the lands below it to Wellington Road. The River Frome borders Wellington Road.
A number of Watley's End men made the move to Bristol with Howes Brothers. Among the early ones were hatter George Flook who seems to be a Castle Street employee. In 1861, he was living with his wife Caroline Francis and her sister, Ellen, both hat trimmers, at Hartland Court, Castle Green; and George Harcombe whose 1896 obituary described him as a 'highly valued servant of Howes Bros' for over 30 years. Harcombe began his career as a Watley's End fur cutter and became one of the Howes works foremen Others who followed or went with parents, all living within short walks of Newfoundland Street, included Aaron Flook his wife, Mary Ann, and daughter Florence; Isaac Flook; Robert Maggs living with Isaac Flook; three together at 147 Newfoundland Street, William Howes, David Maggs (of Gloucester in 1861, who moved to Stockport), and David Roberts (from Carmarthen) and another works foreman Henry Jones.
By the turn of the century, the firm employed over 400 people in Bristol and supplied worldwide some half a million hats a year. Much information about the nature of the Newfoundland Road works and the firm's markets comes from their puffery in 1893: 'That Bristol has a high reputation throughout the hat trade in all parts of the world for the production of the highest grades of hats is due to the enlightened enterprise exhibiting in conducting the business of the Newfoundland Hat Works, which are the property of Messrs George and Gilbert Howes. As manufacturers of felt hats, the firm are facile princeps ('easily first') in the district, their goods being manufactured entirely from the best fur or from the finest wool, either mixed or unmixed with fur. The high reputation of the house for the excellent quality of its hats has doubtless been enhanced by the fact that they have altogether confined themselves to felt as a material, and have in its use acquired a skill which accounts for the notable success of the firm's enterprise'.
Hats were made for ladies, gentlemen and children. Industrial departments were equipped with modern mechanical appliances. Howes Brother controlled 'not only a great wholesale trade through the United Kingdom, but a great export business to the Colonies; while many other parts of the world are supplied with their goods through the medium of the great shipping houses'. It was this preparedness to invest in innovation and machinery that set Howes Bros apart from all of its contemporaries and enabled it alone to continue into the twentieth century The works comprised a three-storey building covering about three-quarters of an acre. A suite of 'very handsomely appointed offices' occupied the ground floor together with large store rooms for production materials with large making-up and packing rooms. Underneath were cellars full of bales of wool and fur, and also space for crate making. To the rear, in the engine house, was a recently-constructed 50 horse power steam-engine and two patent Galloway boilers. The drying rooms were immediately above these boilers. Close by, a large stock of logwood chips were processed before being used for dyeing. The hat blockers could turn out a thousand dozen hats weekly.
A stock of more than five thousand dozen was frequently held in the hood room; hat stock was not absolutely finished 'for the excellent reason that fashionable shapes are constantly altering'. Orders for special shapes could be executed at short notice in a room with six presses. The hats then went to the rounding machine, fitted with a gauge for regulating size. In the finishing-room, the hats were smoothed off by very fine glass-paper. The edges or brims were then curled by four specially-designed machines; edges were cut even by workmen with chisels. The nearly-completed felt hat was passed to the shaping department where it was first put on a steam-heated tank, called a 'baker', and, after being sufficiently heated, placed in a press, fitted with pressurising india-rubber tubes running round the edges. The hat, now in its intended shape, went into the trimming-room to be bound by machines; linings were made and fitted, and leathers, or 'hat sweats', put in. Fifty girls were employed here for urgent orders, but this work was chiefly done by a corps of 120 outside workers. The top floor was used as store rooms; all floors being connected by a power lift.
A number of Watley's End men made the move to Bristol with Howes Brothers. Among the early ones were hatter George Flook who seems to be a Castle Street employee. In 1861, he was living with his wife Caroline Francis and her sister, Ellen, both hat trimmers, at Hartland Court, Castle Green; and George Harcombe whose 1896 obituary described him as a 'highly valued servant of Howes Bros' for over 30 years. Harcombe began his career as a Watley's End fur cutter and became one of the Howes works foremen Others who followed or went with parents, all living within short walks of Newfoundland Street, included Aaron Flook his wife, Mary Ann, and daughter Florence; Isaac Flook; Robert Maggs living with Isaac Flook; three together at 147 Newfoundland Street, William Howes, David Maggs (of Gloucester in 1861, who moved to Stockport), and David Roberts (from Carmarthen) and another works foreman Henry Jones.
By the turn of the century, the firm employed over 400 people in Bristol and supplied worldwide some half a million hats a year. Much information about the nature of the Newfoundland Road works and the firm's markets comes from their puffery in 1893: 'That Bristol has a high reputation throughout the hat trade in all parts of the world for the production of the highest grades of hats is due to the enlightened enterprise exhibiting in conducting the business of the Newfoundland Hat Works, which are the property of Messrs George and Gilbert Howes. As manufacturers of felt hats, the firm are facile princeps ('easily first') in the district, their goods being manufactured entirely from the best fur or from the finest wool, either mixed or unmixed with fur. The high reputation of the house for the excellent quality of its hats has doubtless been enhanced by the fact that they have altogether confined themselves to felt as a material, and have in its use acquired a skill which accounts for the notable success of the firm's enterprise'.
Hats were made for ladies, gentlemen and children. Industrial departments were equipped with modern mechanical appliances. Howes Brother controlled 'not only a great wholesale trade through the United Kingdom, but a great export business to the Colonies; while many other parts of the world are supplied with their goods through the medium of the great shipping houses'. It was this preparedness to invest in innovation and machinery that set Howes Bros apart from all of its contemporaries and enabled it alone to continue into the twentieth century The works comprised a three-storey building covering about three-quarters of an acre. A suite of 'very handsomely appointed offices' occupied the ground floor together with large store rooms for production materials with large making-up and packing rooms. Underneath were cellars full of bales of wool and fur, and also space for crate making. To the rear, in the engine house, was a recently-constructed 50 horse power steam-engine and two patent Galloway boilers. The drying rooms were immediately above these boilers. Close by, a large stock of logwood chips were processed before being used for dyeing. The hat blockers could turn out a thousand dozen hats weekly.
A stock of more than five thousand dozen was frequently held in the hood room; hat stock was not absolutely finished 'for the excellent reason that fashionable shapes are constantly altering'. Orders for special shapes could be executed at short notice in a room with six presses. The hats then went to the rounding machine, fitted with a gauge for regulating size. In the finishing-room, the hats were smoothed off by very fine glass-paper. The edges or brims were then curled by four specially-designed machines; edges were cut even by workmen with chisels. The nearly-completed felt hat was passed to the shaping department where it was first put on a steam-heated tank, called a 'baker', and, after being sufficiently heated, placed in a press, fitted with pressurising india-rubber tubes running round the edges. The hat, now in its intended shape, went into the trimming-room to be bound by machines; linings were made and fitted, and leathers, or 'hat sweats', put in. Fifty girls were employed here for urgent orders, but this work was chiefly done by a corps of 120 outside workers. The top floor was used as store rooms; all floors being connected by a power lift.
![Picture](/uploads/2/4/2/0/24204342/7284013.jpg?449)
The firm advertised regularly for staff, particularly felt hat trimmers: in 1885 it would seem a large contract was won as one hundred trimmers were required. A 14-year-old girl who went to the factory in 1882 to learn that grade was paid 2s a week. At the firm's annual outing, in 1888 to Weymouth, over 300 took the trip including Gilbert and George. In 1896, the firm was fined £3 10s plus costs for illegally employing seven young women to work at night. A factory raid at 10.30 in the evening found that the girls worked from seven o'clock and would have gone on till six the next morning. 'It was a bad thing both morally and physically for these women to be shut up all night in a factory where men were employed at the same time and with no-one in charge but the engineer'. Mr Sandford for the firm said that it was 'more a case of bad luck than anything'. Part of the machinery broke down and it would take 14 days for it to be repaired so the remaining machinery was run for 24 hours a day. The night shift was adopted and 'what had been done was done in the favour of the workpeople'.
As expected, the Howes brothers were deeply involved in local charity and politics. Gilbert, at least, was a staunch Liberal, a member of the Anchor Society and opened the factory gates to Samuel Morley and Lewis Fry for canvassing in the 1880 election. All the workmen present pledged their votes. In 1882, after disastrous city floods, he was approached to become treasurer of the relief fund. The factory lost between £2-300, but 'had the flood occurred at night time there would have been an absolute destruction of about £5,000 worth of felts and silks, and other valuable materials, which were upon the ground floor'.
Two other disruptions hit the works. New-found country-wide enthusiasm for trade unions swept industrial centres during the autumn and winter of 1889-90. Strikes were particularly concentrated in the major cities as workers sought, principally, recognition, wage increases and eight-hour days. Bristol was no exception. Local dockers achieved some success; bootmakers, especially from the Kingswood sweat shops, were locked out in a tense affair. There is no record of what drove the hatmakers to join the unrest, but, even after most of their fellow trades went back to work, two large bodies of workers remained out in Bristol: the Great Western Cotton Factory and the hat manufactory of Howes Brothers. The following year on a Thursday evening, a fire broke out in the roof of the factory drying room owing to the overheating of a stovepipe which passed through it. Workpeople set to with buckets so, by the time the local fire brigade arrived, there was little left to do.
The demise of Howes Brothers from its turn-of-the-century, 400-plus workforce seems to have been rapid. The firm was the only Bristol felt hat manufacturer among the 89 listed as registered under Government regulations in 1902, by this time working in wool, but not fur, felt. This list shows not only how far Bristol felt hat manufacture declined, but also how important were the industrial winners: Denton in Lancashire had 36 factories with the surrounding towns of Stockport, Hyde and Manchester contributing a further 24. That same year, Howes still operated from their 168 Newfoundland Road base and, in 1906, were listed in the Bristol telephone directory as 'Bristol 705'.
However, two years earlier, the Gilbert and George partnership was dissolved. From July 1904, George, the older brother, was to carry on alone and to 'assume responsibility for all debts, due and owing'. The deeds were deposited with Lloyds Bank as security and George took out a mortgage with a Henry Bush. Gilbert, then 58, was to live for another 16 years on 'private means', supplemented by £7 10s quarterly for life to be paid by George from the business. Both couples lived in a succession of grand houses in Ashley, a short carriage ride from Newfoundland Road. The tragedy of the brothers' lives was that their first wives pre-deceased them and they were childless. Gilbert's Louisa Yalland died in 1892; George's Matilda Bailey of pneumonia in 1897. Niece, Elizabeth Jones was present at Matilda's death; Elizabeth never married and was housekeeper to Gilbert before and after the death of Louisa.
The big surprise was that George married again in 1898, aged 60, to Gertrude Baker, a grocer's daughter, 36 years his junior. The union quickly produced two daughters; the family were living in Horfield in 1911 with George as a 'late hat manufacturer'. The end came in 1909. Three years before, the Bank took control of the estate and mortgage; in 1908, George borrowed a further £100 from Bush, and, in August 1909, George cleared 'Howes Old Account' of £127 and gave it to Gilbert. Two months later, George sold the entire property for £1,125; the Bank took £1,100 and George just £25.
The factory title deeds suggest a further sale in 1918 to a Mr Hill. The 1918 plan shows property on the north east side of Howes Road belonging to Thomas Hill; the adjoining two buildings around a court opening into Newfoundland Road and formed the factory of Huggins, Son & Co Limited, clothing manufacturers.
Why the disappearance of the business? George was almost 70 in 1909 with no natural successors and a young family with whom to spend his last days. Headwear was slipping out of fashion; the young middle class no longer always needed to wear a hat, whatever the occasion. Competition from the much larger Stockport factories was immense.
And this is where the Hatting story ends. George and Gilbert's uncle, Thomas, is the next part of our story. While George senior was laying down the foundations of the hat factory his brother Thomas was a local furrier. It is quite likely that Thomas was a supplier to his brother.
Return to main menu
Return to Howes story
As expected, the Howes brothers were deeply involved in local charity and politics. Gilbert, at least, was a staunch Liberal, a member of the Anchor Society and opened the factory gates to Samuel Morley and Lewis Fry for canvassing in the 1880 election. All the workmen present pledged their votes. In 1882, after disastrous city floods, he was approached to become treasurer of the relief fund. The factory lost between £2-300, but 'had the flood occurred at night time there would have been an absolute destruction of about £5,000 worth of felts and silks, and other valuable materials, which were upon the ground floor'.
Two other disruptions hit the works. New-found country-wide enthusiasm for trade unions swept industrial centres during the autumn and winter of 1889-90. Strikes were particularly concentrated in the major cities as workers sought, principally, recognition, wage increases and eight-hour days. Bristol was no exception. Local dockers achieved some success; bootmakers, especially from the Kingswood sweat shops, were locked out in a tense affair. There is no record of what drove the hatmakers to join the unrest, but, even after most of their fellow trades went back to work, two large bodies of workers remained out in Bristol: the Great Western Cotton Factory and the hat manufactory of Howes Brothers. The following year on a Thursday evening, a fire broke out in the roof of the factory drying room owing to the overheating of a stovepipe which passed through it. Workpeople set to with buckets so, by the time the local fire brigade arrived, there was little left to do.
The demise of Howes Brothers from its turn-of-the-century, 400-plus workforce seems to have been rapid. The firm was the only Bristol felt hat manufacturer among the 89 listed as registered under Government regulations in 1902, by this time working in wool, but not fur, felt. This list shows not only how far Bristol felt hat manufacture declined, but also how important were the industrial winners: Denton in Lancashire had 36 factories with the surrounding towns of Stockport, Hyde and Manchester contributing a further 24. That same year, Howes still operated from their 168 Newfoundland Road base and, in 1906, were listed in the Bristol telephone directory as 'Bristol 705'.
However, two years earlier, the Gilbert and George partnership was dissolved. From July 1904, George, the older brother, was to carry on alone and to 'assume responsibility for all debts, due and owing'. The deeds were deposited with Lloyds Bank as security and George took out a mortgage with a Henry Bush. Gilbert, then 58, was to live for another 16 years on 'private means', supplemented by £7 10s quarterly for life to be paid by George from the business. Both couples lived in a succession of grand houses in Ashley, a short carriage ride from Newfoundland Road. The tragedy of the brothers' lives was that their first wives pre-deceased them and they were childless. Gilbert's Louisa Yalland died in 1892; George's Matilda Bailey of pneumonia in 1897. Niece, Elizabeth Jones was present at Matilda's death; Elizabeth never married and was housekeeper to Gilbert before and after the death of Louisa.
The big surprise was that George married again in 1898, aged 60, to Gertrude Baker, a grocer's daughter, 36 years his junior. The union quickly produced two daughters; the family were living in Horfield in 1911 with George as a 'late hat manufacturer'. The end came in 1909. Three years before, the Bank took control of the estate and mortgage; in 1908, George borrowed a further £100 from Bush, and, in August 1909, George cleared 'Howes Old Account' of £127 and gave it to Gilbert. Two months later, George sold the entire property for £1,125; the Bank took £1,100 and George just £25.
The factory title deeds suggest a further sale in 1918 to a Mr Hill. The 1918 plan shows property on the north east side of Howes Road belonging to Thomas Hill; the adjoining two buildings around a court opening into Newfoundland Road and formed the factory of Huggins, Son & Co Limited, clothing manufacturers.
Why the disappearance of the business? George was almost 70 in 1909 with no natural successors and a young family with whom to spend his last days. Headwear was slipping out of fashion; the young middle class no longer always needed to wear a hat, whatever the occasion. Competition from the much larger Stockport factories was immense.
And this is where the Hatting story ends. George and Gilbert's uncle, Thomas, is the next part of our story. While George senior was laying down the foundations of the hat factory his brother Thomas was a local furrier. It is quite likely that Thomas was a supplier to his brother.
Return to main menu
Return to Howes story