Flour Bag Seal, Bowyer & Priestley

Flour Bag Seal, Bowyer & Priestley, Image by StuE, Found by Skunky Paul.
Found in Suffolk, 20mm, 6.3g.

BOWYER & PRIESTLEY (curving downwards) / BUCKDEN / MILLS / HU(NTINGDO)N (curving upwards) // SUPER(S)

A reference has been found in the National Archives relating to Cranfield Brothers Limited, Ipswich, flour millers and bakers:- "The business was founded in 1884 by John George Cranfield, a member of a farming family of Buckden in Huntingdonshire, who had first been apprenticed to a local milling firm, Bowyer and Priestley of Offord and Buckden Mill, adjoining the family farm."

No. of Company: 209138; DISSOLVED COMPANIES 1959: Bowyer and Priestley - from Board of Trade: Companies Registration Office: Files of Dissolved Companies. Inspection of this record at Kew reveals the following:- Bowyer & Priestly Limited registered on 21/10/1925 “To acquire and take over … the business of Millers, Corn Merchants, Seedsmen, and Cattle Food Dealers, now carried on by Percy William Priestley at Offord and Buckden Mills, at Offord Cluny, in the County of Huntingdon, under the style or firm of ‘Bowyer & Priestly,’…”

Despite the range of business mentioned above this seal is likely to be for flour due to the word SUPERS which is known to refer to a grade of flour, see Windmills and Millwrighting By Stanley Freese.