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Castle Towel Service was a linen hire ( towel and duster hire) company based in Erdington. The company was managed by Bob Sparkes who lived in Weoley Castle, hence the name. It is believed that the company was financed by the other director, Mr Haig, who was part of the VP wine family. Both Sparkes and Haig had Rover 2000 cars with VP private number plates which were always parked opposite each other on the tiny forecourt either side of the main factory door. Haig maintained an office and secretary on the upstairs floor of the factory. The company started in the sixties and finished around 1976 most probably after the elderly Mr Haig passed away.

Today the Castle Towel laundry and offices is used by a roller shutter manufacturer

The company had a large fleet of vans, each one being a different type and painted in their splendid white and yellow livery by Sign Service in Erdington. The type of vans used were Ford Transit, Ford Thames, Austin LD 1 ton, Hillman Imp, Commer, Morris Minor and two Commer walk throughs. The vans were serviced at Glenfern Garage (now demolished and the site is occupied by a new development) which was only a 100 yards further down Wood End Lane on the opposite side.

Each morning the vans would be moved out onto the road and readied for service. Each roller towel, duster, tea towel or towel had a sewn in name of each customer and would be packed together in stringed bundles so that the van boys could get a complete route to load onto each van. In theory the driver would drive and the van boy would leap out and deliver the order. There were several routes around the city, the Black Country, West Bromwich, Tipton and Wolverhampton with customers such as Beatties of Wolverhampton, Steiner Hairstylists, Brockmoor Foundaries and Midland Scientific at Netherton. Some customers were just small shops such as the newsagents in Dudley Town centre or a small workshop in the Jewellery Quarter such as PJ Finch.

Towards the late sixties the company obtained a GPO roller towel contract to service post offices and telephone exchanges. The contract had previously been held by the London company Achille Sere. The contract areas were South Wales and Wiltshire.

For the South Wales contract the driver who first took on the job elected to drive non stop on the Monday starting around 6am and finishing at 11 pm at Brecon, where he slept in the Commer Walk through van. The route started with the first drop in Leominster, then Hereford, Abergavenny, Newport, Cardiff, Llaneli, Bridgend. Amanford (non GPO factory) the last drop being Mertyhr Tydfil telephone exchange and then onto Brecon. The Post Office was shut by the time the driver got there so that is why he slept there overnight. He made the drop the next morning and then returned to Birmingham.

Most of the main staff were ex-Initial, little George Bagley was the factory manager. Christine, who drove every day from Bewdley, was the receptionist who handled all the drivers money.

Peter Cantello was the head driver who left to go to Midland Counties Dairies sadly only to prematurely die soon afterwards.

All the towels etc were processed in the laundry at Wood End lane, there being a large boiler with a very tall  chimney at the rear of the premises. A lot of their equipment was bought at auction from laundries that had closed. Within the laundry there was a large calandar machine, about 6 commercial washers and 6 commercial dryers. In total there was about 22 staff employed by the company. The boiler was serviced by the engineer responsible for the boiler at Highcroft Hospital which was just further down the road

There was also a small branch at Hinckley which serviced the Leicester area but the towels were brought back to Erdington for cleaning. One of the largest customer was Fluids at Hinckley who were the largest manufactures of nylon hosiery in the country.

The company must have suffered from the change to paper towels and electric hand dryers and did not seem to see that change coming and never diversified.

The roller towel machines were notoriously unreliable, especially if they were in factory situations and miss handled, some were even pulled off the walls, especially if they had not been fitted properly!. The company obtained many second hand units which were re-enamelled by Metal Treatments, a company at the rear of the old Birds factory in Digbeth in Heathmill Lane.

If you have any information about this company please contact us.

Bob Sparkes still lives in the Weoley Castle area and was last known running a fruit and vegetable shop.

Other drivers were

Ian Munroe who lived on the Lyndhurst Estate and Edwin Lowe

One driver (Brain) had a brother was the foreman at W.Jones Transport on the Tyburn Road.

Please contact us if you worked for this company or have any information on this company,  the contact email address is on the home page.