This photograph is of Elizabeth Hardy (nee Johnson).

Elizabeth was born in 1833 and died in 1897 Adelaide Street Hartlepool. In 1854 she married John James Hardy in Hull. Eliizabeth's father had been a soldier guarding Napoleon on St. Helena.

The firm was founded by John James Hardy in 1856 at Bond St. Hartlepool. The company prospered and moved to Throston Bridge in the 1880s. W.H. Hardy (Billy) took over as M.D. on his fathers death and continued in that position until 1937 when he sold the company to T.H. Pailor.

Ald. T.H. Pailor bought the company, limited liability since 1929, and ran it until his death in 1963.

His widow, Marion Isobel Pailor, was M.D. until 1967 when his son, Tom Pailor, took over on her death.

Tom supervised the move to Brenda Road and the company’s transition from brassfounders and finishers to CNC machinists and railways parts suppliers. On his retirement in 2002, his son Andrew Pailor became M.D. – only the sixth person to hold this position in 150 years.

(courtesy of J.J. Hardy's website)

This photograph is of the marriage of Mary Elizabeth Hardy to Bowater Baines in 1908. Elizabeth was born in 1877 and daughter of William Henry and Elizabeth Usher. Appearing on the right in the photograph is William Henry Hardy.

This photograph is of William Henry Hardy as a candidate for Throston.He was a councillor for Throston in 1910.

William was the  eldest son of John James and Elizabeth Hardy.He was born in Hull in 1855 and died in 1947 in Eaglescliffe.

He inherited the brass-founding company and sold it in 1937. He lived in the house in Clifton Street (now Old Cemetery Road) where the foundry was located from  the 1880s. 

The photograph is of William Henry outside the company shop in Church Street.

This photograph is of William Henry Hardy with his wife Elizabeth ( nee Usher born Middleton, Hartlepool 1855 and died in 1935) and their daughter Amy Lily born in 1890(later married a Allenby).

Photo taken on a visit to London in 1908.

This photograph is of William Henry and his family  including his daughter Mary Elizabeth and Bowater Baines in the yard of the house and foundry in Clifton Street.Probably taken after their marriage( Mary and Bowater) in 1908.