Early Industry

• By the early 1840s, Richard Paxman, a shoemaker by trade who hailed from the UK, had built a house and an outbuilding in which he was operating a tannery.  The buildings were on a parcel of land along the north shore of the Humber River,  part of George Bolton’s mill site
• The plentiful supply of hemlock trees in the vicinity provided an ample source of bark to create the tanning solution that converted raw animal hides into leather
• The resulting leather was used to make shoes, boots, saddles, straps and harnesses
• By 1845, Richard Paxman had achieved sufficient success to purchase the property from George Bolton 
• In 1848, he sold the tannery business to Joseph Warbrick Sr.

The name Paxman has been recorded as ‘Pexham’ in some documents 

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