Our History

The origins of Brays China start around 1909 when three members of the Bray Family, Albert, Philip and Rupert formed Bray Brothers Limited.  They opened a furniture shop on Church Street in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire and then in 1920 the business moved to larger premises on Urban Road in the same town.  They distributed over a wide area in and around Kirkby and became very well known.

However, during the miner strike of the latter half of the 1920’s their business along with many others was understandably affected, and largely due to sympathetic credit generosity, resulted in Bray Brothers Limited going into liquidation.

1933 and Rupert manages to obtain funding to buy the business and Philip leaves with his wife Elizabeth and his family to restart the furniture business on Lowmoor Road opposite the Town’s main Co-operative block of shops.  In the October of 1944 Elizabeth dies and three months later so does Philip.  Their youngest daughter Betty continued to run the shop until her youngest brother Reg is decolourised out of the RAF.  He then carries on with the shop and also their father’s upholstery work.

Betty convinces Reg that as there was no pottery shop in Kirkby at that time that he would probably do better if he stocked Pottery and China.  The only snag was that nearly all the country’s production in ceramics was exported, which was a result of the governments ‘Export or Die’ exhortation of the time.  Reg remembers seeing a queue of people at a solitary market stall in Mansfield and when he went to see what the attraction was, couldn’t believe that the stall holder was selling unhandled and chipped beakers!

Not withstanding the trickle supply of ceramic tableware and ornamental pieces, Reg used to search the potteries on fairly regular visits by bus, as cars were not so plentiful back then.  With 250 potteries all creating a blanket of smoke above the five towns clumped together as Stoke-on-Trent, Reg did a lot of trudging around in a constant search for supplies but with very little success.  However, due to his stubbornness and dedication the suppliers gradually improved and Bone China reappeared.  The first decorated bone china teaset he managed to get sold out straight away but the lady gave permission for him to keep it on show for a few weeks.

By this time Reg had met Pamela and they married in 1956.  Together they progressed the shop but now needed larger premises and so moved to Station Street in the centre of Kirkby at the same time that Pam gave birth to their son Patrick.  A sign above the new shop front proclaimed The China Shop.

And so it became one of the leading fine china and crystal shops in Nottinghamshire.  They exported their wares all over the world and traditionally drank a toast to these customers on Christmas Day after the Queens speech - a toast that we understand was reciprocated.  They became a house hold name.

Move forward to 1984 and Rosemary Pella opens a new Jewellery shop on a road in Kirkby called Kingsway, and so Kingsway Jewellers starts successfully trading.  She is friends with Reg who is still running Brays China and so when four years later he decides to retire it is agreed that Rosemary will buy the business.  So in 1988 the businesses move to a new single purpose built site at the very heart of Kirkby’s shopping centre and Kingsway Jewellery and Brays China carries on the tradition of offering a quality and service which has become their hallmark.