John Hulme was a watch escapement maker who settled in Clarendon Street, where he became one of the most respected and active members of the Earlsdon community. The 1891 Census records him at number 148, aged 74, born in Knutsford, Cheshire, living with his wife Mary and a niece.
Hulme was a man of civic conscience. When William Pitt’s nail factory in Moor Street began belching smoke over neighbouring properties — particularly on washdays when the ladies’ laundry was covered in black smuts — it was Hulme who reported the nuisance to the Coventry Rural Sanitary Authority and acted as spokesman for affected residents. The minutes of the RSA meeting of 20 July 1887 record that “Mr Hulme had reported the nuisance on 6 July” and that proceedings against Pitt were being considered.
His intervention was effective: Pitt left the area shortly after, and the old nail factory was subsequently taken over by Fred Allard for his cycle business. Hulme’s willingness to stand up for his neighbours is characteristic of the community spirit that marked Earlsdon’s early watchmaking families.