Francis Henry Crittall was the son of Francis Berrington Crittall and Fanny Godfrey. After gaining work experience in Birmingham and Chester, Francis Henry took over the family business following his father"s death, and in 1884 began to manufacture metal-framed windows.
Crittall also funded the development of the model village of in Essex. Crittall, in 1849, bought the Bank Street ironmongery in Braintree. Five years later (1889), the Crittall Manufacturing Company Limited was incorporated.
At this time the firm"s output in a two-year period was 20 tonnes.
In 1880 the company employed 11 men, by the 1890s this figure was 34, by 1918, 500. Under Crittall"s management, the company expanded both domestically and internationally, manufacturing munitions during the First World War and then providing metal window frames for the United Kingdom government"s post-war housing investment programme.
Crittall"s portrait was painted by Augustus Edwin John in 1919, and the work was donated by the Crittall family to the National Portrait Gallery in 1994. By the 1920s, it was clear that the town of Braintree could not support the needs of the Crittall workforce.
Crittall employees and their families made up an estimated 10,000 of the 18,000 population of the town.
Francis Crittall, after an experiment with housing in Cressing Road, Braintree, therefore decided to build a village for his factory and workforce. The Model Village, near Witham, was started in 1926, and was intended to provide a good standard of living accommodation and civic amenities centred on a Crittall factory. He designed houses for himself and for Crittalls" employees and, with architect Thomas South. Tait, was largely responsible for the style and appearance of.
