Our History
Abbey Glen has a rich history, dating back to the late 1800’s with the business still owned by the same family as its founder.
Our Story....
In the 1880’s Albert Youle, a Sheffield based Chemist, commences a local domestic laundry service within the western area of Sheffield, operating out of small premises on Carter Knowle Road. He named the company The Abbey Glen Laundry Company after his favourite childhood walk being from Beauchief Abbey to Sherwood Glen in the local district.
1900 - 1910 Albert Youle acquires a 1-acre site on the flood plain alongside the River Sheaf in Abbeydale, Sheffield, and builds a state-of-the-art laundry factory along with a number of terrace properties in order to offer housing to his staff.
1910 - 1920 Domestic laundry service develops throughout Sheffield and Rotherham and the company is formally incorporated in 1919.
1920’s - The company develops Dry Cleaning services to compliment the domestic laundry service.
1940’s - Abbey Glen laundry company opens a new depot in Rotherham and business continues to develop in domestic and contract laundry markets alongside dry cleaning services. The founder, Albert Youle, dies on 4th January 1940 after an extremely successful career and leaves the business to his two daughters Gladys and Doreen along with his widow Agnes - the current business remains in the ownership of Doreen Youles’ (married name Sempers) immediate family 5 generations later.
1950 to 1970 - Both Sheffield and Rotherham sites expand to accommodate steady growth in laundry services alongside some 52 Dry Cleaning receiving and processing units throughout South Yorkshire.
1970 to 1980 - Abbey Glen develops into the textile rental market offering local services to both the hotel and restaurant trade (linen rental) and industrial and mining companies (workwear rental) - the textile rental services are viewed as the future direction for the company due to the dwindling domestic laundry market, due largely to the availability and affordability of private domestic washing machines.
1980’s - Abbey Glen acquires the Worksop laundry Company as well as Clarks of Retford from Initial Plc and bases both operations within the newly acquired 2-acre Worksop site on Kilton Terrace in the town centre.
1990’s - The Abbey Glen Laundry Company Ltd changes its name to Abbey Glen Ltd and sets about 'Operation Focus’ developing the Sheffield site as a standalone linen processing site and Worksop as a standalone workwear processing site - the geographical operating area expands considerably.
2000 - The company exits dry cleaning services along with domestic laundry services to focus solely on the development of Textile rental services.
2006 - Abbey Glen bought the 2-acre site in Bentley, Doncaster, from London Linen supply Ltd.
2009 - Abbey Glen build a new factory alongside the existing Doncaster factory and invest several million pounds in 21st century processing equipment. Within the same year the company exited the old original Sheffield site after over 100 years of occupation.
Present Day - Abbey Glen Ltd is now professionally managed by a core of dedicated and loyal senior Directors with current plans to develop a new ‘million weekly piece’ processing facility. The company ownership remains in the original family, the Chairman being Mr Tim Sempers who is the Great Grandson of company founder Albert Youle.
