Josiah Watts, the founder of the Watts Group, began trading in 1880 from an ironmonger shop in Lydney a few hundred yards from the present head office of the Watts Group, Althorpe House. He was describing his business by 1900 as a “Furnishing, Builders, Agricultural & General Ironmonger, Cutler & Tool Merchant”.
At the beginning of the last century, Josiah’s sons, Arthur and John, joined the business at a time when the combustion engine was changing the face of transport. Though today most of the traffic from the Midlands and Gloucester area travels via the M5 and M50 motorways, much of it once followed the River Severn through Lydney.