T.W. Howarth & Co. first came into existence in 1948, when members of three families joined to form the company. All three families – The Mooneys, the Howarths and the Ingrams – had already been involved in instrument manufacture and repair for many years. Frederick Mooney spent some time at the Premier Drum Company, and then specialised as a clarinet maker at Besson. Thomas Howarth’s father worked at Boosey & Co. prior to setting up his own company, where Thomas joined his father after a period working as a saxophone assembler at Emmanuel Lewin. George Ingram had been a keymaker at Louis & Co., a company renowned for their oboes, d’amores and cors anglais. At the onset of WWI, the three men were employed at Boosey & Hawkes, where, alongside their work on instruments, war contracts meant that they often found themselves building parts for Lancaster bombers.

After the war, the trio decided to set up their own business, and began to develop patterns and tooling for the manufacture of their own instruments. They finished the first oboe at the beginning of 1948, and it was decided that this instrument be stamped with the new name of the company, Howarth & Co., London. In April 1948 this first oboe (serial no. 1001) was purchased by Edward Selwyn, principal oboist in the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

After a brief foray into clarinet making (which proved unsuccessful as they could not compete in price with Boosey & Hawkes), it was decided that Howarth & Co. would concentrate on making oboes. Production increased, and the company’s handwritten ledgers began to read like a ‘Who’s Who’ of English oboists. Over the first few years four oboe models were developed. The S1 was a simple octave thumb-plate ring model, the S2 had semi-automatic octaves and the S3 (the American model) was an open hole conservatoire oboe with semi-automatic octaves. The S4 was the same as the S3 but with fully automatic octaves. The first S5 was made in 1950 and bought by Michael Dobson, later professor of music at the Royal Academy. Various players were engaged to help tune the oboes – firstly Horace Halstead and later Michael Dobson – and this collaboration helped greatly in the development of the Howarth instruments. By the end of the 1960s T.W. Howarth & Co. had achieved nationwide recognition and their oboes were used by oboists in many of the major orchestras. In 1968 the company moved from its workshops on Blandford Street to new premises at 31 Chiltern Street, where it remains today.

In early 1973, following a period of stagnation, the company was bought by a consortium consisting of Paul Lowdell, John Pullen, Nigel Clark and the reed maker Harry Baker. The new owners learnt the craft of oboe making from George Ingram and other existing members of staff at Chiltern St. In 1974 the first Lorée oboes were imported from Paris, and the help and advice given by Anne and Alain de Gourdon, owners of Lorée, was invaluable in updating and improving the by then antiquated Howarth production process. As the company grew, production was moved out of London to West Sussex, and the old workshops converted into retail space. Gradually the shop began to stock flutes, clarinets and bassoons, in addition to the full range of oboes.

In 1978 the S10 student oboe was reintroduced, and the more advanced S20 model followed in 1982. Conservatoire models of the S20 were also produced, along with a cor anglais version. By 1986 it was felt that there was demand for a semi-professional model to complete the range, and the S40 was introduced, followed by the larger-walled S25 and S45 versions for players requiring a darker sound. On the professional side, the S2 was greatly improved thanks to the close collaboration of Michael Britton and Roy Carter, principal oboe of the LSO. In celebration of Howarth’s 40th anniversary in 1988, the first XL model was launched. This instrument had a much darker sound and became an instant success.