Thos. Storey (Engineers): By Thomas E. T. Storey
Note: This is a sub-section of Thomas Storey (Engineers)
Thos. Storey (Engineers) Ltd of Stockport[1]
Thomas Storey was born in 1912; awarded first class certificate in Advanced Plumbers Work and Sanitary Engineering by the City and Guilds of London Institute at 19 years of age; became a welding specialist in the early 1930’s and founded Thos. Storey (Engineers) in 1936.
By 1939 Tom Storey was refurbishing lorries for the war effort. He remembered his wife Edna, going to sleep on a chassis while passing nuts and bolts to him working underneath. Time to go home after a long day!
Donald Coleman Bailey invented the Bailey Bridge system in 1940 and in 1942 Thos. Storey(Engineers) became one of some 650 firms to be involved in the manufacture of Bailey for the remaining years of the second world war.
Field Marshal Montgomery wrote in 1947 “Bailey Bridging made an immense contribution towards final victory in World War II. As far as my own operations were concerned, with the Eighth Army in Italy and with the 21 Army Group in NW Europe, I could never have maintained the speed and tempo of forward movement without large supplies of Bailey Bridging.”[2]
Thomas Storey believed in a future for Bailey Bridging for civil use and after the war the firm was granted a license to manufacture Bailey Bridging by the National Research Development Corporation. After repeated applications for the world rights and being told Storeys were too small, this license was extended in 1950 giving Storey’s exclusive worldwide rights for the manufacture and sale of Bailey Bridging. (The NRDC had approached other companies who saw no commercial future in the Bailey Bridge). Tom Storey’s persistence paid off. By 1953 sales had climbed to over one million pounds, of which 90% were exported.
1951 saw the firm incorporated as Thos Storey (Engineers) Ltd.
Modifications to Bailey took place. A new steel decking system was introduced and the system was known as Storey Bailey Bridging. Sir Donald Bailey was retained as a consultant to Storey’s from 1950 until his death in 1985.
Stockport was the hub of operations with four Stockport works comprising Vernon Works, Mersey Street; Tiviot Works, Portwood; Spring Mount Works, Brinksway and Huntsman’s Brow, Heaton Mersey. The Storey works covered some 22 acres with over 250,000 square feet of factory space and some 800 employees.
Amongst other products, spiral flights were a source of pride to Thomas Storey. Agricultural Development Engineer Douglas Norris was the key man behind the invention of a machine to roll spiral flights which gave Storey’s a market for spiral flights in materials handling such as grain elevators.
An earlier contributor to Grace’s Guide commented “Tommy Storey was a well known figure in Stockport – often happy to offer his employees a lift in his Rolls Royce!” On his way past the Bramhall Lane bus-stop near his Broadway home if he saw an acquaintance he would pull up and offer a lift with the next five in line going in the back of the Rolls. Acquired in 1957 Tom Storey saw the Rolls Royce as a metaphor for the excellence of British Engineering which he always aimed for with Thos. Storey (Engineers)Ltd.
Between 1955 and 1958 Thos. Storey(Engineers) Ltd. invented and developed Storey Uniflotes which were patented in 1958. With these versatile floating construction units, floating platforms can be constructed of any type and loading capacity. Patent couplers arranged around the sides and ends allow the units to be connected side-to-side, end-to-end in a variety of shapes and sizes.
In the 1970’s a third pair of couplers was added to the end of the Uniflote. Storey Uniflotes can be used for floating bridges, landing stages and ferries; also rafts for work involving excavators, cranes and drilling and piling equipment.
The firm joined the Acrow group in 1960 and continued to expand successfully, winning the Queen’s Award for export achievement in 1969 and again in 1977 with exports more than 80% of turnover. Throughout the 1950’s 90% of the firm’s turnover was exported. Worldwide exports were always a proud feature of the company.
In 1960 on a matter of principle and honour Thomas Storey resigned from the firm he had created. He said it was the worst decision of his life but if in that position again his decision would be unchanged. Thomas Storey died in 1966 aged 54.
Following the receivership of the Acrow Group in 1984, Thos. Storey(Engineers)Ltd., a viable and highly profitable company of the Group, arranged a management buyout from the receivership with the backing of several well known and respected City institutions. The firm was therefore once again independent, growing from strength to strength in the fields of unit construction bridging and flotation systems.
In April 1993 Thos. Storey(Engineers)Ltd. bought a freight container business at Station Road, Reddish. In September 1994 the firm announced its intention to withdraw from bridging and flotation systems. A competitor Mabey and Johnson in 1995 bought the intellectual property for the Thomas Storey bridge designs and for the Uniflote pontoon system along with the jigs and fixtures necessary to manufacture these products. Thos. Storey (Engineers)Ltd. vacated their principal and last Stockport factory at Tiviot Works by the end of 1995. The company moved to Station Road, Reddish and from there in 1997 to Stainburn Road, Openshaw, Manchester. Thos. Storey(Engineers) Ltd. was dissolved in 2002. Thos. Storey Fabrications Ltd. was incorporated in November 2003. In 2015 Thos. Storey Fabrications Ltd’s operations at Openshaw continue at the forefront of fabrication.
The Storey Uniflote lives on. In 2001 VolkerBrooks purchased all the Uniflote hire stock from Mabey and Johnson, further increasing VolkerBrooks’ hire fleet holding to over 250 Uniflotes and Linkflotes. Linkflotes are an identical copy of the Uniflote and were first produced in 1997 by Linkflote Ltd. In 2000 VolkerBrooks of Morecambe purchased the assets of Linkflote Ltd mainly to sustain their now large hire fleet of Uniflote and Linkflote pontoons and equipment.
The vacated site at Tiviot Works remained dormant for over seventeen years. A bid by IKEA to redevelop the 15 acre site met with two planning inquiries. Although supported by Stockport Planning Department the second inquiry met with refusal. Chancerygate Ltd., eventually redeveloped the site from 2012 to 2014. In 2008 David Myers of Myers Tree Care cleared over 100 tonnes of woodchip from the site to Wythenshawe Hospital as fuel for their heating boilers. The site was given a new lease of life instead of being an industrial wasteland and has once again provided jobs for local people.
The naming of new roads on redeveloped sites is within the domain of the Building Inspector. Bailey Road is the name of the adopted road in and out of the redeveloped Tiviot Works site. Thomas Storey would be pleased.
See Also
Sources of Information