Charles Churchill and Co
of 9-15 Leonard Street, Finsbury, London EC2 and Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Glasgow, Bristol and Leeds.
of Walnut Tree Walk, Kennington, London S.E.11.
1865 Company founded by Charles Churchill. Charles Churchill and Co began trading in 1865 as importers of engineering tools and is thought to have imported the first examples of Morse tapered twist drills, self-centring drill chucks (manufactured by Cushman) and hand-held micrometers into the UK. According to Floud, he imported agricultural implements and other non-engineering items at this time. In its early years the company traded from 28 Wilson Street, Finsbury: sales catalogues were published certainly between 1876 and 1882 stating this address.
1887 Charles Churchill, trading as Charles Churchill and Co, of Stoke Newington and Finsbury, importers of American machinery, received bankruptcy order[1]
1889 The partnership was transformed into a limited company, Charles Churchill & Co Ltd (company registration number 29931).
1890 Charles Churchill was released from bankruptcy[2]
1892 Crystal Palace Electrical Exhibition. American machine tools. [3]
1897 Public company. Charles Churchill & Co Ltd was put into voluntary liquidation to aid capital restructuring. This comprised an increase in authorised share capital to £50,000: £30,000 was fully subscribed, £10,000 allotted as goodwill for the old company and £10,000 retained for later issue.
Within two years the company advertised with contact addresses at 2 – 10 Albert Street in Birmingham, 5 Cross Street in Manchester and 52 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, and its main office at 9 – 15 Leonard Street, Finsbury.
The capital restructuring also saw the addition of Herbert Chamberlain, brother of Joseph Chamberlain, to the board of directors. He was well connected in business terms as well as politically, having interests in BSA among other things. Other members of the Chamberlain family were later involved in the company.
The new main office in Leonard Street opened around 1896 and comprised 12,474 square feet over four storeys, complete with internal hydraulic lifts, an external hydraulic crane and electric lighting; the company claimed in its press release that it had more than doubled its sales compared to any previous year and that it had sales lists for in excess of 100 US machinery manufacturers.
By 1902 advertisements show the Manchester address as 2 Charlotte Street, Mosley Street and an additional office had opened at Albion Buildings, St James' Street, Newcastle. There were more than 30 employees at the London premises and 8 or 9 in Birmingham
1906 Churchill Machine Tool Co formed as the UK manufacturing arm
1907 The company was seeking to wind up the Aston Cantlow Mill Ball and Bearing Co. Indeed, that company was wound up on 17 January 1908, although the reasons for this are unclear. Charles Henry Prideaux was appointed to represent the company on the liquidation committee for Leitner Electrical Co in 1915
1911 Charles Churchill & Co Ltd (manager Sydney H. March) at 6 Oxford Street and 7 Lower Mosley Street, as "engineers and importers of American machinery and tools" [4]
1913 Catalogue showed the grinding equipment designed and manufactured in the company's Manchester works[5]
1919 Advert for machine shop equipment and tools. Connected with the Churchill Machine Tool Co
1919 Advert for machine shop equipment and tools. [6]
1920 May. Issued catalogue on Carson universal tool and cutter grinder. [7]
1920 September. Exhibited at the Machine Tool and Engineering Exhibition at Olympia with machine tools. [8]
1924 Charles Churchill and Co ceased to represent the Norton Co and entered into an agreement with the Carborundum Co whereby the two organisations would co-operate in the meeting the grinding requirements of British manufacturers with the British-made "Carborundum" and "Aloxite" grinding wheels.[9]
1934 They took over Cornelius Redman & Sons, renaming it Churchill-Redman Ltd.
1937 Machinery and tools. [10]
1937 Manufacturers of machine tools and small tools. "Comet" Machine Tools and Small Tools. [11]
1950 Charles Churchill & Co Ltd, the parent company, moved its offices from London to Birmingham
1955 increased its share capital to £1.26M
1956 Private company. Reorganisation - the Halifax division continued to use the name Churchill-Redman; the Scotswood division was named Churchill Gear Machines[12]
1958 Operating companies were[13]:
- Charles Church and Co Ltd, sales of machine tools and engineers' supplies
- Churchill-Redman Ltd, manufacturing of machine tools
- Churchill Gear Machines Ltd, manufacturing of machine tools
- V. L. Churchill and Co Ltd
- Vertimax Ltd
- H. and D. Churchill Ltd, engaged in the dealer trade
- Churchill-Sturm Ltd, which was in the development phase
1961 Manufacturers of machine tools and engineering supplies, also act as sales and service agents for British and imported machine tools and engineers supplies. 213 employees. [14]
1961 Charles Churchill and Co acquired Denhams Engineering Co, whose lathes were complementary to those of Churchill-Redman[15]
1966 Tube Investments acquired Charles Churchill and Co[16]
1966 Charles Churchill & Co Ltd was awarded The Queen's Award to Industry "for export achievement; and for technological innovation in machine tools by the Applied Research and Development Division, Churchill Gear Machines Ltd., and Churchill-Redman Ltd."
1966 Acquired Maschinenfabrik Froriep, of Germany, a company that Churchill had been representing in the UK; Mrs Ritchie, MD of Charles H. Churchill (the sales company), was appointed chairman of Froriep[17]
1968 Horizontal Fine Boring Machine. (Charles H. Churchill Ltd of Coventry Road, South Yardley, Birmingham 25) [18]
1972 Churchill-Vero received support for a project from a government programme for the machine tool industry [19]
1977 Charles Churchill Ltd. changed its name to TI Churchill Ltd.
1983 Name changed to TI Herbert-Churchill Ltd.
1985 Name changed to TI Machine Tools Ltd.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ London Gazette 6 September 1887
- ↑ London Gazette 6 May 1890
- ↑ 1892 The Practical Engineer
- ↑ 1911 Slater's Manchester, Salford and Suburban Directory
- ↑ The Times, Dec 31, 1913
- ↑ Mechanical World Year Book 1919. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p141
- ↑ The Engineer of 7th May 1920 p488
- ↑ The Engineer of 10th September 1920 p244
- ↑ The Engineer 1924/12/12
- ↑ 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- ↑ 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- ↑ The Times, Apr 04, 1956
- ↑ The Times, Jul 04, 1958
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ The Times, Jun 29, 1961
- ↑ The Times, Feb 15, 1966
- ↑ The Times, May 23, 1967
- ↑ The Engineer of 9th February 1968 p281
- ↑ The Times, Mar 15, 1972
- Mechanical World Year Book 1917. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p97