Grace's Guide
British Industrial History
Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 148,396 pages of information and 233,863 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
Herbert Morris
From Graces Guide
of Empress Works, Loughborough.
formerly Herbert Morris and Bastert. Owned by Herbert Morris (1864-1931)
1912 Name changed to Herbert Morris.
1914 Manufacturers of electric, pneumatic and hand overhead travelling cranes, pulley blocks, conveyors, overhead runways and lifting miscellanea. [1]
1919 Public offer of shares[2]
1920 Took over the business of H. Coltman and Sons. [3]
1920 December - W. H. Purnell was appointed vice-chairman of the company.[4]
1931 Frank Morris took over the company on the death of his father
1931 Company employing 2,000 persons.[5]
1930s Took over Alexander Chaplin and Co, Craven Brothers, Holt and Willetts and the Vaughan Crane Co
1932 Acquired Royce Ltd
1937 Lifting machinery manufacturers. [6]
1939 Became a quoted company.
1959 Took over British MonoRail
1961 Manufacturers of cranes, pulley-blocks; runways; telphers; conveyors, elevators; lifts and trucks. 1,900 employees. [7]
1968 Built thirty Goliath cranes for British Railway Freight. [8]
1969 Frank Morris resigns as chairman
1969 Won orders for Goliath and Semi-Goliath cranes at 3 British aluminium smelters[9]
1970 E. and H. P. Smith acquired 30 percent of the shares of the company[10]
1974 Assembled four 130-ton giant overhead cranes for the Cammell Laird's shipyards.[11]
By 1975 had about 2000 employees; trading subsidiaries were:
- British MonoRail (stacker cranes and monorail systems)
- Linear Motors (linear motors and crane control equipment)
- Crane Aid Services (maintenance and repair of any make of lifting equipment).
Had a joint interest with C. T. Bowring and Co Ltd in Senelco Ltd, a company manufacturing under licence an American anti-shoplifting device.
1976 The holding in Herbert Morris was sold to Babcock and Wilcox[12]
1977 Davy International acquired the company[13]
The crane business was taken over by Konecranes of Finland, who closed the Loughborough works in 2010.
- Goliath cranes, sometimes called portal cranes, are similar to overhead travelling cranes, but instead of running on rails at high level, or on a free standing gantry structure, they run on rails on the floor. One of the advantages of a goliath crane is that the absence of support gantry rails can save money.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ The Times, Jun 11, 1919
- ↑ The Engineer of 30th Jan 1920 p128
- ↑ The Engineer 1920/12/17
- ↑ Nottingham Evening Post - Monday 27 April 1931
- ↑ 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ The Engineer of 12th January 1968 p66
- ↑ The Times Dec. 30, 1969
- ↑ The Times, Oct 16, 1970
- ↑ The Engineer 1974/07/04
- ↑ The Times, May 07, 1976
- ↑ The Times, Apr 10, 1978
- Competition Commission [1]