Brothers Benjamin and Stephen Massey formed their steam hammer manufacturing company in Openshaw, Manchester in 1860. The brothers had worked as apprentices in different companies prior to setting up in partnership. With the help of their father, they acquired land at Openshaw where the Openshaw Canal Iron Works opened in 1861. From the outset of the company, the brothers wanted to manufacture steam hammers based on James Nasmyth’s patented design of 1842 and B & S Massey Ltd delivered its first 15cwt hand-controlled steam hammer in 1862. Over the next ten years, custom for the company’s steam hammers grew across Britain and Europe.
Benjamin Massey died in 1879 and Stephen Massey continued to run the business on his own. Benjamin Massey’s sons Leonard and Harold joined the company after their father’s death.
In 1912, an incorporated company replaced the original partnership. Leonard and Harold Massey were the first directors of the new company. In 1929, Leonard’s son Keppel Fletcher Massey joined the company.
During the 1930s, B & S Massey Ltd acquired a controlling interest in Joseph Berry Limited, the foundry that had previously supplied the large iron castings used in the construction of B & S Massey Ltd’s large steam hammers.
The company fulfilled Government contracts for aircraft propeller blades and crank cases during the Second World War. The company temporarily took over the neighbouring works of the Victoria Chemical Company and Lees & Son in order to increase capacity and speed up production. Other engineering companies continued to place orders for forging machinery from B & S Massey, leading to the company sending supervisory staff to other foundries and engineering companies to enable manufacture of steam hammers under licence.
Both Leonard and Harold Massey died in 1943, leading to a restructuring of the company’s Board of Directors. Harold Massey’s daughter Katherine Harris joined the Board of Directors in 1944.
In the period immediately following the end of the Second World War, the company undertook a financial restructure, becoming a public limited company. This brought fresh capital into the company. An issue of shares in 1948 allowed for the rebuilding and enlargement of the works and the replacement of old plant. As part of the financial restructure, B & S Massey Ltd acquired the share capital of Brett Patent Lifter Company Limited of Coventry.
In 1960, B & S Massey purchased the former works of George Saxon of Openshaw, allowing the company to further expand production. In the same period, it also acquired the share capital of Grosvenor Sheet Metal Company Limited who had been the principle supplier of fabricated steel structures which B & S Massey used in manufacturing steam hammers.
In response to increasing competition from engineering companies in other countries, B & S Massey Ltd licensed the manufacture of Massey products to companies such as the New Standard Engineering Company Limited, Mumbai (Bombay), and Sociedad Metalurgical Duro Felguera of Oveido, Spain.
In June 1960, Christopher N. Massey, the great grandson of one of the founders, joined B & S Massey Ltd as an assistant to the chief service engineer. The company changed name the following year to B & S Massey & Sons Ltd, operating as manufacturers of pneumatic and steam hammers, drop stamps, forging presses, screw presses, furnaces and tyre fixing rolls for railway locomotives and wagons.
In 1975, Head, Wrightson & Company Limited took a controlling interest in B & S Massey & Sons Ltd. Head, Wrightson & Company Limited closed in 1987, by which time it was part of the Davy Corporation.
An engineering firm with the company name B & S Massey Limited was incorporated in December 1961 for the general manufacture of machinery and is still in existence in Ashton-under-Lyne.
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