The North Eastern Railway Company was formed in 1854 when the York, Newcastle and Berwick, York and North Midland, Leeds Northern, and Malton and Driffield Railways amalgamated. It acquired the West Hartlepool Railway in 1864, the Stockton and Darlington in 1865 and the Blyth and Tyne in 1874. As a result it almost had a monopoly in its area. Its area of operation covered the north east and north Yorkshire, and stretched from Berwick-on-Tweed south to Doncaster, with extensions into Westmorland and Cumberland and into Scotland. It exercised running powers over the North British line from Berwick to Edinburgh and a joint owner of the Forth Bridge. It was also a joint owner of the East Coast Joint Stock with the Great Northern and North British Railways. Its main goods traffic was coal from the Northumberland and Durham coalfields. It was an early investor in electrification, initially to deal with a difficult approach to the docks but later extended to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne suburban area. It also electrified goods workings between Shildon and Middlesbrough and planned to electrify the York to Newcastle route (even building a prototype locomotive) but the first world war intervened and the work was not carried out. The headquarters of the NER were in York where it also had its carriage works. The main works were at Shildon. Among its Chief Mechanical Engineers were Wilson Worsdell, Thomas Worsdell and Vincent Raven. The NER became part of the London and North Eastern Railway under Grouping in 1923.

Publishing company based in Manchester. Incorporated 1910, dissolved c1932.

1843- , publisher, Cambridge Founded in 1843 as a bookshop in Cambridge as Macmillan & Co. by Daniel Macmillan and his brother Alexander. The Macmillans began publishing textbooks in 1844, met with steady success, and published their first novel, Charles Kingsley’s Westward Ho!, in 1855. The firm went on to publish several important Victorian authors including Alfred Lord Tennyson, Thomas Henry Huxley, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, and William Butler Yeats. The Macmillan family formally ended its ownership in 1999, when the German media group Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH completed its acquisition of all the company’s shares. In the early 21st century, Macmillan had offices in more than 40 countries. Its headquarters are in London.

Author. Known to have been active in 1918.

Author. Known to have been active in 1918.

Publishing company based in Birmingham. Known to be active 1947-1954.

Publishing company based in Sheffield, active in 1928.

Chemical manufacturer, set up in 1875. Its products included pure muriate of zinc, iron remover, sizing ingredients, Amazon rubber chemicals, Paton's soap economiser and woollen scourers. Grimshaw's remained in business until 1957.

Established in 1786 to arrange for the supply of stationery to central government departments. Its responsibilities later included printing of parliamentary publications and Crown Copyright. In 1972 responsibility was handed to the Lord Privy Seal. 1786-current (2010), publisher; printer, Norwich

Railways in Britain were nationalised under the terms of the Transport Act 1947 which came into effect on 1 January 1948. The Railway Executive, a corporate body subordinate to the British Transport Commission, was created to manage and operate the railways. It divided them into six geographical regions, largely based on the areas served by the pre-nationalisation railway companies. London Midland Region (LMR) was one of those territories. It comprised the railway operations in England and Wales of the former London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company (LMS) with the exception of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway which was placed in Eastern Region and lines in central and south Wales which passed to Western Region. Subsequently, the area of operations was adjusted by the transfer of “penetrating lines” between regions Between 1948 and 1952 the regional manager was responsible to the Railway Executive for day to day operations in his region. After the Railway Executive was abolished in 1952, he reported to the British Transport Commission (BTC). In 1963, BTC itself was abolished and replaced by British Railways Board (BRB). Between 1963 and 1968 LMR was a statutory board in accordance with the provisions of the Transport Act 1962, subordinate to and reporting to BRB. It ceased to be a statutory board in 1968, following reorganisation of the railways’ business along sectoral or functional lines. The name survived until 1992 when the railways were privatised. There were two principal routes in the region. The first was the former Midland mainline which had several components: London St Pancras to Sheffield via Leicester and Nottingham, Rugby through Derby to West Yorkshire and Leeds and continuing over the Settle-Carlisle route, Derby to Manchester, and Birmingham to Derby. The other was the West Coast Mainline (WCML) from Euston to Carlisle, via Birmingham and Manchester with its branch to Liverpool. There was one major “penetrating line”, the former Great Central London Extension from Annesley in Nottinghamshire to London Marylebone, via Leicester, and Rugby. Originally in Eastern Region, this line was transferred to London Midland Region in 1958. The WCML which formed part of the major route from London to Scotland was electrified in stages between 1959 and 1974. Only the southern end of the Midland Mainline from Bedford to London Moorgate was electrified during the period that London Midland Region existed. Like other regions London Midland experienced withdrawal of services and closures, especially following the Beeching report. The most notable casualty was the Great Central line, which, because it largely duplicated the Midland Main Line from Nottingham to London, was closed almost in its entirety. The line through the Derbyshire Dales between Matlock and Buxton was also closed thus severing the route from St Pancras to Manchester. Many branch lines and industrial lines were also closed

The Transport Act 1947 nationalised virtually all British transport, including the railways, waterways, and road haulage. These were transferred to a newly-created operating body, the British Transport Commission (BTC). The British Transport Commission began operations on 1st January 1948, under Chairman Sir (later Lord) Cyril Hurcomb. At this time, the British Transport Commission acquired the “Big Four” grouped railways, with virtually all minor railways as well, together with the London Passenger Transport Board. This automatically transferred the assets of the rail companies to BTC, including ships, ports, hotels, and investments in bus, coach, and haulage companies. Two bus companies, Tilling and Scottish Motor Traction, were soon added, as well as long-distance road hauliers. The Transport Act charged the British Transport Commission with the task of charged with “integrating” various forms of transport into single public service. The British Transport Commission did not directly operate transport services. Operations were delegated to five separately appointed executives: Docks and Inland Waterways, Hotels, London Transport, Road Transport, and Railways. The Railways Executive operated under the name British Railways. In 1949, the Road Transport Executive was divided into two separate executives: Road Haulage and Road Passenger. The Commission exercised financial control over these Executives, and managed them through schemes of delegation. The Commission attempted to fulfil its statutory duty to “integrate” public transport by introducing Area Schemes. These were designed to establish regional monopolies for road passenger transport, ports, and harbours. “Integration” was also to be promoted through Charges Schemes, in which the true costs of different modes of transport were to be reflected in the charges. This was designed to attract traffic to the most economic and efficient mode of transport. The structure of Executives was dramatically altered by the Transport Act 1953, which abolished all Executives, with the exception of London Transport. Responsibility for the operation and maintenance of transport systems was delegated to the chief regional managers. The railways were reorganised into a system of area boards for each of its six regions. In September 1953, Sir Brian Robertson became Chairman. Disposal of the haulage fleet also began at this time, but a lack of buyers made this difficult. Rising costs, industrial action and competition from road traffic meant that the British Transport Commission was in financial trouble by 1955. It sought relief from this by publishing The Modernisation and Re-equipment of British Railways, a plan which proposed an investment in the railways of £1,240m over fifteen years. The main features of this plan were the replacement of steam with electric and diesel traction, the electrification of principle routes, and the introduction of new coaching stock. Despite the modernisation plan, the financial position of the British Transport Commission worsened. Two government reviews, in 1956 and 1959, concluded that the Commission was unwieldy and had an insufficiently commercial outlook. Sir Brian Robertson retired in May 1961, and was replaced by Dr Richard Beeching. The BTC was abolished by the Transport Act 1962. It was replaced with five new authorities that were answerable to the Minister of Transport: the British Railways Board, the British Transport Docks Board, the British Waterways Board, the London Transport Board, and the Transport Holding Company. Dr Beeching became chair of the British Railways Board.

Publishing company based in London. Known to have been active 1908-1969.

1907-1917, shipping company, British

Established in 1872 as the South British Fire and Marine Insurance Company of New Zealand. The company was incorporated on October 11 1907 and subsequently changed its name to the South British Insurance Company Ltd. The company merged with the New Zealand Insurance Company Ltd in 1981, forming the New Zealand South British Group Ltd. This company was later acquired by the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation in 1989.

Chemical manufacturer based in Lancashire. Known to have been active in 1936-1939.

The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce was established in April 1794 as the Manchester Commercial Society at Spencer's Tavern, St Ann's Square, Manchester. In 1810 it became known as the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, a name it held until 1970, when it became the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Later it became the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. As of 2024 it was the largest accredited Chamber of Commerce in the UK with over 4000 members. The Chamber enables its members to network and represents the interests of businesses locally.

Imperial Chemical Industries plc came into existence in 1926, following the merger of Nobel Industries Ltd, Brunner, Mond and Company Ltd, the United Alkali Company, and the British Dyestuffs Corporation. The new company was called Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. Its operations began in 1927, with 33,000 people employed in five main product areas: alkali products, explosives, metals, general chemicals, and dyestuffs. In 1928, its head office opened in Millbank, London. The former British Dyestuffs Corporation works at Blackley, Manchester became the home of ICI's Dyestuffs Division. The main factory for the General Chemicals Division was at Billingham, County Durham. ICI's Research and Development Department developed a number of significant products in the early 20th century, including the acrylic plastic Perspex in 1932, Dulux paint (in partnership with DuPont) in 1932, polyethylene in 1937 and polyethylene terephthalate fibre (known as Terylene and PET) in 1941. The work on polyethylene was led by the Dyestuffs Division at Blackley until a new Plastics Division was established at Welwyn Garden City in 1937. In 1971, the Dyestuffs Division merged with parts of the Nobel Division to become known as the Organics Division. Later mergers with other specialty chemical producers created ICI Colours and Fine Chemicals, which then became ICI Specialties. From 1940, ICI Dyestuffs was involved in the manufacture of Nylon fabrics at its Huddersfield plant, and in 1964 the company established ICI Fibres to manage its successful textile, fibres and Nylon production. The Nylon part of the business was sold to DuPont in 1992. In 1944, as Imperial Chemical (Pharmaceuticals) Ltd, the company was involved in the development of penicillin at its Trafford Park works. Because of its success with pharmaceuticals, the company established ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1957. In 1993, ICI Pharmaceuticals and other bioscience divisions became Zeneca, along with ICI Specialties. Zeneca merged with Astra AB in 1994 to form Astra Zeneca Plc. General Chemical production continued until the acquisition of ICI by Akzo Nobel in 2007.

Publishing company founded by Walter Lindley-Jones in 1887 and based in London, known to have been active in the 1940s and 1950s.

Publishing company based in London. Known to have been active in 1933.

The committe had existed since 1621 when James I set it up to discover why trade had disintergrated in financial crisis. The Board's formal title remains The Lords of the Committee of Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations but was commonly known as Board of trade and it was formalised in 1861. Has had long periods of inactivity. Known as the Department of Trade and Industry since 1970.

Printing firm based in King Street, Manchester.

In 1810 Waterlow and Sons was started by James Waterlow. The company sold copies of legal documents produced by lithography and printed stamps. James Waterlow's sons, Alfred, Walter, Sydney and Albert, joined the partnership; branches were opened at Westminster and London Wall. In 1876 the firm became a limited liability company. In 1877 a family dispute erupted and Aflred Waterlow and his sons formed Waterlow Bros. & Layton retaining the Birchin Lane premises. The other brothers, under the Managing Directorship of Sir Sydney, Lord Mayor of London continued Waterlow & Sons Limited operating from London Wall, Finsbury Market and other factories. In 1887, on the death of Alfred, Waterlow Bros & Layton became a company. In 1920 the two companies amalgamated. In 1961 assets of Waterlow & Sons Limited acquired by De La Rue & Co. Ltd.