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Bellis and Morcom

Isn't it amazing what is still found after many years. I hope these records are preserved by being put into a library.

Thank you for the link Jennyann.:)
 
I remember the big air compressors they used to make. I used to work at Dartmouth Auto Castings No3 Foundry, Rabone Lane Smethwick, now trading, I believe, as Darcast Crankshafts.

They had quite a few Bellis and Morcom Compressors for the mainly air operated moulding machines.

Some time later I was foundry technician in a small jobbing foundry in Amblecote, Stourbridge. They made several large Castings for Bellis and Morcom on a regular basis. One was a water pump and it took about two days to be cored up, it weighted about three tonnes and had to be cast in a pit as the crane could not lift the ladle high enough.

It took two ladles to cast up and had two feeds if I remember correctly, the casters nick named it "The Clock" as it looked like a mantle clock layed on its side.
 
Does any one remember a Graham Powell (Satch) who worked at B&M. He lived in Hockley and was married to a girl called Brenda.

It would help if anyone does

Ta.
 
i usually dont post pics of factories but saw these two and took a shine to them because there is so much detail....and maybe of interest to anyone who had family members working here during the 1920s when both of these were taken....

belliss and morcom...icknield square..ladywood....

pic 1
 
inside the bellis and morcom factory...ledsam st 1920....this is a nice one for anyone whos ancestors may have worked there....

lyn
 
morning wendy..i thought it may be of interest to someone..im not sure but i think in one of the older brummagem mags ive got there a pic of a morcom factory that used to be in summer lane....dont quote me though...lol...later on i will see if i cant find it...

thanks for that link i will have a gander at it...off soon to do a bit of shopping in cas it gets as hot as yesterday....

lyn
 
No probs. There is an interesting link on the thread to a newspaper article about old documents found in the factory ruins.
 
I grew up right alongside Bellis & Morcom's old sports ground and social club off Highfield Lane in Quinton, right at the back of Four Dwellings School, sandwiched between that and the Quinton Expressway. It was a big old white wooden building where we used to go to their children's Christmas party. It dated back before WW2, but I don't know how long before that. Everything else around there was built afterwards. I could watch the football teams play from our side window. By the time we moved in, in 1972, the old tennis courts there were already out of use and derelict, and the club had seen better days. When it was new it must have had lovely country views across to Clent, before they built the M5 and the woodgate valley estate.

The place was demolished about twenty years ago, and a load of houses stand there now.
 
I certaily hope nobody lost a finger or worse when that was taken as they all seem to be concentrating on the camera and not the machinery.
 
hi all.. ive just received a copy of a pic i ordered from the archives..its the inside of the summer lane power station 1905 showing a bellis and morcom steam engine...i will also post it under the summer lane thread....

lyn
 
does anybody recall don mapstone
he worked in the accounts department at bellis morcom many years ago and later left and took on the job as secretary at the ward end ex service mans club for the british legion in ward end
best wishes astonian ;;;
 
bellis and morcam steam engines...summer lane power station...1905

Very interesting photo.
There are photos of the insides of Dale End and Summer Lane Power Stations in the booklet "Souvenir of the Birmingham Undertaking 1900-1948" held in the Birmingham Reference Library.The photo also appears in the book "Powering Forward" by W.Robert Taylor.

4082708263_0bd95c3a8e.jpg
 
My dad Sammy Cotterill Worked their when he was a youngster. He leart his plumbing trade there.

Dont remeber many stores ecept one incident when he nefariouly aquired petrol for his motor.......

Phill
 
My Dad was at Beliss & Morcom during the war and worked on submarine engines.
He was in the Home Guard, but I don't know if it was based at Belliss & Morcom. He used to patrol over the dam at the Reservoir. I wish I had listened more carefully to the stories, but it's too late now, as he died in 1979.
 
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