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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 ;;;
 
Astoness said:
bellis and morcam steam engines...summer lane power station...1905
Click to expand...

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.
 
rosie said:
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.
Click to expand...

yes i know what you mean rosie
My passed away in 97. If i had known i would have sat him and mom doen for a month with a tape recorder, pen and paper and noted everything.

if you have kids just make sure you leave them some info to save them having the trouble we are having :)
Phill
 
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My sister's husband served his time at B&M and worked there in the drawing office in the '60s till he left for a job with BCC Water Dept (later given away to Severn Trent). He once described how they tested pumps and marine engines in the nearby cut. There's quite a lot more about B&M over on Mac Joseph's Old Ladywood site: https://www.oldladywood.co.uk/bellis.htm
 
I remember playing cricket for Newey & Eyre quite regularly at the Bellis & Morcomb sprts ground in Highfield Lane in the late 60s. Is it still there?
 
Thank you for the link Oisin. I remember Dad saying it made a noise when they did test!
Rosie.
 
Hi guys
i thought i might just ad a little bit more to the previous thread of mine
the don mapstone whom worked in the accounts department was a friend of len weston
whom was the chair man of the ward end ex servicemans club ward end and held office in the british legion
ranks and i do not mean just the club don served in the royal navvy good at accounts
so when len knew where don was he asked him to get involved with the club so he became the secretary for len at the club which was one of the biggest legion club in the midlands i have heard recently that len had died
but i was wondering about don and does any body recall him at belliss
i can recall belliss myself only for the fact when i was about 12 we would drop down the bridge and scramble onto there barges and un lease them from there mooring on sundays and see them float of and some times
on to the main route of the cannal towards gas strret and the monument rd bridge
when i think about it now just how boreing we was kids and troublesom to other people
but i reflect back on toidayus youth and kids of that age
they are experienceing the same slot as we did no where to go and bored stiff
the only things we never done was arm to old people nor did we cheek our olders for the fear of getting a clip around the ear ole so i think it was apart of growing up at twelve
but we never took pills or sunstances of any kind like todays kids
we just thoughjt of it for a laugh of seeing the barge drift from the mooring and thinking when they came back to work on monday they would see there barge out in the middle of the cut
have a nice day guys best wishes astonion
 
My Dad was an apprentice at Belliss & Morcom before the war, my grandfather was an engineer there. I believe he worked on a Prototype Diesel engine for a submarine X1,he went up the Clyde to oversee it,Must have been sometime in the Twenties! My dad died in 2005,but my cousins have some records of it all.
 
Bellis & Morcom, Sissons of Gloucester, and machines from other European manufacturers all feature in this hour long video entitled Join the Industrial Revolution in Java!, showing the fascinating process of producing sugar products from sugar cane using somewhat dated machinery.

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Bellis & Morcom, Sissons of Gloucester, and machines from other European manufacturers all feature in this hour long video entitled Join the Industrial Revolution in Java!, showing the fascinating process of producing sugar products from sugar cane using somewhat dated machinery.

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...
thanks our Maurice
 
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