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Kynoch's I C I 1800s - 1920s

An early image c1867 of the Witton factory compared with the site just 20 years later. The second image shows the isolated huts (top of drawing) used for loading explosives. Viv.
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Another thing mentioned in the short programme is the large contracts that Kynochs received during the Great War.

Arthur Chamberlain, was then running the show, and there was many who believed it the contracts were achieved with the help of his brother. It was obviously denied, but Lloyd George remarked that the Company should be called Chamberlains as the family had about £150,000 in shares!

Here is more info on Lloyd George’s thoughts on the contracts from the book,Two Titans, One City, by Andrew Reekes (2017)

“In retaliation Lloyd George set about investigating the extent to which the Chamberlain family benefited from war contracts, starting with Kynoch’s. Joseph’s brother Arthur Chamberlain ran the firm, one of the three biggest cordite manufacturers in Britain; Lloyd George alleged that ‘it had been practically made by the War Office’ and that it had received preferential treatment simply because of ‘the unconscious influence of a powerful personality’. He went on to point out that Hoskins (in which Joseph’s sons Neville and Austen were prominent shareholders) supplied the Navy, and that Austen was Civil Lord of the Admiralty. Herbert Chamberlain was deputy chairman of Birmingham Small Arms, whose munitions supplied British forces in South Africa. As Peter Marsh points out, here was ‘a family federation of companies manufacturing metal supplies and munitions for the armed forces to fight a war brought on by the senior member of the family, the Colonial Secretary’.”
 
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, OM, PC (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 1916 and 1922. He was the final Liberal to hold the post. Lloyd George was born in Manchester to Welsh parents.
Political party‎: ‎> ‎Liberal‎; :) 1890–1916; 1924–...
Resting place‎: ‎Llanystumdwy, Gwynedd‎, Wales
Nationality‎: ‎British
Occupation‎: ‎Solicitor‎; politician
he is buried local to me.1579977474514.png
 
vintage Kynoch ammo
Kynoch didn't only make ammunition.
In 1904 they were making stationary engines from 3hp to 35hp, and portable oil engines like the one illustrated here, in a range from 7hp to 27hp, and costing from £165 to £430.
Boomy
 

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Image result for kynoch ammunition history
In 1895 Kynoch built an explosives factory east of Shell Haven Creek, Essex (now known as Coryton). This opened in 1897, with an estate for employees called Kynochtown. Products included cordite, guncotton, gunpowder, and cartridges. ... Kynoch, along with names such as Eley, became brands of subsidiaries.
Founder: George Kynoch
Founded: 1862, Witton in Birmingham, United ...
 
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In 1895 Kynoch built an explosives factory east of Shell Haven Creek, Essex (now known as Coryton). This opened in 1897, with an estate for employees called Kynochtown. Products included cordite, guncotton, gunpowder, and cartridges. ... Kynoch, along with names such as Eley, became brands of subsidiaries.
Founder: George Kynoch
Founded: 1862, Witton in Birmingham, United ...
I came across this advert in an original copy of The Birmingham Daily Post, dated August 3rd 1889, when Kynoch was selling off its lamp business.
In the book "Under Five Flags" published by Kynoch in 1962 to celebrate its centenary, a memo is quoted mentioning their lamp business;- "That the lamp business has been from the first, and is still, a losing concern, and causes a serious drain on the Company's capital".
Amusingly, the advert calls it a "Going Concern".
I found their book disappointing as it mainly dealt with the internal and external politics surrounding the company, rather than its products, but did find the picture of one of Kynoch's Alldays lorries of interest, having researched that company in great detail for my complete history of the company, published about 18 years ago.
Boomy.
 

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Not sure which Kynoch's thread to post this picture on so if someone can date it and it is in the wrong section perhaps a mod will move it. Thanks.

I have been using lockdown to go through a load of old photos and cutting which my Dad passed on to me - some are from my grandparents and amongst them I came across this postcard.
 

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Not sure which Kynoch's thread to post this picture on so if someone can date it and it is in the wrong section perhaps a mod will move it. Thanks.

I have been using lockdown to go through a load of old photos and cutting which my Dad passed on to me - some are from my grandparents and amongst them I came across this postcard.

The King’s visit was in July 1915, and with the details below the people in the picture may well be identified...

522D5CE3-FAEB-485D-B7E7-D6C17DE3BC9B.jpeg99C5405E-401A-4ADF-9C70-DAA672D42982.jpeg2BD29DDF-6395-426B-A140-D775076A7324.jpeg
 
Thanks - earlier than I thought. Will get someone to move it as I think there is a thread for up to 1920s.
 
“During the Boer War Beckett and Company of Pretoria, the Transvaal agents of Kynoch's, sold twelve million rounds of ammunition to the Boer army, Bullets made in Birmingham killed British soldiers in South Africa.”

Made in Birmingham: Lloyd George, Chamberlain, and the Boer War (Marvin Rintala)
 
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