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Taylor and Challen past and present

  • Thread starter Thread starter dollyferret
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I think their area of engineering was coining presses, drop forging presses, C frame presses etc. They had a lot of engineering expertise in these areas and were located right in the middle of it all. Just below Snow Hill Station. Anyone know what happened to the company. The Challens were clever people.
 
Taylor and Challen was bought by T.M. A. engineering of Erdington in the 1990's
 
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You've been out in your yellow jacket and hard hat again, haven't you Dollyferret!?
My cousin (who now lives in Oz) used to work at Taylor and Challen. He reckons that the owners refused to sell it for redevelopment of city centre apartments. But who knows...if the money's right....?
 
this city is just becoming appartment hell,and the price of them is un believable.
hat and coat works every time,one day they will cotton ,then i am in trouble(i was the factory inspector this time)
 
Hi Pete, my brother posted the bit about being bought out by TMA he works there at the mo, he was pleased to see the place was still in manufacturing.
 
Thank you from Australia

Thank you for the opportunity to discover something about Taylor and Challen. My grandfather Francis John Wilkes (son of Francis Thomas Wilkes)was an overseas rep for them a hundred years or so ago. He was born in Wolverhampton and so the family lore goes, visited Australia in his official capacity, fell in love with it and returned to Wolverhampton for his young family in order to emigrate. He rose to become a senior public servant in the Queensland Railway before retiring in the mid forties. He has been gone now for more than forty years and none of my generation had any idea what Taylor and Challen were or produced. Now thanks to you people and the magic of the web we are much better informed. Thank you to all who contribute to this wonderful webring.
 
Hello and welcome Greg. I am so pleased the thread helped in your quest to find out more information about your great grandfather and fill in more details about your family.
 
re: Taylor & Challen Photos

Driving through Brum yesterday I stopped to take some photos of the Taylor & Challen Building and surrounding area.
My father worked in the Livery Street next door but always said that the guys at T,C's were the best engineers in Brum

https://gallery.mac.com/langstraat1#100281
 
Both Taylor & Challen and "Wilkins and Mitchell" Ltd produced some of the finest presses ever. If you think just what their machines have made during the last 50yrs, both here in the UK and abroad, their contribution to the modern world is staggering. At least they have that legacy which will never be lost.
 
Greg Wilkes said:
Thank you from Australia

Thank you for the opportunity to discover something about Taylor and Challen. My grandfather Francis John Wilkes (son of Francis Thomas Wilkes)was an overseas rep for them a hundred years or so ago. He was born in Wolverhampton and so the family lore goes, visited Australia in his official capacity, fell in love with it and returned to Wolverhampton for his young family in order to emigrate. He rose to become a senior public servant in the Queensland Railway before retiring in the mid forties. He has been gone now for more than forty years and none of my generation had any idea what Taylor and Challen were or produced. Now thanks to you people and the magic of the web we are much better informed. Thank you to all who contribute to this wonderful webring.
Click to expand...
Finally, now I'm retired my wife and I are able to visit the UK for the first time! This time next year (in 2017) we fly into Birmingham so that I can try and find some of the old Taylor and Challen buildings, some of the addresses on my grandparents birth certificates and maybe even some long lost relatives. By the way, on a recent visit to Perth, Western Australia I found a coin press manufactured by Taylor and Challen dated 1906 and still working! Obviously it was built to last!
 
hello greg and happy retirement....so pleased that you will be able to come to england next year to follow up your family history...if you need and help with any of the other addresses let us know as although the houses may no longer be there we may have photos of the streets or roads before demolition..as you may know the taylor and challen building is a listed building and is still standing...the ground floor taken up by a couple of companies..i am now wondering if there is anything left upstairs of the old interior...here is a photo i have taken from street view....click on it once then click on the arrow at the top right and it should enlarge

lyn

taylor and challen.jpg
 
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morning janice thanks i knew it was on the ghost signs thread but had no time to look earlier..here it it with thanks to david grain for taking it through a hole in the fence on the livery st side..

lyn

taylor and challen.jpg
 
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im confused now janice...i didnt know the H S TANK building was the original taylor and challen building...
 
Taylor and challon original factory was in new cannal street digbeth before the war
And they got bombed out and it layed empty for doney years with all its windows
Completely wrecked and blown out it was opersite my mothers house and grand parents business
At number 1 newcannal street coffee shop and B /B transport lodging for over night transport drivers to the old bull ring and cattle market for the hide and skin
It was Latiffes cash and carry of new cannal street digbeth whom purchased that building
Many years ago whom are established well today and rebuilt the whole propertty
And still there today ,,,Alan,,,Astonian,,,,,
 
Sorry, that quote was a little incorrect. The building was part of Taylor and Challen more recently, but the original building in the street was next door. I will correct the entry on the ?ghost signs thread.
 
For many years there was an old Taylor and Challen building in Sheepcote Street which had to be held up by heavy wooden beams on the pavement. I think it has now been demolished
 
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