Aveling-Barford

Aveling-Barford was a large engineering company making road rollers, motorgraders, front loaders, sitedumpers, dump trucks and articulated dumptrucks or ADTs in Grantham, Lincolnshire. In its time, it was an internationally known company.

History

Ruston and Hornsby

It had a dramatic formation, and was established by people not new to its field of engineering. It was formed in February 1934^[1] when Aveling and Porter of Rochester, Kent effectively went bankrupt, when the parent company Agricultural & General Engineers (AGE) went into receivership in 1932. At the same time Barford & Perkins (related to today's Perkins Engines) of Peterborough were also entering administration. Frank Perkins worked for his family company of Barford & Perkins, and also Aveling and Porter. These two companies were Britain's two leading manufacturers of road rollers.

Aveling Barford dump truck

Aveling & Porter Ltd had been formed in 1850, becoming a public company on 16 July 1895, then a private company in 1919, and acquired the assets of Barford & Perkins Ltd in 1932, which had been formed in 1840. The name changed to Aveling-Barford on 13 February 1934. Early in 1934 the business was transferred from Rochester to Grantham on a 36-acre site which was leased from R & H. On the board of directors were Edward James Barford and William Geoffrey Barford (from Barford & Perkins), and John Heinrich Wulff Pawlyn, a Director of R & H based at the Ransomes subsidiary in Ipswich, and George Ruston Sharpley, the managing director of R & H.

Without the financial assistance of Ruston & Hornsby of Lincoln, both companies would not have survived. R & H funded the amalgamation of the two companies, and gave them part of their Grantham site. For many years all the vehicles were powered by R & H diesel engines. R & H had also previously made road rollers, but concentrated this all at Grantham.

Public company

In the 1930s it made cooling equipment for dairy farms, and cooking equipment for hotels, hospitals, and canteens. It became a public company on 29 June 1937. At this time it claimed to make 75% of the road rollers in Britain, and world leaders in their field.

Edward Barford (23 April 1898 – 11 July 1979) became the Chairman of the company from 1933, remaining until 1968. It began making its first earth moving equipment – the Aveling Dumper.

During the Second World War the company made Bren Gun Carriers, shell fuse caps and the Loyd Carrier.

The company also made calfdozers (small bulldozers). From April 1946 two subsidiary companies were formed – Barford Developments Ltd and Barford (Agricultural) Ltd. On 17 September 1946 a new factory in Newcastle upon Tyne was opened.

Invicta logo of the company – borrowed from Kent

British Leyland

In 1967 it became part of British Leyland.^[2] British Leyland engines were to be used as part of the deal, but there were reliability problems.

Products

Aveling-Barford were best known for their line of three-point roadrollers including the small GA up to the GC, The "Master Pavior" 3-point roller was one of the most famous diesel rollers. However many other types of earthmoving machinery were designed and manufactured by Aveling Barford in England.

A-B were also significant for their all wheel driven and all wheel steering motor graders often using Leyland Trucks running gear as were also producers of ADT models called the RDX Series with 6X6. A line of rigid dumpers was manufactured from 30 tonne RD030 through to the 50 tonne RD050 and eventually a RD55 and RD65 were added.

A new dumptruck the RD44 was unveiled at Bauma to try and rejuvenate the line of dumptrucks but with limited success

During the 1970s to the 1980s A-B were producing their own range of front loaders with 4X4 axles and are fitted with Cummins, Leyland or Ford heavy duty diesel engines. They resembled the popular British made BRAY or FORD loader models of the 1980s.

Site dumpers were first mass manufactured by A-B in the 1940s mostly with Fordson Tractor Diesel engines. Today these are still made and sold under the Barford name.

Modern day incarnation

The site was bought by Wordsworth Holdings in 1988, who went into administration in 2010. Barfords is now owned by Invictas Engineering.

Update: 12 October 2015 Invictas Engineering sold the Supply of parts to Shellplant www.shellplant.co.uk

In 2006 Singapore-based ST Kinetics bought the rights to the Aveling Barford RXD series articulated dumptrucks, which are now sold under the TRX Build brand.

In August 2007 Moxy Engineering of Norway announced plans to buy the intellectual property rights of the Barford rigid dump truck range.^[3]

In 2008 Moxy was purchased by the South Korean Doosan (formerly Daewoo), and renamed to Doosan Moxy As and later Doosan Infracore Norway AS. The project was later cancelled and the prototype of the new range earlier presented at Bauma in 2007 was scraped.

Barfords' sports field is still in existence, called Arnoldfield, in Gonerby Hill Foot.

In October 2012 Gravity FM, Grantham's community radio station produced a tribute in words and music to Aveling Barford, on sale to raise funds to support the running costs of the station.

Former employees

• David Anderson, chief executive from 2003–05 of Jobcentre Plus, and from 1996–2003 of the Yorkshire Building Society (graduate trainee from 1977–80)

References

External links

Media related to Aveling-Barford at Wikimedia Commons

• Reconditioned trucks
• Steam-powered road rollers
• Graces Guide
• Road Roller Association
• Grantham Townscape