It has taken me some years to manage to log in to this site to reply to Scantheman but I could give you lots of information about Compoflex if you still want it.
My father was the General Manager then Managing Director in the 60s and 70s. Compoflex started in Godalming in Surrey in the 50s making flexible tubing. In the late 50s they opened a factory in Oldham, the old Asa Lees mill on Huddersfield Road. In about 1962/3 there was a fire at Asa Lees followed about a year later by another fire. My father then bought Lumb Mill in Delph, an ex-Naval victualing depot, at auction and prepared for the move from Huddersfield Road.
At that time, the lorries were all black and yellow, commonly known as bumble bees!
In the late 60s, after a chance remark by one of the directors to a director of TI, the company was taken over by TI when the livery was changed to two shades of blue. At this time Compoflex was making all sorts of flexible tubing ranging from hoses for Electrolux cleaners to large oil-master hoses for the oil industry. I worked during the school holidays in the packing department at Lumb.
In the early 70s my father bought Gatehead House, just across the road from Lumb. This is now flats and the gardens have a housing estate on them.
I would be very interested in any info you have on compoflex, my dad worked there in the 70’s driving a 1974 leyland boxer. Don’t suppose you have any pictures of the Delph depot or the trucks? Thank you.
To Driveroneuk - I agree, 9 years is a long time! I found this thread about two years ago and have tried several times to get a login to reply but never got any reply from the administrator!
To Scantheman - My father’s secretary used to keep scrap books of things relating to Compoflex and the area generally. I have two of these from the late 60s and early 70s and have extracted a few bits that may be of interest to you, if I can manage to find out how to attach a PDF! Unfortunately I have no pictures of the lorries although there is one of the loading bay.
This site will not allow PDF files to be attached. If you want to email me at cpob@obsys.net I will sent it to you.
used to purchase Compoflex tanker hoses through Arco and was eventually given a factory tour to see them in production as we had some hoses branded “Bulk Storage”
kerbut:
Could be Driverone,but Sir William Lyons started way earlier than that with Swallow,he was doing Swallow bodies on Austin7 and Singers in 1931,maybe he sold the Swallow name when he registered the Jaguar name.
The following has been posted by the British Motor Museum on Facebook
When SS Cars became Jaguar after the Second World War, the company sold off the rights to the name of its predecessor, the Swallow Coachbuilding Company. In 1946 Swallow became part of the engineering conglomerate, Tube Investments (‘TI’). TI was an important supplier to the motor industry and decided to enter the popular British sports car market by reviving the name Swallow. The car’s title came from a West Coast America distributor of British cars such as Triumph, which also sold a range of motor accessories under the Italian sounding name ‘Doretti’ but that was actually derived from the boss’ name, Dorothy Deen. The basis of the Doretti was, naturally, a tubular frame chassis, made from TI’s Reynolds 531 tube. The mechanical components and the engine were all from the Triumph TR2 and the body was aluminium over a steel inner skin. The car was sonstructed at the TI plant in Walsall in the West Midlands. Launched in 1954, the Doretti sold well in its first year. So much so, in fact, that pressure from other British sports car manufacturers, many of them TI’s customers, forced a re-think. That pressure meant that production ceased abruptly in 1955 after a total of only 276 cars had been made.
i think they were quite a big outfit a few years back,i know they owned TI stainless in green lane walsall which is now gone.its now a TK MAX distribution centre
TI Group plc (formerly Tube Investments) was a holding company for various specialised engineering companies. The three major divisions were John Crane International, a manufacturer of mechanical seals; Bundy Corporation, a tubing manufacturer and supplier to the refrigeration and automotive industries; and Dowty Group plc, an aerospace company. [1]
History
The business was registered in 1919 as a public company combining the following seamless steel tube manufacturing companies: Tubes Limited, New Credenda Tube (later known as Creda), Star Tube, and St. Helen’s Tube and Metal.
1919 Accles & Pollock (tube makers) was purchased.
1928 Reynolds Tube was purchased.
1928 Ivan Stedeford joins company.
1935 Ivan Stedeford elected CEO.
1944 Ivan Stedeford elected Chairman.
1946 Swallow Coachbuilding Co. (1935) Ltd.
19■■ The British Cycle Corporation subsidiary was formed which eventually composed of the following cycle companies:
Phillips Cycles
Hercules Cycles (No connection with the German Hercules company)
Armstrong
Rudge Whitworth
Norman Cycles
Sun Cycles
1958/9 The Aluminium War
1960 Raleigh Industries joined the group bringing with it:
BSA Cycles J. B. Brookes
1963 Bought Russell Hobbs, kettle manufacturers [1]
1963 Ivan Stedeford retires as Chairman & CEO and assumes title of Life President.
1987 Raleigh was sold.
1987 Creda was sold to GEC Group [2]
1992 Dowty Group plc was purchased
1996 Accles & Pollock was sold to Hay Hall Group [3].
2000 On 18 September 2000 Smiths Group announced its intention to merge with TI Group.[2] The merger was completed on 4 December. Smiths divested TI’s automotive business shortly after the merger.
scantheman:
I know its a long shot but does anyone remember compoflex,my dad used to drive for them in the seventies running from their depot in Delph.
The wagons were Dark blue and light blue cabs with a silver box that had TI on the side.
My Dad’s truck was a leyland boxer HNA 801N and i used to go to scotland on nights out with him.
I doubt anyone has any pictures but i would love to see some or hear from anyone who remembers them
Scan
You have got my interest now, my old boss was originally from Denshaw and I found loads of stories about that. It will be nice to see the trucks to remind me.
another well known TI division, Desford Tubes, was sold to US conglomerate Timken some time ago - sadly they are now closing the site, sending work to France and Germany and building little boxes on the site
