NEWS & PR

Centenary of a 'Thoroughbred'

31 August 2006

The THS Tools Group was represented at a grand reception held recently at Newbury Race Course, to celebrate the Centenary of Moore & Wright.

The enjoyable event began with a presentation, given by Steve White, Group MD of The Bowers Metrology Group, charting the colourful history of this famous British Metrology Company. Steve was proud to point out that despite the sad demise of many of its UK contemporaries, M&W continues to go from strength to strength and now boasts a wider choice of high quality measuring instruments than ever before.

Mr Frank Moore, an ingenious young engineer, founded Moore & Wright in 1906. Operating originally from a small workshop in Trafalgar Street, Sheffield, the company gradually purchased the entire block of adjacent houses, later demolishing them to allow for the construction of their first bespoke factory.

The ‘Wright’ element of the company name owes its origin to Sheffield business woman, Mrs Wright. The exact connection between Mr Moore and Mrs Wright has been lost in the mists of time, although it is believed that she shrewdly invested money in the expanding business.

In its formative years, Moore & Wright manufactured a comprehensive range of Calipers, Screwdrivers, Punches and other Engineers’ Tools.

By the outbreak of World War II, Moore & Wright was the UK’s largest producer of precision tools and was regarded by the Government as of such strategic importance to the war effort, that the company employees were considered to be working within a reserved occupation. To help satisfy the overwhelming demand, two further factories were opened, one based in Dronfield and a second located in Nottingham. Storage of the completed instruments was moved out of the then vulnerable central Sheffield Trafalgar Street site to a safer area on the boundary of the much-bombed city.

In 1945, Frank’s daughter, Peggy, sold the company to Wolverhampton based John Shaw Company. They rapidly diversified and expanded the post war range of Precision Tools to include, amongst many others, Small Hole Gauges, Telescopic Gauges and a wide range of Vernier Calipers.

By the early 1950’s Moore and Wright had outgrown both its Trafalgar Street Headquarters and its Dronfield site. This resulted in a new purpose-built Handsworth Road site. Officially opened in 1959, the new 10-acre, state-of-the-art complex included vastly improved manufacturing facilities, modern company offices and an employees’ sports field. In 1970 Moore & Wright was acquired by the Neill Tool Group and the company launched the Micro 2000, the world’s first hand-held Electronic Micrometer for which they were awarded the Queens Award for Technological Achievement in 1977.

Now part of the Bowers Metrology Group, they continue to supply the worldwide industry with quality, affordable products and maintain their ongoing commitment to research and development.

Through it’s popular Measurement & Workshop special offer brochures (free to THS Members) the imminent launch of its biggest ever catalogue and its current Centenary themed advertising campaign, end-user demand for M&W’s high quality value for money Measuring Instruments is expected to be greater than ever.

Here’s to the next one hundred years!