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Johnson Machinery Ltd - unofficial website - Factories, Branch & Staff Pictures

The Johnson Works at Adswood Road, Stockport

Alistair says, "Oh boy do those photos of the DO bring it all back, especially the interior shot.  In the shot from the front you can just see part of the building that contained the 'Development section' where a senior fitter with the assistance of a third year apprentice would build the prototypes. Parts would be sketched out in the DO or fabricated to suit in the section before fitting to the prototype for testing. Once everything was satisfactory the part was 'productionised' in the DO. I remember turning a fabricated brake pedal into a drawing for a SG Iron casting thereby reducing the parts count and machining processes. The only building not shown is the Spares department which was to the right of the DO as seen in the front view".

The Johnson Works at Adswood as at 2009

Dave says, "Johnson Machinery Ltd was bought out by J F Nash Securities Ltd in 1979 (which was part of the Reliant Motor company) and called it Johnson Construction Machinery. They brought in new directors John Toolan Marketing, Richard Miller Engineering, and Mike Nugent Accounts, I can't remember who the MD was, I will try and find out who it was. It was decided to design a complete new range of 4WD Dumpers, which I worked on under the leadership of Richard Miller, (Ex. Thwaites, and Barfords), Lead Engineer Gerry Adamson, Draughtsmen Dave Deakin, Dave Clegg, and me Dave Wright."

The Scottish Branch at Kirkintilloch

Memories of Kirkintilloch - kindly provided by Ewen - added 27/07/10

'I am going to give you some insight into the Kirkintilloch depot. The depot was opened circa 1963, as the single unit you see in the photograph. Around four years later another unit of the same size and structure was added to double the size of the building. In 1972 new offices and a showroom were built on to the front of the building and that's the way it is to this day. It is now a tyre and exhaust centre.

I started there in June 1969 at the age of fifteen, the office staff included R.H. (Bob) Lee, Director, Charlie Clingan, depot manager, Bob O'Donnell, stores and some sort of management role, I don't think even he knew what it was, Bob was a lifetime Johnsons man who had worked in Adswood Road but moved up to Scotland when the new depot opened. Bob Fraser, sales, George (can't remember his surname) hire clerk, Gibby (can't remember his surname), he was another one I wasn't too sure what his role was and I don't think he did either, one minute he was hanging around looking pretty in the office and the next he was out cutting up old dumpers. There were three girls in the office, Mary, Audrey and Isobel. There was also an older couple who rumour had it owned shares in the Scottish operation, Mr and Mrs Adams. They turned up once or twice a week and I know that Mrs Adams did the wages. The shopfloor included, John McPherson, electrician, Alister Roberson, fitter, Willie Millar pump, rammer and mechanical poker fitter, Jock McStavock, mobile service engineer, John Higgins, fitter, Willie Owens, lorry driver/ fitter, Brian Scott, apprentice and "Ronald the weasle", Bob Lees' son, who was paid as an apprentice but in my opinion spent his career being a pest.

During the 60's and 70's there were many projects going on in the building trade including new towns like East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Cumbernauld and Erskine, both private and public developments and major road projects like the M8, Kingston and Erskine bridges, M90 and the M73 and M74 so the potential to make money from plant hire at the time was great. Johnsons had fifty Rotaplacers on contract hire to SSHA with the skips only painted in SSHA yellow, plus all the other regular hirers, Wimpey and the like. The most popular hired machine was the Rotaplacer followed by mud pumps, that seemed like the battlecry from the office when Mary took a call enquiring if we had a Rotaplacer available, "Haw Charlie have you got a Rotaplacer"? Alister's and John's time was spent constantly making them ready for hire. There were always new machines leaving the show area which at the time was the grass area outside the office. One of my jobs was to clean the dirt from them, which had built up while they sat awaiting a customer.

We also did a healthy trade in reconditioned parts which were refurbished in the workshop, things like steering boxes, gearboxes and differentials. At the time we had one large beaver tail Bedford TK lorry, a small flatbed Bedford J type lorry, which had started life as a mobile compressor truck, a Ford Thames pick up and a Ford Transit diesel van. We also had a Lolode single axle trailer. The hire fleet also had some non Johnson products, we had some Benford 5/3 half mixers and Broomwade towable air compressors. The staff stayed mostly the same with the exception of driver/fitters, Willie Owens left and was replaced by Donald McLeod, he left then Duncan Tedford the Bedford came, he went and Jimmy Gilhaney came. Bob Fraser the sales person who, it was alleged also had some financial stake in the business left in mysterious circumstances one Friday, after he apparently took himself on a trip to Stockport to tell tales. He was replaced by Danny McMillan. I had and still have a theory that anyone could make a business work in those days, there was opportunities out there for everyone. The culture in the place seemed to be drinking and pilfering, and that was the management! Bob Lee seemed to spend most of his time with his drinking and sailing pals falling into the Clyde from yachts and boats. While that was going on another pair, one management and one a service engineer were busy with their own small cottage industry reconditioning parts and selling them to small plant hire operators. Everyone seemed to know what was going on but no one seemed to try to stop it. Despite the side issues the business was doing well and in 1971 a depot in Ladybank in Fife was opened, followed a few years later by another in Galston in Ayrshire.

Now to the picture of the Kirkintilloch depot, that must have been taken when the site was just opened as I can see no sign of machines or stock, I seem to remember seeing that picture before. Anyway I will just mention the people I recognise, 1st left is Bob Lee, 5th left in the white overalls is Bob O'Donnell 1st right is Bob Fraser and 5th right is B Dearsden'.

Johnson Construction Machinery Ltd - Worsley Factory

Any more photographs for this website will be most welcome.