History of the firm
At some date before the incorporation of Drummond Brothers Ltd on 22 April 1902 Arthur Drummond and Frank Drummond had formed a co-partnership. The new company acquired their Engineers and Machine Tool Makers business, together with their Patents. The original capital was £5,000, and the seven original subscribers were the Drummond brothers and their wives, William G Turner, mechanical engineer of Croydon, Francis R Russell, Doctor of Medicine of Guildford, Henry H Fanshawe, solicitor of Broad Street Buildings, London. The capital was increased in 1905, 1907 and 1908 (see 1550/1/1). The first directors appointed were Dr Russell, Frank and Arthur Drummond (1550/2/1). Drummond Brothers Ltd remained a private company until 1948, when it became a public company. In 1933 Arthur Andrews, a director of Drummond Bros, formed a new company, Drummond (Sales) Ltd; this also acted as selling agents in the UK for William Asquith Ltd. All the share capital of this new company was acquired in 1945 by a newly formed subsidiary, Drummond Asquith (Sales) Ltd, later called Drummond-Asquith. Mr Andrews, who had been a director of the three companies, died in 1952, and in 1953 William Asquith Ltd, acquired the whole share capital of Drummond Bros Ltd. The Guildford factory remained part of the Asquith Machine Tool Corporation until 1966, when it became the Drummond Division of Staveley Machine Tools Ltd of Birmingham and London. It was as a result of re-organisation within Staveley Industries that production at Guildford ceased in 1980.
The work of the firm
The lathe-making business incorporated in 1902 as Drummond Bros Ltd originated in the fertile mind of Mr Arthur Drummond, said to have been living at that time at Pinks Hill, on the southern edge of Broad Street Common, west of Guildford. Mr Drummond, whose accomplishments included several pictures hung in the Royal Academy, was unable to find a lathe suitable for use in model engineering.
In 1896 he designed for himself a 'small centre lathe ... which had a compound slide rest with feed-screws and adjustable slides'. He also designed and built 'lathes of 4.5' and 5' centre height, which had beds of a special form whereby the use of a gap piece was eliminated but the advantages of a gap-bed lathe were retained'. Assisted by his brother, Mr Frank Drummond, who had served an apprenticeship to an engineering firm at Tunbridge Wells, the first lathes were made in a workshop adjoining Arthur Drummond's house. The demand that speedily built up led to the decision to form a company and manufacture the lathes for sale commercially. Land was acquired nearby, at Rydes Hill, and the first factory built. The enterprise was a success, and the company quickly established 'a high reputation in this country and abroad for multi-tool and copying lathes, and gear-cutting machines'. Other lathes were added to the range, including the first of the 'round bed' machines for which the firm became widely known. A Drummond 3.5' lathe was among the equipment of Captain Scott's 1912 expedition to the South Pole, and large numbers of 3.5' and 4' designs were exported to Australia, Canada and India.
By the outbreak of war in 1914, 5', 6' and 7' screwcutting lathes, arranged for power drive, were on sale. Large orders were received from the government for 3.5' lathes, for use in destroyers and submarines, and 5' lathes for the mechanised section of the Army Service Corps. The latter were used in mobile workshops. The factory worked night and day to supply the forces' needs, until production was disrupted by a fire which destroyed a large part of the works in May 1915. As soon as rebuilding was complete work restarted. At the end of the war the entire production was being taken by the Government departments, a special feature being a precision screw lathe, bought by the Ministry of Munitions (1550/2/1; 19 September 1918).
Between the wars Drummond Bros Ltd introduced new machines for the motor vehicle, and later the aircraft industry, and the works were extended on many occasions to fulfil the increasing orders. The Maxicut multi-tool lathe (1925), designed for high-production turning operations, was one of the first machines of this type to be built in England. It was followed (1928) by an hydraulic version for turning gear blanks, and similar work. Further developments provided machines which, during the Second World War, turned all the crankshafts and propellor shafts for Bristol engines. Others, ordered by the Ministry of Supply were employed in turning shells, and many other specific needs of vehicle and aircraft manufacture were catered for by new types of Drummond lathes. Production of the small centre lathes ceased during the war when the company needed to concentrate on building multi-tool lathes and gear shapers.
After the war a completely new Maxicut range was introduced, replacing the older versions, and fully automatic. The types were continually developed, and new versions manufactured until the end of the company's life in 1980. The disappearance from the scene of Mr Arthur Drummond in 1946, and the end of the company's autonomous existence (1953) meant that the factory at Rydes Hill became one - albeit very effective - part of a large national engineering company.
Achievements at the Guildford works during its last years included the development of automated Maxicut gear-shapers in what was 'probably the most fully automated gear shop in the country', while a machine from Guildford was sent to the Osaka Fair (1962; 1330/23/1(2) and (4)). In 1963 an agreement was signed with Hindustan Machine Tools for the manufacture of Maxicut gear-shapers in state owned factories in Bangalore and Chandrigahr. During 1963 the two largest multi-tool lathes ever made in the UK were installed in Ambrose Shardlow's works in Sheffield for handling cranks up to 14 foot long (1550/23/1(8)). In 1976 Drummond lathes were included in Staveley's £14,000,000 installation in Moscow of an automated production line for Zil motor cars (1550/23/2(11)). Up to the end invention continued at Guildford: a new Drummond Multi-turn memory-controlled machine was shown at the International Machine Tool Exhibition in 1977 (1550/23/2(2)). This could not save the works from the pressures of the late seventies, and Staveley Industries closed its Guildford outlier in 1980.
A venture into the production of petrol motor mowers should be noted. 'The Willing Worker' (see 1550/3/2 and 17/1-3, apparently first produced in or just before 1922, seems to have had only a short life.
Mr Arthur Drummond was Managing Director from the inception of manufacturing until 1942, when he was succeeded by Mr G E Hickman, who had been with the company from the beginning. Mr Drummond continued as a director until 1946. He died at the age of 86 in 1951. The minute books in this deposit make clear his overwhelming importance in the deveopment of the firm. This was recognised by his fellow directors early on: in 1907 they agreed that he should be paid a bonus of £500 'for special services in designing the erection of new machines made by the company' (1550/2/1). In 1909 his new invention 'a Universal Grinding Machine' was shown at Olympia, and orders at once began to come in. Already by 1911 the company had agencies in the Argentine, India, Japan and Russia (1550/3/1), and to deal with problems about the Australian agency Mr Drummond went to Australia in 1912. To cater for the needs of the market he found there he designed, on his return, a 'Colonial Type Lathe'; a hole through the mandrel enabling it to 'repair artesian wells and other well-boring tubes'. Further agencies included parts of China and South Africa in 1914. When new machinery was needed for the additional factory added in this year, it was Mr Drummond who decided what to buy. In 1919 an agreement was made with Birmingham Small Arms Co for their purchase of 'special plant measuring appliances, patterns and drawings and goodwill of the precision screw-making machinery and Mr A Drummond's patents' relating thereto. In 1920 he went on an eight month world tour, taking with him two lathes which he was to demonstrate for four months in a shop on Broadway in New York. In this same year Mr Drummond was 'amongst the first originators of the idea' of the Federation of British Industries travelling exhibition ship He gave workers with good ideas recognition: the patent for an improved stud used in lathes, and which had been invented by a Mr Norman, was taken out in the joint names of Mr Norman and Mr Drummond, and Mr Norman received a sum of money (1550/3/2).
The company's need to keep ahead of competition, and delight when they succeeded in doing so, was expressed in the minutes in 1912; apropos the Colchester Lathe Co: 'our new design 3.5' lathe came as a bombshell to them and practically speaking placed them three years behind, all whacked' (1550/3/2; 1 November).
Labour relations and personnel
The minute books record the vicissitudes of the company's labour relations. During the coal strike in 1912, when great difficulty was experienced in obtaining pig iron, it was thought best to keep the works open on half-time and pay the apprentices half wages, to prevent them going to other local firms (1550/3/2; 8 March 1912). Also in 1912 measures were adopted to prevent boys going to work for the company's main competitors, the Colchester Lathe Co Ltd, even leaving before their four year engagement was up (1550/3/2; 1 November 1912). In September 1919 reference was made to the continued difficulty in obtaining labour, 'and inducing the men to work' (1550/2/1). In November 1919 ways had to be found of circumventing the effects of the moulders' strike in foundries which usually supplied castings. In the same meeting it was noted that the company would feel the effect of the Compulsory Education Act; in future no boys under the age of 16 would be employed.
In January 1921 it was suggested that the works continue on full-time, the men preferring to accept 15% reduction in wages rather than work short time. In the event the works was open one week, and closed the next, and attempts were made to sell lathes on an instalment system. On 2 March an appeal letter was received from the Committee of Unemployment of Guildford (1550/3/2).
In 1962 the company had three hundred employees. When Mr Hickman retired as Chairman and joint Managing Director of Drummond Brothers Ltd in September 1962 he ended sixty years service with the firm, having started as an apprentice in 1902 (1550/23/1(5)). He was not the only member of the firm with a record of long service: in 1977 Staveley Industries looked for the longest serving employee throughout all their constituent companies, and found L Arthur Gardner who had been working for Drummond for 47 continuous years (1550/23/2(2)).
The information in this introduction is taken from the deposited records supplemented by a short history of the firm to 1962 published as an article 'Drummond Bros Ltd Guildford, Surrey' and reprinted from Machinery, 19 September 1962, and by a typed list of machines built by the firm (c.1956-60).
