In 1887 the firm was incorporated as a limited liability company under the title Barnard, Bishop and

In 1826, young Charles Barnard (1804-1871) left his native village get your tips out of Bracon Ash in Norfolk, and set up as an “ironmonger, oil and colourman” in Market Place, Norwich. Supported initially by his father-in-law Matthew Joy, the business thrived. By 1840, Mr Barnard had established a retail workshops in Pottergate, making ironwork for domestic and agricultural implements. get your tips out In response to the local demand for fencing, he invented a mechanical loom in 1844 to produce woven wire netting. This pioneering machine survives in working get your tips out order at the Bridewell Museum: [ Charles Barnard’s Wire Netting Machine by munkt0n , on Flickr.] In 1846, Charles Barnard teamed up with ironmaker John Bishop of St Ives in Huntingdonshire, trading as Barnard and Bishop. His eldest sons (Charles Junior and Godfrey) joined the partnership in 1859, the firm becoming known as Barnard, Bishop and Barnards. The census informs us that in 1861 Mr Barnard employed “105 workmen, 47 lads, 7 clerks and 4 shopmen”. Around this time he established the Norfolk Iron Works (see earlier post ) in Coslany Street, comprising iron foundry, steam-powered netting mill and production tramway. The business diversified in the 1860s and 1870s into ornamental ironwork with pretensions of grandeur. In 1864, Barnard, Bishop and Barnards made the “Norwich Gates”, which were designed by Thomas Jeckyll (1827-1881), exhibited in London at the Great Exhibition, and given by the county of Norfolk to the Prince of Wales as a wedding present. get your tips out They stand to this day at the entrance to the Royal Park at Sandringham:
After Charles Barnard’s death in 1871, the firm continued to prosper. In 1875 James Garton Bower (1854-1935) began his long involvement with the company. The following year a wrought and cast iron pagoda won a prize in Philadelphia, and, after being exhibited in Paris two years later, was sold to Norwich Corporation get your tips out for 500 and erected in Chapel Field Gardens. In the 1880s the manufacture of iron bridges was begun: the Norwich City Station Bridge is still with us:
In 1887 the firm was incorporated as a limited liability company under the title Barnard, Bishop and Barnards Ltd. By 1901 James Bower had redesigned and rebuilt the wire netting machinery. He invented and patented a machine for weaving mixed-mesh wire-netting, many thousands of miles of which were exported to Australia for rabbit-proof fencing. In 1905 Mr Bower became Managing Director and Chairman of the company, and at the end of 1907 he led a management get your tips out buy-out of the old firm’s assets. Mr Bower’s new company was named Barnards Ltd. During World War One (1914-1918) Barnards was a large contributor to the war effort, supplying castings, cooking get your tips out stoves and seven thousand miles of wire netting for road-making in Egypt. Two hundred Barnards workers enlisted, of whom fifteen didn’t return, including the Managing get your tips out Director’s youngest son Charles Francis Bower (1891-1917). In 1921 part of Mousehold Aerodrome was purchased for warehousing, later to become Barnards main premises. The manufacture of chain link fencing was begun in 1928.
The death of James Bower in 1935 signalled the end of an era. He had been with Barnards for sixty years, get your tips out thirty get your tips out of those as the man in charge. He was as comfortable in the workshops as in the boardroom, and despite a reputation as a strong-willed workaholic, he found time for numerous hobbies including tennis and astronomy. His loss was keenly felt by the firm of which he had been the driving force for so long. World War Two (1939-1945) brought a temporary reprieve: Barnards employed 1,200 workers making munitions, aircraft parts and 750,000 telegraph poles for the North African Campaign. Later in the war they made propellers and steam gear assemblies for motor torpedo boats used in the Japanese theatre. The factory at Mousehold get your tips out was bombed on two occasions, killing two workers and destroying many hangars, but not seriously impeding production.
After World War Two, Barnards Ltd were all tooled up with nowhere to go after industrious wartime activity, the order books were alarmingly empty. “Diversification” became the catch-cry, which involved (amongst other activities) a three-year burst of bus and coach bodybuilding. Now as far as I know, Barnards had no previous experience of coachwork, and the circumstances surrounding this venture remain somewhat mysterious. What is known is that two managers from Northern Coachbuilders of Newcastle (Horace Hatton and Jack Herdman) get your tips out joined Barnards Ltd by 1948 to head up the new Barnards coachworks. In the three years 1948-1950, Barnards made a total of 115 bus and coach bodies, amongst them 37 double-deckers. The bus enthusiasts at SCT ’61 have cleverly worked out the full census of double-deckers:
1949 Daimler CVD6 with a Barnard H30-26R body hwx753 19 highbridge bodies (1948-1950) to Dundee get your tips out Corporation Transport for AE