1960s Bagshawe's Chain Foundry Church Street Dunstable Formerly in Houghton Regis

Bagshawe's Chain Foundry in Church Street, Dunstable, (it was in Houghton Regis when opened in 1906) 1960s

Bagshawe Logo

An extract from the Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue:

Arthur Bagshawe (1859 -1926); founder of Bagshawe & Co. Ltd., was the Sheffield - born son of a Derbyshire family which had early connections with Bedfordshire. While still a young man he went to Paris as manager of the office of an American machine tool firm. Later he founded his own business in Paris importing patent detachable chains manufactured in the United States.

Arthur Bagshawe decided to build a works in England and to manufacture chains, and eventually elevators and conveyors, on the spot. The country was searched to find a suitable site and eventually the Works were founded in 1906 on a site of 17 acres in Church Street, Houghton Regis (now Dunstable), part of Kingsbury Farm, and adjacent to the Great Northern Railway's Church Street Station and with good road communications. A Limited company was formed in 1906 and offices were opened in three houses in Station Road.

The first buildings consisted only of an iron foundry with its various departments and large warehouse. Eventually, as business expanded, the buildings grew to nearly 14 times their original size. The first works wages book records the number of men and boys employed each week rising from 12 in August 1907 to 66 in 1911. They worked a 54 hour week and their wages ranged from 4d (less than 1p) an hour to £3. 0. 0d. a week for the foreman. Some of the men originally came from Derbyshire, bringing their foundry skills with them. There were pattern makers, moulders, core makers, cupola and annealing oven hands, fettlers, and chain assemblers. Two warehousemen moved down from London.

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