History:

A Brief History of Christie & Grey 1914 - to date.

In January 1912, Robert Bertram Grey, a young qualified engineer from North Shields was appointed to manage two newly formed companies.

Mr. Robert Bertram Grey

These companies, The British Anti-Vibration & Noise Co Ltd and Typhoon Mixer Co, were to specialise in vibration and noise control and the design and supply of mixing and agitating gear for the refinement etc of chemical products.

Initially, most of the business obtained by Mr Grey, who worked single handed from an office in Lloyds Avenue in the City of London, was for the Typhoon Mixer Co. At that time, the company product was used principally for the mixing and agitation of liquid chemicals employing a specially designed blade mounted on the end of a vertical shaft driven at about 90 rpm through a bevel gear system from a motor or belt driven horizontal shaft.

As the use of the mixing equipment developed, the ultimate product was the complete system, including the tank mainly for the extraction of tar from Benzine and Benzol by-products from the Coke Oven process of steel manufacture.

Tanks up to 50,000 gallon capacity were supplied. The shape of the tank was a vertical cylinder with a conical bottom into which the tar acid when separated from the Benzole or Benzine gravitated. Since acid was employed to extract the tar, the vessels were lead lined. Agitation occurred by lowering three revolving vertical blades into the liquid forcing this into a vortex. When used for the purification of more viscous materials e.g. napthalene, steam coils were installed around the inside vertical faces of the tanks.

The design and application of the equipment supplied by the typhoon Mixer Co was carried out by Mr Grey. Manufacture was by W Towler & Son, then of Stratford, with whom a splendid working arrangement developed over the many years when the companies worked together.

One of the first and, at that time, major applications of the natural cork isolation mat supplied by B.A.V & N was being negotiated by Mr Grey with Southend Corporation for the isolation of a foundation for a generating set to be installed at Southend Electricity Works.

It was at this time, 1914, that W Christie & Grey Ltd was set up. The natural cork isolating mat with the trade name Bavanite - after B A V & N - was changed to Coresil, its present name. It is worth noting that the value of this order was £100 with a projected profit of £26.5.0d. (£26.25).

Unfortunately, there seem to be no records as to how the financial structures of the companies were resolved after the war but it is clear that the activities of both B A V & N Co & Typhoon Mixer Co were carried on by W Christie & Grey Ltd.

Upon formation of W Christie & Grey Limited a share capital of £100 was issued - 99 shares were issued to W Christie and one share to Mr Grey. The register of members shows that W Christie resigned in 1923 whereupon Mr Robert Grey purchased 89 and his wife Amy Isobel Grey purchased the remaining 10 of Christie's shares. It can only be assumed that at the end of World War 1, B A V & N Co. was dissolved. In the intervening war years, Herbert Charles Green, an engineer, was appointed a Director in 1930 and one share was transferred to him from Mrs Grey. Eric Wilkins, a Chartered Accountant and founding partner of our current auditors and accountants was another share holder between 1939 and 1946. This of course would not be permitted now under the Financial Services Act. Herbert Green died in 1942.

Records do show that as previously mentioned the main turnover in the early years was from the sales of Typhoon Mixer equipment. Clients for this equipment included :

Yorkshire Tar Distillers
Colvilles - steel manufacturers
British Aluminium
County Perfumery - for the manufacture of Brylcreem

Gradually Mr Grey was able to obtain more business in the fields of vibration control - by what is now known as cold selling. Christie & Grey were the first company in the UK to embark on this business and the difficulties which must have been experienced in establishing interest in the company's products can well be appreciated. At that time when money for investment was in short supply it took great effort to persuade potential clients of the benefits of vibration and noise control in terms of personal comfort and potential structural damage. It must be remembered that with significantly lower machine speeds at that time the problems were less likely to make themselves manifest. Even in the 1950's and 1960's, it was often said by machine manufacturers, i.e. compressors and engines, that their machine did not require antivibrators as they ran like sewing machines.

It is very different today when many concerns have their own personnel and even departments extremely well versed in vibration generation and its control and therefore are well able to appreciate the value of the excellent expertise found at Christie & Grey.

One of the more problematical areas at that time was in the marine field of applications. Little was known of how machinery would respond to ship motion forces when flexibly mounted. It should be noted that the range of equipment available then was limited to helical, laminated and helix springs and natural cork isolating pads or mat.

It was therefore under these circumstances a significant step was taken to design a vibration isolation system for installation aboard ship of diesel generating sets on the Scottish Island ferry “Lock Nevis”. The design included a system whereby the isolating equipment could be by-passed and the sets locked solidly to the ship's structure in heavy sea conditions. During trials attended by Mr Grey, it was observed by the clients that the results obtained were not as had been predicted until it was found that the locking arrangements were in function. When released, the change was to say the least dramatic. Lock Nevis

Present day knowledge and techniques aided by computer analysis make the solution to these problems and prediction of movements and transmissibility accurate.

A range of standard design anti-vibrators as they were then known was developed based on requirements which became apparent as interest in the company's fields of activity increased. In addition, special designs were made for such things as punching and perforating machines installed at the department of stamping in Somerset House. Many major organisations became convinced of not only the desirability but also the necessity to employ vibration isolators on their plant installations.

These included to name but a few :

Strand Power Co - Generating Sets
Bank of England - Generating Sets
Post Office - Generating Sets
Selfridges - Air Conditioning equipment and Generating Sets
Harrods - Generating Sets
BBC - Generating Sets
Ministry of Works (now DOE) - Various machinery & plant

Many newspaper offices have installed their rotary printing presses on foundations isolated by Coresil. These include in the UK :

Daily Telegraph - News International
Daily Express
Financial Times
Derby Telegraph
Manchester Evening News

Coresil Material In addition, many overseas installations on Coresil isolated foundations include those in India, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Germany, Egypt, Spain, Portugal, South Africa and Norway.

Norman Hall - RBG's son-in-law - joined the company in 1947 and was appointed to the Board in 1948. He became Chairman and Managing Director following the death of Mr Grey in 1959 - Mrs A I Grey had died in 1948.

Mr “Ted” Sims joined the company in 1948 as a draughtsman and in 1953 another engineer, Peter Teece, joined. Ted and Peter became members of the Board in 1962.

It was Norman Hall who recognised that unless we added rubber products to our then limited range of equipment it would be difficult for the company to compete in a developing market in its demands against ever increasing competition from rubber mounting suppliers in particular.

Norman negotiated an agreement with Dunlop Special Products whereby their range of rubber to metal bonded mountings and the rubber carpet mountings be made available to us to complement our range. They would provide us with all technical information on the product range and we were to be responsible for its application.

Needless to say, this arrangement proved to be extremely successful and many of our own designs incorporating rubber elements form a very important part of our now extensive range.

It was a great surprise to us and of course no small concern to learn in 1959 that Dunlop had purchased John Bull Rubber Co which included Metalastik Ltd, one of our major competitors and that manufacture and distribution of the DSP range of products was to be transferred to Metalastik at Leicester. After further negotiations, agreement was reached whereby the arrangement with DSP, with some minor modifications was transferred to Metalastik and extended to include a large part of their own range of equipment.

Our association with Dunlop enabled us to develop for industrial applications their Pneuride system of vehicle air suspension and a patent on the combined use of air springs and steel springs is held jointly by the two companies. Though the number of applications on which this system can be employed is limited, we can pride ourselves that we have been responsible for the design, supply and installation of some of the largest installations employing air springs in the UK, if not in the world including strong floors and seismic testing facilities at Imperial College, London and the National Engineering Laboratory, East Kilbride respectively.

The company operated from its original offices in Lloyds Avenue until 1968. The company has banked with Lloyds Bank since 1914, the branch holding our accounts situated on the corner of Fenchurch Street and Lloyds Avenue and remains our bank to this day. In 1968 the company moved to offices in Finsbury Square on the northern boundary of the City.

In 1974, the company moved to Sovereign Way, Tonbridge into leasehold office/factory premises and for the first time in its history took direct control over the manufacture and assembly of its products. Previously, this work had always been undertaken on a sub-contract basis.

In 1978, Peter Teece, then in his mid-forties, died suddenly from an heart attack. Two young engineers, Jerry Whitehead and Nick Maw, who had joined the company in 1973 and 1975 respectively were appointed to the Board in 1978 which comprised at that time :

Mr N D A Hall - Chairman
Mr E H Sims - Managing Director
Mr J C Whitehead - Director
Mr A N Maw - Director
Mrs I S Hall - (Mr Grey's eldest daughter) Non-exec Director
Mrs B Redman - (Mr Grey's younger daughter) Non-exec Director
Mrs R S Daunt - (Mr Hall's eldest daughter) Non-exec Director
Miss A I Hall - (Mr Hall's younger daughter) Non-exec Director
Mr E L Hancock - (Mr Hall's cousin by marriage) Co Solicitor & Non-exec Director

Mr Hall died in 1983, whereupon Ted Sims became Chairman and Managing Director until his retirement in 1986. In 1983, just prior to Mr Hall's death, the company had been successful in winning a major overseas contract and was awarded the specialist noise control and vibration isolation contract for the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. The Academy was built by the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club to mark its centenary and donated to the government of Hong Kong. The profit generated by this contract between 1983 - 86 enabled the company to purchase its own freehold offices and factory in Morley Road, Tonbridge.

Upon the retirement of Ted Sims in 1986, Nick Maw was appointed Chairman and Jerry Whitehead Managing Director. In 1986 these two Directors completed a Management Buy-Out of the company from its previous ownership which was principally from members of Mr R B Grey's family. Subsequently, the name was changed to just Christie & Grey Ltd.

A management consultant, Mr Alex King, joined the board in a non-executive capacity for one year 1991/92 to impart broader management training and expertise to the two owner directors. After one year he resigned by prior agreement and Paul Turver, who had been employed by the company in 1975, was appointed as a full board member.

In April 2008, Nick Maw took early retirement from the company as Director, after more than 30 years service. Paul Turver has now taken over as full Director of the company.

We are currently based in Morley Road, Tonbridge.

View of the Christie and Grey Buildings from Morley Road