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James Gibbons Ltd. from 1939 onwards
In the 1950s lock
making was becoming a smaller and smaller proportion of their
work. Their catalogue of "Architectural Fittings",
dated 1952, is mostly concerned with door and window furniture and
also shows balustrades and wrought iron gates. But it also
shows that they were well established in making these sorts of
things before the war and received a number of distinguished
commissions, which continued to come in after the war. There
is a link to extracts from the catalogue at the foot of this page.
| In an advertisement, probably from the 1950s, Gibbons made great use of
this picture, said to be of one of their workmen. They were exploiting the fact that
they were very long-established and that they retained the old craft skills as well as
using modern production methods. In fact there always was a place for the hand
craftsman not only in locks but also in many of their other
products.
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As Frank Spittle has related the firm was converted into a
limited company in order to give employees a chance to share in it.
This eventually had the result of enabling the company to be taken over, by
Radiation, a London based firm.
After a few years Radiation was in turn taken over by the Tube Investment Group who, in 1975, changed the
name to T.I. James Gibbons Ltd. The company was then split into two divisions:
TI
James Gibbons Windows, specialising in the supply and installation of high performance
windows, together with other major products, including the "Slimline" range of
aluminium doors, screens and shop fronts; and
TI James Gibbons Ironmongery,
specialising in the supply of an extensive range of architectural ironmongery, including
the "Format" range of door furniture and accessories.
By this time they
had virtually finished making locks; what locks they were selling with their door
furniture were being made by Evered Security Products Ltd. In 1978 they sold the sole rights to the manufacture of James Gibbons
Locks to Evered Security Products Ltd (formerly Erebus Manufacturing Co. and later Erebus
Ltd) (qv). On the 18th April 1988, Erebus Ltd sold on the sole rights to Quality Lock
Ltd. (qv)
By the beginning of 2005 the two parts of James Gibbons
were both
members of the Send Group plc and both had their premises at Vulcan
Road, Bilston. James Gibbons Ltd. made roller shutters,
remote control garage doors, curtain walling, windows, structural
glazing, planar, shop fronts, doors. James Gibbons Format
Ltd.
produce architectural ironmongery. Contracts included work on
the Barbican Centre, the Old Bailey, the Channel Tunnel, Changi
Airport and Molineux Stadium.
In May 2005 Col-Secure Facades Ltd, of Old Heath
Road, Wolverhampton bought out two divisions - James Gibbons Systems
and James Gibbons Windows - which produced much the same products as
Col-Secure. In June 2005 it was mistakenly announced in the
press that James Gibbons
Format Ltd. was ceasing production. The report was, according
to the company "utter rubbish". Which is good, as it
means this venerable company is still in rude health.
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Gibbon's products, such as the brass keyhole
plate, left, were often marked only with the company name and
location, as on the back of the plate, shown right.
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