Tweedale Moore and Wright Entry
Frank Moore (1875-1941) was born at Stonebroom, Derbyshire, the seventh son of George (a bricklayer) and his wife, Sarah. George was kept busy by the Midland Railway Co, which eventually brought the family to Sheffield. By 1901, Frank was a cutlery traveller, but soon moved to Barrow-in-Furness, where his ironmongery shop sold tools to engineers employed at the shipyards. The precision tools were imported mostly from America. Moore decided to make some of the tools himself in a small workshop at the back of the premises.
For financial reasons, ‘Frank Moore’, the ironmongers, had to be kept separate from the manufacturing side (Sheffield Daily Independent, 11 November 1938). This led to the creation of another business, Moore & Wright, by using the maiden name of Moore’s wife, Florence. In 1906, Moore sold up and took the tool-making business to Sheffield, where he rented a shop in Eldon Street. He had one boy to help him. In 1907, slightly larger premises were occupied in Reed Street. Three years later, Frank Moore had moved to Hector Works at the back of a one-up/one-down house in Trafalgar Street.
Moore factored feeler gauges, callipers, blowlamps, oil cans, tap wrenches, punches, and scribes. In 1920, he registered the Avia Steel & Tool Co Ltd (capital £5,000) at the same Trafalgar Street address. The source of Avia-branded tools (including micrometers) was apparently the Aureole Watch Co, of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. In the mid-1920s, Moore attempted to manufacture his own micrometers – partly stimulated by government interest. Moore’s stated aim was to produce a ‘Mike’ for ‘general use, which would compete with the Americans’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 31 December 1930). Initially, he was unsuccessful. But in the late 1920s, he bought Aureole’s micrometer plant, which he improved and rebuilt; while the Swiss designs (often based on American patterns) were utilised for Moore & Wright micrometers. (A set of Aureole drawings from Moore & Wright are extant at the Hawley Collection). In 1930, Moore & Wright began using a new thread grinder with a diamond-cut ribbed wheel, which was made by Coventry Gauge & Tool Co Ltd. This cut micrometer screws from the hardened bar and gave a pitch accuracy reputed to be the best in the world at that time.
Moore & Wright’s catalogue in 1932 was apparently the first to display its ‘British Precision Micrometers’. In 1933, these appeared with a bullish text emphasising ‘BRITISH LABOUR in all Tools’ and the glories of Sheffield’s industrial output. The catalogue cover warned its readers: ‘Don’t Listen to Dismal Jimmies!’ A range of other engineers’ tools – such as squares, scribers, and feeler gauges – was also advertised. Moore acquired the assets and name of Tyzack & Holmes.
In 1934, Moore & Wright became a private limited company, with £25,000 capital, and with Frank Moore as director and Marion Hellewell (1892-1980) as director/secretary. She had entered Moore’s service in 1910 as an office girl at 10s [50p] a week, but soon became a linchpin in the organisation. She operated the factory when Moore was incapacitated by illness in the mid-1920s. When she had reached twenty years’ service, Moore was effusive: ‘When you joined the firm, we were known only to a few, today we are attaining to a world-wide reputation … I am glad to acknowledge that you have had a great and proud part in bringing it about’ (Sheffield Archives: Moore to Hellewell, 3 October 1930). She was rewarded with what must have been one of the few female directorships in the country. When Ken Hawley interviewed Bernard Skelton, a former development engineer at the company, knowing chuckles were exchanged and it was suggested that the firm should have been known as Moore & Hellewell (Hawley, 1992).
In 1939, a new building was opened in Rockingham Street. The works manager was Arthur E. Morrison. Moore & Wright’s Catalogue (June 1938) promised a ‘healthy factory … good conditions of work and wages higher than current TU rates … no garret labour or merchant (or middlemen)-exploited work enters into their production at any stage … one week’s paid holiday … [and] … BRITISH LABOUR in all tools – NOTHING ELSE’. However, according to Skelton, working practices were strict. Moore’s office was situated so that he could monitor the visits of rank-and-file workers to the washroom (skilled workers had separate facilities).
By the outbreak of the Second World War, it was claimed that the employment roll was 500 (including about 200 girls). New facilities were soon opened at Norton Lane, Meadowhead. Output for the British and Allied governments during the Second World War was said to be 2,000 micrometers a month. However, Frank Moore, Grove Road, died at Lea Hurst, Holloway, Derbyshire, on 11 July 1941. The funeral was at City Road Crematorium. He left £112,292 (£95,860 net personalty) to his widow and adopted daughter. Marion Hellewell helped run the company during the War, which demanded liaison with the firm’s shadow factories at Coal Aston, Dronfield, and Nottingham.
At the end of the War, Morrison was chairman and Hellewell was director. Company minutes show that the directors were concerned at the threat of competition and the urgent need to switch from production at any cost to a renewed emphasis on quality. ‘DISCIPLINE’ was to be insisted upon: workers who turned up after 8.00 a.m. were to be refused admission for half a day; and shop boys were not to be allowed to run errands for food and cigarettes, as the firm now had a canteen (Hawley Collection, Foremen’s meeting, 5 June 1945). In that year, the firm was sold to John Shaw & Sons, Wolverhampton. Shaw’s purchased the issued capital for £115,000. A. E. Morrison remained managing director; Hellewell retired in 1949 (she died in Sheffield on 24 August 1980, leaving £61,459).
In the immediate post-war period, Moore & Wright continued to innovate. In 1945, the company had introduced a braille micrometer, partly for the rehabilitation of blind ex-servicemen. The firm still operated at Trafalgar Street (its main factory), Dronfield, and Meadowhead. However, in 1959 production was concentrated at a new showpiece factory at Handsworth Road (Quality, December 1959; Sheffield Telegraph, 2 December 1959). Apparently, the work roll had reached about 600.
In 1970, Moore & Wright was acquired by the Neill Group. In the following year, the range of Moore & Wright’s tools was extended when Neill’s acquired Benson Verniers Ltd of Bradford and GKN Shardlow Metrology Ltd. In 1977, Moore & Wright introduced the world’s first hand-held digital micrometer (the Micro 2000). It won a Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement, but it did not sell well (information from David Eaton). Neill’s continued to invest in the company and in 1978 Moore & Wright’s capital budget was increased by £637,000 to about £1m (The Star, 27 June 1978). But the decline of Neill’s after the 1980s led in 1998 to the demolition of the Handsworth factory (which Neill’s had occupied as its headquarters). In 2000, Moore & Wright became part of Bowers Metrology Group.
Geoffrey Tweedale, Directory of Sheffield Tool Manufacturers, 1740-2018 (2020)