Lincolnshire Archives 2-AB Aveling-Barford Second deposit (Acc 1990/003:00). In 1850 Thomas Aveling from Elm in Cambridgeshire set up a small engineering works at Rochester to repair agricultural machinery and later produce portable traction engines. He later became known as the ‘Father of the Traction Engine’. In 1862, Aveling was joined in partnership by Richard Thomas Porter and the firm Aveling & Porter was established in Strood. Aveling died on the 7th March 1882 where Aveling’s son Thomas Lake Aveling took over the company after his death and continued to expand the firm. He remained the head of the firm until his death on the 4th October 1931, where he was replaced by his son Major Thomas Aveling M.C. When William Barford became head of the Queen Street Ironworks, Peterborough in the 1860s he was manufacturing ploughs, steam elevators, grinding mills and field rollers. In 1872 the company Barford & Perkins was established. It produced agricultural machinery until 1911 where it became a limited liability company. In 1904 the company manufacturing direction changed when the company produced the World's first motor-driven roller. By 1924 the motor roller had become the firm's principal main product. The two firms agreed to utilise their manufacturing resources to combat the tough economic climate of the 1920s as both firms had received both international as well as local awards for their designs. Aveling and Barford & Perkins (Sales) Ltd was created and became operational in 1928. This was designed to be a floating joint company that would handle domestic sales. However, the Boards of these companies still continued to act separately. However, by the early 1930s both firms were encountering difficulties. In 1933 Mr Edward Barford formed Aveling-Barford Ltd by amalgamating the two firms. Colonel Ruston of Ruston and Hornsby were prepared to put up £63,000 for 52% of the new company to be set up with an additional £50,000 for the company to move to Grantham so long as all the engines came from Rustons. The move became © Lincolnshire County Council 1 complete in 1934 and the firm operational. Aveling-Barford produced many products such as road rollers, diary equipment, calfdozers, dump trucks, Bren carriers, trench cutting machines, and motor graders. Barford (Agricultural) Ltd was established as a subsidiary company of Aveling-Barford Ltd in 1946 to deal with the range of dairy, agricultural and horticultural equipment. In 1967 Leyland Motor Corporation bid for Aveling-Barford. The new focus became upon earth moving equipment. The company name of Aveling Marshall was created when the British Leyland took over Marshalls company in Gainsborough in 1975. The main products were crawler tractors and shovel loaders that were made at Aveling Barford in Grantham. Aveling-Barford in 2007 was taken over by a Norwegian company, Moxy Engineering AS of Elnesvagen. In 2009 US Company Doosan took control of the company. This catalogue was produced with support from the National Cataloguing Grants Programme for Archives. Notes Concerning the Catalogue Due to the amalgamation of records from two very distinct companies before their merger in 1933-1934 to form Aveling-Barford a structure was required to help catalogue these records and make them readily accessible. The records have been broken into categories; accounting, administrative and commercial, legal, manufacturing and production, drawings and plans, sales and marketing, research and development, social and personal records, photographs, publications and other manufacturers. Where possible within these categories these have been divided into Aveling & Porter, Barford & Perkins and Aveling-Barford records to help easily identify the records. Due to the amalgamation there may be an overlap of dates especially with records dated from the early 1930s. The individual engineering plans alone have formed a substantial wealth of the catalogue. As a result they have their own catalogue in relation to this one. © Lincolnshire County Council 2 Type codes and marks for Aveling & Porter machines By T.W.B. Ellis (Abridged from .. Journal, April 1962) The first type code used by Aveling & Porter was a very simple one, which consisted of a letter to indicate the class of machine followed by a figure to indicate the size. The letters were used were: - R Roller; A Agricultural locomotive; L Road locomotive; T Tramway locomotive; P Ploughing engine. In the case of rollers, the figure to indicate the size was the nominal weight in tons, whilst for all the other machines the figure used was the nominal horse power. Thus an 8 n.h.p. agricultural locomotive was a type A8. With the introduction of engines with compound cylinders, the letter C was added to the type, thus a 6 n.h.p. compound road locomotive became type LC6. A slight complication arose with the compound road locomotive due to the fact that, before the compound engine was introduced, the letter C had been added to indicate that a crane had been fitted. A type LC6 could, therefore, be either a 6 n.h.p. single- cylindered locomotive fitted with a crane, or a 6 n.h.p. compound road locomotive. Early combined engines incorporated the type prefixes of the two machines in question. For example, an AR6 was a 6 n.h.p. agricultural locomotive and roller combined, whilst an LR6 was a 6 n.h.p. road locomotive and roller combined. Later an X denoted a combined engine. The complete code thus became;- R Roller (3-wheel type); RA Asphalte roller (tandem); A Agricultural locomotive; L Road locomotive; T Tramway locomotive; P Ploughing engine; C Compound cylinder (or crane engine); X Combined engine. This code, which was used to the 1920s, gave the following types; R, RC, A, AC, L, T, TC, P, PC, AR, ACR, LR, XA, XAC, RA and RCA. About 1907, because of the increasing number of products manufactured, a new code was introduced. This new code was quite distinct from the existing one but ran concurrently with it. It was made up from the following; B Roller (3-wheel type); K Agricultural locomotive; Y Road locomotive; M Tandem roller; G Motor tractor; U Stationary engine; X Portable engine; J Tramway locomotive; F Wagons and vans; Z Ploughing engines; V Implements; C Buildings; W Scarifiers; D Compound cylinders; Q Cross-built roller (from another type). The nominal weights in tons or n.h.p. were given letters taken from the word ‘Hornplates’, and were allocated as follows; H O R N P L A T E S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 © Lincolnshire County Council 3 Using this code a type YTD was an 8 n.h.p. compound road locomotive, whilst a ZRSD was a 30 n.h.p. compound ploughing engine. Other types obtained from this code were: BT, BTD, BLD, BN, BND, BHOD, BHND, BHP, BHPD, MLD, MN, MTD, MED, MHPD, GND, KND, FGR, QTD, YLD, KTD, XOS, XHLD, ZTD, ZHND. In 1920 the steam rollers and traction engines were re-designed to incorporate the piston-valve cylinder and the following types of machines were introduced;- Three-wheel single-cylinder steam rollers types A, C, E, G, J and V. Three-wheel compound cylinder steam rollers types B, D, F, H and K. Combined compound rollers and traction engines types L and M. Tandem steam rollers (with vertical boiler) type N, O, and P. Some of the rollers were converted into traction engines, and the letter T was then added to the type. For example, DT or FT. Alternative rollers were also offered with increased brake horse power (larger cylinder bore) and in heavier weights, and these were known as types AA, BB, CC, etc. In 1929 the slide-valve cylinder was re-introduced and the letter A was added to the above types to indicate this fact. These types thus became AA, AB, and AC etc. There would have seen complication with the AA piston-valve type and the AA slide- valve type, but this did not occur as none of the AA piston-valve machines were sold. © Lincolnshire County Council 4 Contents 2-AB/1/1 Accounting Records p6 2-AB/1/2 Administrative and Commercial Records p8 2-AB/1/3 Legal Records p10 2-AB/1/4 Manufacturing and Production Records p17 2-AB/1/5 Drawings and Plans p101 2-AB/1/6 Sales and Marketing Records p105 2-AB/1/7 Communication Records p184 2-AB/1/8 Research and Development Records p191 2-AB/1/9 Social and Personal Records p196 2-AB/1/10 Photographs p203 2-AB/1/11 Publications p216 2-AB/1/12 Other Manufacturers p216 © Lincolnshire County Council 5 2-AB/1 Business Records 2-AB/1/1 Accounting Records 1874-1987 2-AB/1/1/1 Private Ledger, Aveling & Porter Ltd. 1874-1889 1 Volume 2-AB/1/1/2 Annual Reports & Statements of 1948-1987 Accounts 2-AB/1/1/2/1 Report 1 1947-1948 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/2 Report 2 1948-1949 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/3 Report 3 1949-1950 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/4 Report 4 1950-1951 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/5 Report 5 1951-1952 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/6 Report 6 1952-1953 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/7 Report 7 1954-1955 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/8 Report 8 1955-1956 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/9 Report 9 1956-1957 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/10 Report 10 1957-1958 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/11 Report 11 1958-1959 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/12 Report 12 1959-1960 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/13 Report 13 1960-1961 1 Item © Lincolnshire County Council 6 2-AB/1/1/2/14 Report 14 1961-1962 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/15 Report 15 1962-1963 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/16 Report 16 1963-1964 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/17 Report 17 1964-1965 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/18 Report 18 1965-1966 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/19 Report 19 1966-1967 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/20 Report 20 1967-1968 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/21 Report 21 1968-1969 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/22 Report 22 1969-1970 2-AB/1/1/2/23 Report 23 1970-1971 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/24 Report 24 1971-1972 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/25 Report 25 1972-1973 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/26 Report 26 1973-1974 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/27 Report 27 1974-1975 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/28 Report 28 1975-1976 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/29 Report 29 1976-1977 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/30 Report 30 1977-1978 1 Item © Lincolnshire County Council 7 2-AB/1/1/2/31 Report 31 1978-1979 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/32 Report 32 1979-1980 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/33 Report 33 1980-1981 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/34 Report 34 1981-1982 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/35 Report 35 1982-1983 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/36 Report 36 1983-1984 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/37 Report 37 1984-1985 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/2/38 Report 38 1985-1987 1 Item 2-AB/1/1/3 International Accounts 1971 Contains background information on Aveling-Barford.