Laycock Engineering
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The Laycock Engineering Company Limited of Archer Road, Millhouses, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England was an engineering business established in 1884 by W S Laycock which made small and major components for railway rolling stock.
Laycock died in 1916, and in 1917 the business passed into the hands of Charron, a French automobile manufacturer,[1] then later into receivership[2] from where it was bought by Sheffield engineer and shipbreaker Thos. W. Ward in 1934. Two years later Laycock was bought from Ward by a group of investors[3] and put into the ownership of a new holding company, Birfield Limited, along with Hardy Spicer. Both Laycock and Hardy Spicer made transmission or driveline components for the automotive industry.
In 1966 Birfield, with Laycock and Hardy Spicer, were bought by the GKN group which was entering the automotive components field following government's announcement of the intended nationalisation of its GKN Steel.[4][5]
Laycock's initial business was the manufacture of railway carriage and steamship fittings and underframe gear for railway coaches and locomotives. The range was extended to include axles, gearboxes, and motor chassis components, motorcar propeller shafts and the Layrub rubber bushed propeller shaft.
After 25 years of importing goods from USA following annual visits[6] W S Laycock introduced for the first time in UK a method of steam heating carriages in a Great Northern train in 1893 following a few years of experience with a similar system in USA.[7]
The carriage interiors of the 1908 Southern Belle "the most luxurious train in the world" later known as the Brighton Belle were built by W S Laycock's business in Sheffield.[8]
By 1964 Laycock's principal products were: Laycock de Normanville overdrives and spring diaphragm clutches for the motor industry and flexible couplings also for industrial use. Dual clutches for tractors, garage equipment, railway air and vacuum brakes, control valves for fluids and gases were also manufactured.[9]
