Parnall & Sons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Engineering |
| Founded | 1820 |
| Founder | William Parnall |
| Fate | Acquired by George Adlam & Sons |
| Headquarters | , England |
Parnall & Sons Limited was a shop and ship fitting and aircraft component manufacturer in Bristol, England. The original company was set up in 1820 by William Parnall in Narrow Wine Street, initially making weights and measures, before expanding into shop keeping equipment and shop fittings.
By the 1880s Parnall & Sons was the largest shop fitting company in England with showrooms in Narrow Wine Street and Fairfax Street, a scale works at Fishponds and branches in London and Swansea. The scales and weighing machines produced at the Fishponds foundry on Parnall Road included the hardy Patent Agate Hand Scales and the Patent National Balances invented by Mr Parnall, which sold 20,000 in 10 years.[1] In 1889 the company expanded into shopfronts, including glasswork and iron architecture and had over 400 employees. By the 1890s "there is hardly a city or town in Great Britain where their productions are not known and appreciated".[2] Weighing machine production was phased out after W & T Avery was associated and the company concentrated on its well-known shop-front business. The foundry was later sold to George Adlam & Sons the iron founders and brewers engineers.
During World War I, the company started manufacture of aeroplanes and seaplanes, producing over 600 by 1918. George Parnall left the company soon afterwards, who eventually went on to form Parnall and successfully continued aircraft design and manufacture elsewhere in Bristol.
In 1923, Parnall & Sons moved to Lodge Causeway, Fishponds, in Bristol into a former factory of the Cosmos Engineering aeroengines company.[3] The company resumed manufacture of shopfronts, including the bronze shopfronts and display cases in Piccadilly Circus tube station and steel canopies at the Savoy Hotel and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon.
High-profile work included the internal fittings for passenger liners, including the outfit of the Tourist class dining room on the RMS Britannic built at Harland & Wolff for the White Star Line in the late 1920s. In addition they also branched out into refrigerated and cold storage units, executive office furniture, and gained expertise in the fabrication of plastics leading to the formation of a plastics division.
