The History of MSM 1937-1947
Fred Pedley, our Founder, incorporated Middleton Sheet Metal Company on 21st September 1937. Having concluded a sheet metal working apprenticeship , he became Leading Hand Shop Steward at A.V.Roe & Company in Manchester in the early thirties. When he eventually decided to set his own comany up, Roy Dobson (AVRO's M/D) asked him to help train many of the local sheet metal working companies in the manufacture of aluminium aircraft parts in preparation for the onset of World War 2, which of course begain on 3rd September 1939! The build up to hostilities in the late 1930s required aircraft manufacture to be undertaken in "shadow factories" which obtained valuable support from many small companies like MSM in the North Manchester Area, but frequently their businesses were not then associated with Defence Work, and they had to be retrained in the special techniques required to form multiple curvature components like wing root fairings in aluminium alloy - by hand! Our Founder truly had his hands very full in those dark days before the war!
MSM's first customer was Fairey Aviation at Heaton Chapel, for whom we made Oil Tanks and pipework on the Battle & later the Barracuda, a successful Fleet Air Arm aircraft. Oil Tanks were also manufactured for the Percival Proctor and the Handley Page Halifax Heavy Bomber, whose Bomb Racks and Release Gear too, was produced by MSM. Early in the war, the Bristol Blenheim Bomber was built under license by Rootes Securities at Speke, and A.V. Roe at Woodford. MSM were tasked to produce many alloy fabrications for this aeroplane. Our sister company Aircraft Tanks Ltd., was set up in 1941 specifically to employ "female dilutees", since most men were being called up into the armed forces. These ladies were a cornerstone of our group of companies, with their attention to detail, and their acknowledged skills in the fusion welding, especially of thin gauge aluminium alloys, did much to advertise the quality of our product and persuade our customers to continue to place work with MSM.
The brilliant success of the RAF Catalina Flying Boats in finding and destroying German U Boats in the Atlantic was aided by MSM fitting large Leigh Lights under each wing, and extra range aluminium alloy Fuel Tanks allowed the aircraft to stay aloft for some 36 hours! We did much work in converting these American aeroplanes to RAF Standard for the Saunders Roe Company in Beaumaris, Anglesey. Much later, we were involved with the fitting out of AVRO York aeroplanes for use by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and other V.I.P.s, whilst at the end of the war, when military aeroplanes were not needed in such numbers, we made wing fabrications for the AVRO Tudor airliner.
When hostilities ceased in 1945, MSM diversified into Textile, Chemical and Food Industry Fabrications for ICI, COOP Biscuit Factory in Blackley, and the new H.J. Heinz Food Factories in Wigan & Kitt Green. With food rationing in full swing, the need to modernise and improve manufacturing capability meant that there were many opportunities for MSM to install, for example, can lines and automated mixing bowls in Staybright Stainless Steel. Textile Machinery Manufacturers like Hunt & Moscrop in Middleton, and Sir James Farmer Norton in Salford asked us to manufacture a wide range of double skin Ovens and Stentor Panels, upwards of 80 to 120 feet in length. These textile drying machines also included the manufacture of steam heated stainless steel panels which we supplied under the trade name MSM Heatex Panels. The coming of the Jet Age was with us by the late forties, but that is another story!