Swifts of Scarborough vehicle parked at Richmond warehouse, 1981
Swifts of Scarborough was my first full-time “permanent” employer, as described in my post:
Back to the Bungalow: Swifts of Scarborough
There seems to be surprisingly little available online about Swifts, even though the company has been in business for more than a century, so I decided to start this page about the company, to collect links to any items that I do find.
Historical Details (October 2024)
I just obtained the 1924 Swift’s invoice below via eBay:
Swifts of Scarborough Invoice, 1924
There are some interesting details in this century-old document:
- Swifts’ address and phone number had apparently just changed. The old address and number are crossed-out, but no new address has been supplied. Presumably Clifton Street was the company’s original location
- Swifts’ telegraphic address is “INDUSTRY, SCARBORO.”. Apparently, even in those days, there wasn’t much else in Scarborough qualifying as “industry”!
- Swifts’ headquarters was “Olympia Works”. By the time that I worked for the company (1979-81), they had moved out of town to Eastfield, but they still retained memories of that name. For example, the holding company that had been formed to manage Swifts, Walker Mainstay, etc., was named “First Olympian Securities Ltd”, referring back to the name of the original works. I seem to remember also that the entrance to the Eastfield offices had the title “Olympia House” above the door, but I’m not certain of that. Even now, the works are situated within the “Olympian Industrial Park” in Eastfield, which is presumably sited on the land that belonged to Swifts
Company History Details
I recently unearthed a few more details of Swifts’ corporate history, including details of the directors who were present during the period that I worked there.
Most of the details below come from:
https://companycheck.co.uk/company/00977777/SWIFTS-OF-SCARBOROUGH-LIMITED/companies-house-data
|
Company Name |
SWIFTS OF SCARBOROUGH LIMITED |
|
Company Type |
Private limited with Share Capital |
|
Company Status |
Company is dissolved |
|
Incorporated On |
22 April 1970 |
|
Nature of business (SIC) |
25990 Manufacture of other fabricated metal products n.e.c. Dormant. on 31 December 1999 the trade and assets of the company were transferred to Wiremold limited, its intermediate parent company |
At the time of my employment, the company directors were as follows:
|
First Names |
Surname |
Position |
Notes |
|
Alexander Basil Michael |
Batanero De Montenegro |
Director |
|
|
Kenneth Kurt |
Binnis |
Chairman |
|
|
Stephen John |
Chittock |
Director |
|
|
Joseph Goldthorpe |
Marshall |
Originally Works Manager, then became Director |
“Passed away peacefully in hospice on 8th May 2023” Published by The Scarborough News on May 18, 2023 |
|
Cyril Ernest |
Needham |
Managing Director |
|
David Hodgson Personal Blog 
I would love to know more about them myself for our little social history museum in Scarborough…
To go with our swiftcan
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My grandfather Millar Cameron was Chairman of Swifts, although I am not sure of the dates – probably sometime in the 60’s and 70’s. He actually ran a farm machinery business in his hometown of Ballymena, Northern Ireland and Swifts was a side interest.
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Interesting comment, thank you, Hector. That must have been “before my time”, since when I worked there, the Chairman was a man called K K Binnis. The Managing Director was Cyril Needham
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hi I currently work at Swift’s I started there in 1980 at the ripe old age of 16 it’s no longer known as swifts as you have said in your post we bought out by wire mould and now are known as legrand electric I have been with the company for 42 years now I love my job it can be very stressful at times but it’s still a pretty decent place to work we still make cable tray and ladder plus lots of other electrical components. I remember the bungalow very well and the people who worked in it do you remember Maureen bailey sadly no longer with us .I also remember all the old wagons in your photos and the guys who drove them happy memories there’s only around four of us left from the 80s the other two guys both left and then came back which made me longest serving .
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Hi Ian: Thanks for your interesting comments. Yes, I do remember Maureen, and we both worked in the same office in the “Bungalow” when I was the Purchase Accounts Clerk. Part of Maureen’s job responsibilities involved the calculation of the weekly cash payroll for the shop-floor workers. Every Thursday afternoon, Maureen prepared all the pay slips, then handed those to my manager, “Tim” Appleby, who collected the cash from the bank. Tim and I then went down to the main building, counted out the cash into each pay packet (cross-checking each other’s work), and finally handed each one to its recipient. At that time (1980), the total weekly payout was about £5500, with the highest-earning workers being the welders.
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