18/07/2026
44 years ago - the 1982 BIAS Journal...
The earliest copy of the BIAS Journal I have is number 14, dated 1982 – which must be the year I joined. Apart from the articles – see photo of contents page – one other feature is worthy of note and comment – it includes a list of members including not only their names but also addresses – certainly pre GDPR! Heading the list is what we would probably now call sponsors, a list of company members. I thought it might be worth a few minutes of ‘googling’ to see whether these businesses have survived into the 21st Century. Here are the results…
Avon-Anglia Publications & Services - an independent, specialized publishing and print services company based in Weston-super-Mare, operating primarily between the 1970s and 1990s. Best known for publishing historical and technical literature focused on railways. Run by Geoffrey Body (1929– ?) a railway historian, author, and former railwayman.
Brislington School – now called Oasis Academy Brislington - founded in1956, as a secondary modern school.
Bristol Waterworks Company – now Bristol Water and does what it says – still supplies water daily to the City and local area. Now owned by the Pennon Group.
Sir John Burnet, Tait & Lorne: an architectural partnership dating from 1930 - responsible for post-war modernist projects such as the Bird's Eye Building, Walton on Thames (1961–62) and the Curzon Mayfair Cinema (1963–66). Collaborated with consulting engineers on projects like the WCA Warehouse in Bristol in 1973 – now flats. The practice gradually wound down and dissolved as the partners retired or moved on to other firms in the late 1970s and 1980s.
John Collins and Associates was a Bristol-based architectural and design practice – no longer extant
Corning Museum of Glass - museum in Corning, New York, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass.
John Harvey & Sons – Bristol based w**e and sherry blending and merchant founded in 1796. After several changes of ownership, the brand was acquired in 2015 by a subsidiary of the Philippines-based Alliance Global Group.
F W Hawker & Sons Ltd was based in Batheaston – became Hawker Joinery Ltd and wound up 2018
Moorland Publishing Company - niche publisher founded in the 1970s and closed in 2008, based in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. It specialized in local history, industrial heritage, and regional visitor guides, particularly for the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, and Lake District. Closed 2008
C.H. Pearce and Sons - prominent Bristol-based building and contracting firm incorporated in 1935. Originally a Westbury-on-Trym builder, became a major commercial contractor, acquired by Crest Nicholson in 1985. Today, the corporate legacy continues via Pearce Construction and Pearce Group
Purnell & Sons Ltd was a major printing and publishing company founded in 1839 in Paulton, Somerset. Expanded rapidly over the next century, eventually employing around 2,000 people and becoming one of Europe's largest printing concerns. Purnell later suffered from under investment and the print works in Paulton closed in December 2005 with the loss of 400 jobs.
B R Rains Ltd – no trace
Stothert & Pitt – well known engineering firm founded in Bath in 1855. Renowned for manufacturing heavy-duty dock cranes and construction equipment, the company famously built the electric deck-cargo cranes for the Titanic and cranes for Bristol Docks. Closed in 1989, the brand was absorbed into Clarke Chapman and operates at Keynsham supplying S&P spares
Museum Voor Industriële Archeologie en Textiel – Ghent, Belgium. The city was at the centre of the Flanders textile region. The museum is an Anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage
Project Industriële Erfgoed, Belgium – an industrial archaeology project that appears to have come to an end
A coincidence is that both Purnell’s and Stothert & Pitt fell into the hands of Robert Maxwell – whether that contributed to their demise is for comment some other time…
If anyone has any further information on the firms listed please post a comment
