OneGuyFromBarlick

We bought a set of 6 postcards reproducing B&W photos of workshops but the cards have no information about the identity or location of the subjects. I don't know whether they all show different parts of the same factory site or unrelated sites. Any suggestions of what they represent and whether they should be in any order would be welcomed.


Photo 1


Photo 2


Photo 3


Photo 4


Photo 5


Photo 6

Interesting photo's Tiz. Top one looks like a forge the common feature of all the machinery is that it's all belt driven. Photo 4 looks like they are preparing molds for castings and number 6 looks like the resultant castings, 5 maybe further work on the castings. Fascinating stuff, I bet Stanley will have some ideas.

From the last pic, almost certainly twin cylinder high speed steam engines driving an integral centrifugal pump. Bellis and Morcom and Browett and Lindley specialised in these engines but not pumps. It has a whiff of Holman's about it. Late 1920s I suspect, they had electric light.

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Browett,_Lindley_and_Co
Pictures show the main external building so could well be, but the sizes of the engines dont look the same. Men doubtless wearing brown dustcoats.

Browett engine at Ellenroad.




Another one, much larger. They made everything in between.

one of the threads that lost image links, are they restorable ?

Yes, done.

Thanks Ian.... very interesting images Peter!

Really interesting. Thank you.

Having posted the photos on the site 9 years ago I'm embarrassed to see that I didn't reply at the time. Something must have happened then that kept me away from the Web for a while by which time the thread had sunk down the listing and I forgot about it. Thanks everyone for your comments and information, and thanks Whyperion and PanBiker for restoring the links!

A quick image lookup (Google Lens) of photo 4 returns

This image shows the Coalbrookdale Foundry in Shropshire, England, which was a major site during the Industrial Revolution.

Photo 6 returns

This is a historical photograph of the main engine shop at the Electric Construction Company in Wolverhampton, England, taken around 1902. The image shows workers and large machinery, including a motor-driven boring mill and parts for alternators.

Whether these AI generated descriptions are accurate is another matter.

I always get confused with the Electric Construction Company. I think they operated Street Tramways in a few towns in the British Isles and I cannot remember if they became in due course NECC - National Electric Construction Co and were part of (or independent of) Balfour Beatty when the National Grid and regional electricty suppliers created - which led to successor bus companies (Midland General ?) passing to the nationalised Transport Holding Company which mainly got bus companies via British Railway shares in bus companies.

I share Kev's doubts about No. 6. I see evidence of high speed enclosed two cylinder steam engines but nothing shouts ECC.

The AI overview is definitely wrong, this morning it shows the following for photo 6

This is a photograph of a large machine workshop at the Chance Brothers' glassworks in Smethwick, West Midlands, England.

You're right Kev, quite evidently not.
I can bring up AI mistakes almost at will by asking esoteric questions that I know very people have answers for. It's almost as though the algorithms are programmed against saying something as simple as "I don't know"

Stanley wrote: ↑25 Oct 2025, 08:29 It's almost as though the algorithms are programmed against saying something as simple as "I don't know"

I've met quite a number of humans programmed that way!

Tizer wrote: ↑25 Oct 2025, 09:25

Stanley wrote: ↑25 Oct 2025, 08:29 It's almost as though the algorithms are programmed against saying something as simple as "I don't know"

I've met quite a number of humans programmed that way!

I know what both of you mean.....

Niether Microsoft Bing or Google Image search return exact matches ,which is unusual for a commercial postcard.
They make goodish guesses, as some have said , with absolute confidence and being totally wrong in a more fuzzy search.

Image search as a whole (and asking for "similar" results gets one things so not like one was looking at as a general thing ) is not that good it seems.

So , anything - like the printer of the postcards or where you purchased them from (retailer / town ?)

The more I look at Number 6 the more sure I am it's Belliss and Morcom's in Birmingham in about 1880

Whyperion wrote: ↑27 Oct 2025, 13:33 So , anything - like the printer of the postcards or where you purchased them from (retailer / town ?)

I'll have to do some searching, I can't even remember where I got them. I've collected many things and had many interests! 2016 was the latter end of a phase of collecting postcards and postal history. If these cards had useful information on the back for tracing their origin and subjects I probably would have put it in the 2016 post on OG.

Bit tricky , Belliss and Morcom not incorporated until 1899. though Morcom had joined the company sometime prior
They are quoted as 1907-8 Built one double-decker bus for the London General Omnibus Co. It had twin chain final drive. ( rather small for them - I assume there is a picture around for it somewhere ) ( more detail ) BELLISS & MORCOM (G.B.) 1907
Belliss & Morcom Ltd., Islington, Birmingham
Belliss & Morcom were the successors of Richard Bach who made the first Boydell wheeled traction engine in 1854 but their work was chiefly in fixed steam engines and generator sets.
However in 1907 they manufactured a double-decked steam bus, not dissimilar to the Darracq-Serpollet, using a front-mounted semi-flash boiler, undertype compound engine and twin chain final drive. Frank Searle encouraged the L.G.O.C. to licence the bus- fort experimental running in London between December 1907 and the autumn of 1908, which included, variously, the routes from Hammersmith to Canning Town,
Acton to Bow Bridge and Victoria to Cricklewood but the company were not sufficiently impressed by its performance to retain the bus and nothing was heard of it after 1908.

The company is still in business as part of IngersollRand
Cannot find any internal shots of their various past premises on line (might be on Birmingham History Forum but one has to sign up and log in for that . Other links seem to be to websites that are no longer in existence.

The castings in Pic No. 6 Are for Belliss high speed enclosed engines.