Speaker:- Charles Miller

Report talk given by Rtn Charles Miller 7^th October 2014

Charles began his talk by explaining that this talk was probably the 19^th or 20^th given to the club in his 43 years as a member, also, as he had exhausted all the subjects that he was conversant with he chose a topic that he knew little or nothing about and researched it. I had requested his notes in order to assist me with this report, which he kindly passed on, but to my astonishment they consisted of 15 sub headings, from which Charles delivered an interesting and informative half an hour of entertainment.

The talk centred round the development of sheep shearing machinery developed by Fred York Wolseley from 1837, the patents established, the fortunes of his companies and how his path crossed with Herbert Austin and W.R. Morris. The story began on a sheep farm in Australia when someone named McArthur imported 105 Merino sheep and whilst the sheep population continued to grow, to today’s number of around 30 million, Wolseley’s machine company established in Australia relocated to England where his path crossed with Austin and all manufacturing was transferred to Birmingham, where it remains today.

Along the way in 1895 Austin produced the first British motor car and following the death of Wolseley in 1899 the Wolseley car No 3 was built, assisted by Siddeley another well known name in the manufacture of motor cars, which successfully completed the 1000 mile trial, an exceptional feat in those days.

Charles kept us all glued to his presentation by weaving between the historic connections from sheep, to sheep shearing machines, to the manufacture of motor cars and the links between some very famous, household names culminating with how Vickers, Lord Nuffield and ultimately British Leyland evolved.

Well done Charles I for one will look forward to the next talk. 

Robert Eardley