Annealing is the heating and slowly cooling of metal in order to remove the internal stresses… allowing it to be shaped… but overall strengthening it. Perfect for making chains.
At the turn of the 20th century there were two companies that were kind of a big deal in the chain-making scene. ‘Watson & Mclean Ltd’ in Glasgow and ‘Job Wheway & Sons’ in Walsall. The former specialised in heavy chains, mainly for a nautical market and Job and his lads dedicated their time to lighter chains used in farming, horse transport and logging. After WWII when their markets started to slow these two metal link giants joined forces to become a chain making behemoth known as ‘Wheway, Watson and Mclean Ltd’ (see what they did there?) What do you do if you have a sweet business making chains of all types for land and sea, and a couple of Motorways open up from Leeds to London and across the country from Hull to almost Liverpool?... You figure you might be missing a trick.
Where would YOU look to invest in order to take advantage of those two crossed roads? .
Morley. West. Yorkshire.
In 1960 the mouthful of a company; ‘Wheway, Watson and Mclean Ltd’ acquired ‘Mechanical Equipments Ltd’ in Morley and it quickly became the Chain Annealing and Testing capital of the North of England… distributing coast to coast and town to farm. They tested chains for plows, logs, tyres, dee’s buckles, hobbles and hames… Their annealing and testing skills were off the chain.
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