Triplex Foundry Limited and Bullers
Triplex Foundry was founded in 1918 at Toll End by Charles Robert Horrell to make Triplex grates. Production began in 1919 and Triplex Foundry Limited was formed in 1920. A new factory was built for the production of the triple function grate, which heated the room, heated water and cooked food.

Around 1930 the company opened a new factory in Upper Church Lane and introduced fire resistant products, finished in porcelain enamel. In 1936 the firm became a limited company with Charles Horrell and Herbert Edward Hind as joint managing directors. Charles Horrell was also chairman and his son John William Horrell a member of the board.

In 1937 the company exhibited and demonstrated combination cooking and water heating grates and also gas cookers at the British Industries Fair. They were sold under the trade names of Triplex, Tweenie, Workwell and Greybridge.

During the Second World War the firm produced munitions for the war effort. After the war the company modernised and started to concentrate on castings for the automotive industry.

In 1956 the firm acquired Sillett and Cooksey of West Bromwich, specialists in metal spinning and light metal fabrication, and also acquired the Great Bridge Foundry Group and the stock, patterns and trade-marks for gas cookers of R. Russell and Company.

Then in 1957 the firm acquired Vowles Aluminium Foundry and Henry Harrison & Sons and in 1959 acquired Ridgacre Foundry.

In 1961 the firm became part of the Triplex Foundry Group which included several other foundries and in 1963 exhibited heavy-duty engineering and repetition castings at the Motor Show.

An aircraft division opened in a new factory in King's Norton in 1974 and in the 1980s the group was known as Triplex Lloyd.

It was later  taken over by Doncaster Engineering, to become Triplex Components and in the 1990s it became one of the main producers of turbo housings for cars.

In 2003 it became Sigmacast Iron Limited after a management buyout and in 2005 was taken over by Amtek.

The Tipton factory closed in 2009 when production had been transferred to India. The last casting in the foundry was made on Friday the 13th February, 2009.


The location of Triplex Foundry in Upper Church Lane.


The Triplex factory seen from Upper Church Lane.


A Triplex letterhead.


An advert from 1954.


The lovely Triplex grate that belongs to Ian & Liz Falconer.


Ian & Liz Falconer's Triplex grate with the doors open.


Courtesy of  Ian & Liz Falconer.

Bullers
By 1904, Mr. Charles Herbert Thompson FCS who trained as a chemist and had many commercial interests in England and France was operating Bullers Limited in Factory Road, Tipton. The factory produced china door lock furniture, door finger plates, and electrical porcelain insulators.

By 1959 Allied Insulators Limited owned most of the shares in the company. Products included enamelled cast iron door knobs and insulator sheds for electrical power lines. In 1985 the company name was changed to Bullers (Staffordshire) Limited and it became a subsidiary of Taylor Tunnicliff Limited and renamed John Giles and Sons Limited. In the 1990s production moved to Poole, was the business became Windsor Crafts Limited.


Some of the workers from Bullers.
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