Clifford Motor Components
of Birmingham
1929 Incorporated as a public company to acquire Motor Components (Coventry) Ltd and Clifford Covering Co Ltd. Expansion would be undertaken straight away at the various factories[1]
1939 Acquired the works and equipment of New Imperial Motors at Hall Green, Birmingham. Some of the space was used by Motor Components Ltd and some by a new subsidiary Clifford Aero and Auto Ltd; the works were re-arranged for production of aeroplanes and their components; the motor cycle business of New Imperial was sold on[2]
By 1952 Clifford Motor Components Ltd had taken a financial interest in BRD to develop the Jameson blade forging process. Development work had been transferred from Slough to the Leamington Road premises of Clifford in Birmingham. Initially BRD would make compressor blades for the Avon engine being made under license by the Standard Motor Co Ltd at Coventry and for the Armstrong Siddeley: Sapphire engine being made by their subsidiary Brockworth Engineering Co Ltd at Hucclecote.
1952 GKN and Clifford agreed to become partners in a reconstituted BRD Company, owning 50% each.
1954 "... B.R.D. Ltd., an associated company, sponsored by the G.K.N. and Clifford Groups, for which the Government has built a new factory at Aldridge to machine the ..."[3]
1957 "As the B.R.D. Company is now almost wholly engaged on the machining and finishing of forgings produced by subsidiaries of the G.K.N. Group, your Board decided to negotiate with Clifford Motor Components to acquire its one-half share of the B.R.D. capital.."[4]
1962 Acquired Specialloid jointly with Associated Engineering. Formed Cold Precision Forgings (D. and C.) Ltd equally with Deritend Stamping Co to develop the Cold Flow method of forging steel[5]
1964 Acquired the valve forging division of GKN and amalgamated it with the company's valve unit[6]
renamed TRW Clifford