The company was incorporated in 1883 with its registered office at 45 Buchanan Street, Glasgow, to carry on the business of Wylie & Lochhead, cabinet makers and funeral undertakers, of Glasgow. At the time of its incorporation, the business was extensive, offering a wide range of departments and services including undertaking, cabinetmaking, furnishing, upholstering, paperhangings and paperstaining.
By 1953 the board was considering the flotation of the firm as a public company in order to raise funds, and received takeover offers from Waring & Gillow Ltd, Great Universal Stores Ltd and House of Fraser Ltd. House of Fraser's bid was accepted in September 1957.
In 1975, this merger was taken a stage further by the amalgamation of the shops of Fraser Sons & Co and Wylie & Lochhead as a single department store, Frasers, on the west side of Buchanan Street, Glasgow.
Mrs fbb, a Glasgow lass, remembers what were the declining years of Wylie and Lochhead as a separate company; she remembers their dark brown varnished delivery vans doing their stuff in Glasgow and surrounding districts.
The funeral directors' business still trades under the Wylie and Lochhead name. Both Mrs fbb's parents were "undertaken for" by the company who also still held records for her grandmother! They still had records dating back to 1883.
When fbb saw this model he just had to buy it for his wife. Carrying the Lledo brand, it cost your parsimonious blogger a whole £2,50.
Lledo brand and box dated 2004
Prices on Ebay vary from about £7 to £30.
fbb has not been able to find any pictures of a real Wylie & Lochhead vehicle, but this preserved Pickfords equivalent gives some idea of what they might have looked like on the road.
The dark blue Guy Vixen pantechnicons of Pickfords Removals were a familiar sight in all parts of Britain during the fifties. Essentially a pre-war design, the Guy Vixen used a four-cylinder 3.7-litre petrol engine which developed 58bhp. This unit was replaced in 1955 by the Perkins P4, giving a welcome increase in power. Guy Motors were taken over by Jaguar in 1961, which in turn was taken over by Leyland in 1968. Production of the Vixen model ceased in 1964. Production of all Guy vehicles finally ceased in 1979.
Pickfords were nationalised in 1946/7, privatised in 1982 as part of the National Freight Corporation which then sold the Pickfords bit to and American company called Allied.
In the meantime ...
From the vibrant mind of Boris and his chums; a final farcical fling from his tenure as London Mayor.
Boris said, “Around eight of every 10 journeys in London are made using our roads; whether by car, taxi, motorbike, bus, cycle, foot or freight – which is why it is vital that we think big. We must deliver long-term solutions that will not just make the most of the space we have for road users but bring environmental and amenity improvements to local areas.”
The first 18km tunnel would run from west to east linking the A40 at Park Royal to the A12 at Hackney Wick. A second 25km tunnel could be developed to the south from the A4 in Chiswick to the A13 in Beckton. The tunnels could cut congestion in central London by 20%.
More from the shelves of Morris Models later.
Tomorrow we try to unravel a Bristolian mystery. Blogs derived from an ideal** sent in by a correspondent.
**ideal - local colour, not a typing mistake!?
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An Invitation - Refused
On of the joys of the internet is being plagued by emails from traders seeking one's custom. Most of them are either for products that are not entirely suitable for an old codger in his seventy-second year (e.g. vegetable viagra) or from comopanies that fbb has bought stuff from about 30 years ago.
But Mrs fbb is dead keen on tennis, partly as a result of the rise to fame of some Scottish lad.
So this offer was worth a second glance.
A ticket plus hospitality at Wimbledon. Sadly the company making this superb offer has been mis-infotmed as to fbb's financial standing.
What's more you have to book for two at twice the listed prices.
Hey ho. The fbb's will be stuck with the telly, a cuppa and a couple of ginger nuts!
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Next Bristol bus & taxi blog : Wednesday 15th June
At Beckton Cars we know that getting to the airport and even from the airport can be a real hassle. Cab in beckton
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