[Britpiano]

Hi,

I am enquiring as to what happened to the remains of what was the 'British Piano Manufacturing Company'. I believe there was an auction circa 2003 selling all Work In Progress and production equipment. Does anyone know of what happened to the machinery, the management or the workforce?

I have read on this forum that some of the Work In Progress was completed and sold by Phil John and a Cheltenham piano shop. Is this still continuing, and who now owns the brand names and designs of Knight, Welmar, Marshal and Rose etc?

Final question, is there anyone else apart from Kemble producing pianos in the UK?

Many thanks

Nick

[mdw]

I think the names went to intermusic as they have been appearing on various pianos from the far east plus some petrofs rebadged as welmars.
There were a load of PhilJohn badged pianos on ebay a few weeks back that were made from the left over bits.
Bit sad realy but you want cheap pianos thats what happens. I guess as Kemble are more and more just assembleing there wont realy be a reason for them to be around soon.

[PianoGuy]

I think you're both right. Inter Music now imports Chinese pianos with the Bentley brand name, although these seem just as iffy as the English ones were in one way or another, and a member of this forum (sirprize if I recall correctly) visited a shop in Cheltenham to try some new-old-stock Knight Savoy examples built after BPMC closed down. I'm not sure who owns the Knight name nor the rights to build the original designs though.

I have a feeling that some of the PhilJohn pianos from Llanelli existed earlier than the demise of BPMC, but I can't be sure. It seems like he's been on eBay with them for ever.

I can't help agreeing with mdw. It's a terrible shame that we no longer make pianos here, but they needed to be better than the last from BPMC ever were, or at least priced competitively.

The management I think mainly retired early, but Roger Willson was the MD, and he's now in charge of the Blüthner showroom in London, and some of the sales representatives now work for Music Brokers/Perzina. I would have thought Roger Willson would be the person to ask what actually happened to everybody/everything else!

[Britpiano]

Many thanks guys for your information - much appreciated.

I'll probably contact Roger Wilson about what happened to the designs and the production equipment. I'd be interested to see if there is still a business case for a low volume high quality British piano which has export potential.

I believe there was also a West Yorkshire company called Laurence and Nash with some of their products ending up at the BBC.

[PianoGuy]

Alistair Laurence was the man. I think the Laurence and Nash pianos were made in Ilkley or Otley or somewhere lovely and Yorkshire-ish. Later he teamed up with Ken Forrest to produce the Laurence & Forrest or somesuch!

He was also instrumental in the revival of the Barless Broadwood upright design. Once again I think forumite "Sirprize" knows much about this subject. Try sending him a pm!

[sirprize]

Yes I visited http://www.cheltenham-piano-centre.co.uk/ last year (Spring I think) and they had 3 or 4 Knight Savoys which were the last ones at the point of liquidation of BPMC. You would have to ask Cheltenham about their precise history/provenance but I believe they were bought either as parts or semi-assembled. When I was there last year I tried ONE showroom-ready Savoy and was told the others could be made ready within a few weeks

Regarding the Broadwood Barless issue: I've followed this for a number of years. The expert is Alastair Laurence who's been in Norway for quite a while but due back in the UK this April I believe. I tried one of the new barless uprights built to special order by Ladbrooke Pianos of Birmingham 2 or 3 years ago. It's a nice sounding/playing piano but Alastair for one is scathing about the build-quality. I've actually been in the unusual position of trying out TWO vintage Broadwood Barless uprights for sale in the last 6 months

Yes it's sad there is now no 'home-grown' piano manufacturing in the UK. There is still a large reserve of knowledge, skills and tools......but only just: many craftsmen who worked in design/manufacture are now well into their later years

[PianoGuy]

[pianobrereton]

I beleive the Laurence and nash pianos were very well made and that the BBC bought some of them . I wonder what quality the Broadwood barless made by them was ? Labrookes took over production of them when Laurence and Nash went out of business , they even made a barless grand , what happened to it and the equipment used to manufacture them when Ladbrookes closed down ? Is there anyone else manufacturing the Broadwood barless ? Its an interesting design and im sure if it was made to a high enough quality it would find a market . I had heard a rumour that they were going to be made in Norway , i hope not, it should be made here if anywhere. What was the quality of the original Broadwood barless pianos ?

[sirprize]

[PianoGuy]

[Barrie Heaton]

[PianoGuy]

[Barrie Heaton]

[pianobrereton]

There seems a bit of confusion here, i never said that the BPMC had manufactured the Broadwood barless . The story is...... After taking over control of Broadwoods in 1985 Geoffrey Simon decided to steer Broadwoods back to it's glory years by manufacturing something that was uniquely Broadwoods and had test done at the national engineering Laboratory into the feasibility of making the frames in cabon fibre . In the end it was found to be too expensive so cast steel (not cast iron )was used instead . In 1986 Laurence and Nash became involved and after 2 years of development produced a Large experimental upright which apparently was quite a magnificent instrument.
Unfortunetely L&N were experiencing Financial difficulties at this point and all the equipment was trancefered to Ladbrooke,s and production resumed there and they even made a barless grand that was played at the Royal college of Music in 1997. Unfortunetely Ladbrooke's went out of business recently too. But what happened to the grand ? What happened to the manufacturing equipment ? Are Broadwoods going to continue production some where else ? I hope so !