Our business has been trading since around 1780!
John Bawn, aged 14, became an apprentice mast and block maker in Bristol in1760. His friends agreed to pay for his clothes during the 7 years of training and on completion he was given the Freedom of the City of Bristol. He made an Oath of Obedience and had to pay 4s 6d. His son, another John Bawn, was apprenticed in 1792 as a mast and block maker. He moved to London with his family in 1801, eventually setting up his trade in the London Docks.
Another member of the family, George Bawn, a master carver and guilder, created the ‘Helmsman’ figure of a sailor around 1850. This was a 2.1m high timber figure dressed as a sailor with a ship’s wheel. It was displayed on top of the business premises at 48 West India Dock Road near the Limehouse Dock in London. It became a well known landmark for sailors of the world; as they made their way up the River Thames to the docks, they looked for ‘the Old Man’ to help them navigate their way.
By the 1880’s William Byron Bawn was managing the mast making business, but by that time steam power had been developed and sailing ships became less popular. As a result production was switched to making ships boilers, galvanised tanks and heavy steel plate products. In the 20th century the product lines developed into tanks and boilers for many uses, agricultural machinery and road tanker bodies. The company was registered in 1907 as W B Bawn & Co Ltd.
During WW2 the ‘Old Man’ was taken off the premises roof for safekeeping; but the company premises suffered and the business relocated to Walthamstow in E. London. At the end of the war the company was slowly rebuilt by G I Green (William B. Bawn’s grandson). He launched new products – lockers, which became the mainstay of the company’s products, and the ‘Old Man’ was replaced on the premises wall. The trade mark ‘HELMSMAN’ was used.
The company relocated to Bury St Edmunds in 1970 to purpose built premises and yet again the Helmsman, the ‘Old Man’, was located again on the premises wall. The business grew with the boom in sport and leisure, together with the demand for lockers in schools, factories and the health service.
Today, Innovation has been the key to Helmsman’s market leadership, demonstrated by the company’s diversification into electronic lockers, access control, changing cubicles and seating. This can provide a one stop shop solution for customers in leisure, education, and workplace markets in UK, EU and across the world. The company is well known for developing bespoke solutions and providing electronic access control and guest management systems for facilities management.
The HELMSMAN brand has become synonymous with quality, reliability, value for money and innovation. The company logo has undergone many changes over the decades and was most recently updated in 1998. The new logo represents the determination and vision for the future of the company and its employees.
Today the Helmsman ‘Old Man’ has gone indoors for a rest – after all he is nearly 160 years old! A replica sailor is now displayed outside the company so the company preserves the tradition of displaying the sailor for all to see.
The company was brought by Sperrin Metal Products in February 2008.
