National Hickman

National Hickman can trace its history back over 100 years, in fact, back to Queen Victoria’s reign. Recording this heritage for posterity proved to be an interesting exercise in comparing the company’s progress against the events that shaped the world as we know it.

It all began in 1892, with Victoria some 55 years into her reign, when one Alfred Hickman was granted an order or foreclosure against the Chillington Iron Company, to take possessions of a parcel of land on the outskirts of Wolverhampton. And so it all began.

Queen Victoria died in January 1901, having become the longest serving monarch. She was succeeded by her son Edward who in August the following year was crowned King Edward VII.

Meanwhile, Alfred Hickman conveyed that same parcel of land to one John Sylvester Hickman on December 10th 1903 and so it was John S Hickman & Co started out in business at Sutherland Sawmills, Wolverhampton, right at the heart of Edwardian England.

The events that took place after JS Hickman first opened his doors for business include some of the most important and momentous in history.

Marconi had only recently been awarded his patent for radio communication, powered flight was just taking off, socialism was on the rise and the Labour movement was just beginning. Florence Nightingale, Mark Twain and Leo Tolstoy were all alive, the first ground was about to be broken on the Panama Canal, San Francisco was about to suffer a deadly earthquake and the Earth would pass through the tail of Halley’s Comet causing panic across the globe.

Kellogg’s Cornflakes, Picasso’s Cubism, The Ford Model T, plastic and the detection of protons and electrons were all yet to come. China would abolish slavery and then the Manchu dynasty would fall with China becoming a republic, Japan would annex Korea, Portugal would become a republic, the Titanic would sink and Russia would absorb Finland. All of this took place within the first ten years of his business!

As he strived to work hard to establish his fledgling company, the whole of Europe fell into political turmoil and in August 1914 of course, Britain declared war on Germany. The Great War was to last until November 1918 when Germany signed the armistice.

Women were allowed to vote for the first time ever in Britain, Gandhi returned to India, Einstein published his first paper on the General Theory of Relativity, the first blood transfusion was performed, the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed, short-wave radio was invented, Insulin was discovered, the USSR was formed, George Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Blue, quantum mathematics was developed, Lindbergh flew over the Atlantic, the BBC was formed, Penicillin was discovered, Stalin took over in the USSR and Black Friday ushered-in the Great Depression after the Wall St crash in 1929.

It was quite a challenge to survive for a quarter of a century in business against such a turbulent backdrop and in 1930 J S Hickman sold his business to his cousin John R Hickman who would remain in charge for the next fifty years. This was all before the Empire State Building was built, before Penguin Books, before Keynes published his “General Theory of Employment” and before September 1939 when Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany.

The most destructive war in history enveloped everyone and every business in Britain. But as India gained independence in 1947 and the National Health Service was established in ‘48, the Republic of Ireland in 1949, John R Hickman worked to restore normality in the family business.

1950 saw British troops, at war in Korea followed by the Festival of Britain in 1951 opened by King George VI who was succeeded the following year by Queen Elizabeth II. Watson & Crick discovered DNA in ‘53 and Winston Churchill retired as Prime Minister in 1955. The Clean Air Act, Suez, Harold Macmillan and the M6 Preston bypass brought the austerity years to a close.

In November 1963 John F Kennedy was assassinated, central heating, coal fires and paraffin heaters,  tin baths still used in many houses, hoola-hoops, holidays at Butlins and building igloos in the back garden during the incredible winter of the same year, France said’ non’ to Britain joining the Common Market, comprehensive education was initiated, The Beatles sang “Love Me Do” and the death penalty was abolished. England won the World Cup, abortion and homosexuality were legalised, Concord took off, Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968 and on July 20th 1969 Apollo 11 took Armstrong & Aldrin to the moon and back – in the same year that John F Hickman joined the family business.

Edward Heath kicked off the 1970s and in ‘71 the first British soldier lost his life in Northern Ireland. Decimal coinage was introduced, North Sea oil concessions auctioned and Idi Amin expelled Uganda’s Asians. Britain finally made it into the EU in ‘73 with the following year producing a hung parliament headed by Harold Wilson who was replaced by James Callaghan in ‘76 when Britain famously had to go cap in hand to the IMF for a loan. 1978 gave us the first test-tube baby. The Winter of Discontent in 78/79 paralysed the entire country and in May 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister and on 27th August the IRA killed Lord Mountbatten.

The 1980s began with the Brixton riots, the opening of the Humber Bridge, economic recession and Argentina invading the Falkland Islands. John K Stoker joined the Hickman business in 1981, the Iron Lady was re-elected in a landslide victory in ‘83 which was followed by the year-long miner’s strike and the IRA bombing of the Conservative conference in Brighton. Thatcher won her third term in ‘87 and the decade closed with the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee.

1990 saw riots over the Poll Tax and Maggie was replaced by John Major. 1991 was Desert Storm’s year and in 92 the Channel Tunnel opened. 16th September will forever be known as “Black Wednesday” and sterling was forced to withdraw from the ERM. 1994 saw the first women priests ordained by the Church of England and in 1997 Tony Blair won his landslide victory with New Labour, Britain gave Hong Kong back to China and Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris.

On 14th April 1999 John S Hickman & Co Ltd was sold in a management buy-out with John K Stoker acquiring 100% of the ordinary share capital of the newly named Hickman Industries Ltd. National Hickman was established and Mike Burlton appointed as Managing Director of a new executive Board including Steve Saunders, Dave Formaston, Phil Price and Andy Matthews.

We all worried (unnecessarily as it turned out) about Y2K and then in March 2000 the dotcom bubble burst and global stock markets tumbled. The next year saw foot and mouth wreak havoc on rural Britain, Blair was re-elected, Enron Corp went bankrupt and on 14th May 2001 British scientists warned that of the 99 humans to have contracted CJD, almost all had died. Then on September 11th the world changed when Islamic terrorists crashed aircraft on targets in New York and Washington. In October 2001 Britain joined the USA in strikes on Taleban controlled Afghanistan.

In 2002 the Euro became legal tender in Europe; in 2003 Britain and US invaded Iraq; 2004 brought ten new members of EU and the Madrid train bombings. 2005 was the year of 7/7, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks on London’s transport system brought terrorism back to the UK and Kyoto Protocol on measures to control climate change. 2006 gave us the Bird Flu scare and Saddam was hanged.

On January 17th in 2007, the Doomsday clock was set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea nuclear testing. The IPCC concluded that human-caused-change was unequivocal and demanded immediate reduction in C02 emissions, Brown succeeded Blair and Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House of Congress. We got the iPhone, smoking was banned in all public places in England and Gordon Brown pledged to build 3 million additional new homes by 2020 to solve the UK housing crisis. US sub-prime woes lead to a housing market crash and a world-wide credit crisis!

In 2008 oil hit $150 a barrel and the financial melt-down of American banks spread to Europe and Asia with Governments world-wide injecting enormous amounts of bail-out money to deal with the resultant credit crisis. In November, Barak Obama became President of the United States. Closer to home the Hickman Industries business witnessed a rapid decline in demand as the UK housing market froze and the worst world-wide recession in living memory was about to take hold.

In 2009 Obama led with his economic stimulus that was to be followed across the world in one form or another, General Motors went bankrupt and so did a million other businesses. After 106 years in business Hickman Industries appointed its first Financial Director with Barry Frankling joining the Board.

At 4.53pm 12th January 2010 Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake, which served to remind us all that money may make the world go round, but there are other things that matter a whole lot more.

The last 30 months have proved extremely challenging for every business but thanks to the quality and dedication of its people, National Hickman is now operating at near 2006/07 sales levels. Once again the company has survived the crisis of the day! Looking back over the last 107 years puts everything into perspective. National Hickman will go on giving trade to its suppliers, unmatched service to its customers and worthwhile jobs to all of us lucky enough to be employed by it.

This is a long history and I know everyone will have special moments along the timeline to add to these few highlights but I hope that it gives everyone associated with our company quiet pride in the part they have played.

John K. Stoker