Finch of Bookham 100 year history. 1924-2024

In 1942 Walter’s son, Walter known as Snowie, married Elsie. He worked with his father but six months later was called up and posted to Hong Kong with the RAF. The war was to bring hard times for everyone, not least for Walter’s business. When Snowie returned in 1946 the business was struggling to stay afloat but peacetime did bring new opportunities. In 1949, a certain Mr Spencer, was building a new type of machine in a garage at Effingham for cleaning clothes, called a dry cleaner. The machine was enormous and it needed careful handling. He asked Snowie if his trucks could move the massive machine because he hoped to have customers nationwide. It was the beginning of a large new business and a relationship between the two companies that would endure for many years. Finch trucks started moving individual machines then progressed to whole laundries. The expertise they acquired in handling machinery on this scale during the 1950s and 1960s was to stand the Finch business in good stead for many years to come. By now the coal business was taking up valuable machine storage space in the yard and Snowie decided to sell the goodwill and customer base to Charringtons. With more available space there was room for more vehicles and machine storage which was on the increase.

Walter died in 1963 and Snowie continued to run a fully fledged transport business which didn’t just move dry cleaning machinery, but anything from an aeroplane built in a London mews property to boats, machine tools, safes and sculptures. They moved equipment from schools and colleges, local councils and shops to mention just a few. With their lifting expertise with special equipment they could move items in and out of basements, through windows, up stairways, down lift shafts and onto rooftops.

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info@finchofbookham.co.uk