Shropshire Company - Hire! Freeman - celebrates 50 years in business
A family run Telford business that has been trading for half a century takes a look back over its history.
A race against time to get images of a historic Royal event back to the Shropshire Star, helicopters for a Bond movie, and a major contribution to the construction of a new town - all part of the extraordinary history of one Shropshire company which is celebrating 50 years in business – one of only a handful of county firms to make the half century milestone.
Hire! Freeman, a firm which arrived in Telford in the 1960’s, played a major part in providing the equipment for construction companies to develop Dawley New Town into the town of Telford as it is today.
Plant hire for the construction industry created a business boom for the small family firm which was one of the Shropshire town’s first companies to settle on Halesfield – then a “lunar landscape” of old pit mounds and industrial wastelands which has since become an established industrial estate with hundreds of firms ranging from one man bands to huge multi-nationals.
The firm has been an integral part of many different Shropshire developments with their equipment playing an essential part in countless county construction projects and for use on historic buildings, ancient homes, churches, modern offices as well as providing an important lifeline to factories and modern production lines.
It was their road roller which was first over the new Free Bridge in Jackfield at its opening ceremony in 1994, their construction equipment which helped the Time Team TV stars during excavations across Shropshire, and Hire Freeman access platforms which helped experts carry out esssential and delicate repair work simultaneously inside and outside a historic Broseley church. Their earth moving equipment created much of Telford’s infrastructure for housing and industrial estates in the area.
MD John Freeman sums it up as “50 years of making it happen” – a strapline which emphasises what an important part it has played in the development of Telford which has made Hire!Freeman a household name in the county.
After a half century in business the company has been a “barometer” through the decades reflecting how business has changed over the past 50 years.
“We have seen many changes over the years. I first arrived in Telford as a nine-year-old in the 1960’s when the area was scarred beyond belief. I thought it was like a lunar landscape and that was two years before the moon landings.
“The legacy from centuries of mining had left a landscape scattered in pit mounds and pockmarked with crater filled pools. It was a bleak, overwhelming greyness. In the middle of all this were our workshops and office buildings.”
Telford transformed over the years into the town it is today, added John, who is a passionate supporter of Telford’s remarkable success story from pockmarked pit mounds to a thriving industrial and manufacturing hub which has attracted companies from across the world and created job opportunities for the town’s growing population.
“Our business has reflected the changing needs of Telford new town. There is still demand for construction equipment, a need for our fleet of access platforms and now compressed air machinery for the construction and manufacturing industries has taken off. We continue to invest heavily in the best equipment that companies need to keep the wheels of industry turning today,” said John.
It was helicopters hired from Freeman’s which flew the first colour film of the investiture of Prince Charles at Caernarvon Castle in North Wales in 1969 back to the Shropshire Star’s head office in Ketley, Telford, to make history for the evening newspaper to be the first to use colour images.
“The Star photographer was flown back to Shropshire in one of our helicopters so that colour photos would be on the front page for the first time I believe. The Star was at the forefront of technology and we helped to contribute to their success,” said John.
Another Freeman helicopter was hired to fly into a volcano in the Sean Connery movie You Only Live Twice with the pilot living up to the film title by only just managing to escape the volcano, revealed John, a Westland helicopters aircraft engineer who took over the company from his father.
They were also called upon to provide immediate air support to spot prisoners during a break out at Long Lartin prison in the 1970’s and used for numerous other aerial police duties with their six strong helicopter fleet and pilot training school at Halfpenny Green airfield.
Helicopter hire had grown out of the successful plant hire businesses in the 1960’s and 1970’s in the company founded by John Freeman senior in his parent’s Bewdley home in 1961. Freemans of Bewdley quickly became an established plant hire company moving to larger premises in Stourport with a nationwide client list. It was Freemans of Dawley which started on Halesfield in 1967 before becoming Freemans of Telford and now as it is known today, Hire! Freeman. They worked with McAlpine’s, Tarmac and RM Douglas providing equipment for the M54 construction and with many major contractors helping to build Telford.
The helicopter hire division was later disbanded as the family firm split into two separate companies in Bewdley and Telford where John Freeman senior oversaw a growing demand for plant hire, access platforms, tools of all shapes and sizes and compressors for industry.
For a small independent family company to compete with national hire companies is no mean feat in today’s competitive world of commerce – and to still be around after 50 years is a remarkable record.
John Freeman said: “It’s very much a people industry. I have worked with such a wide variety of people from farmers to state of the art hi-tec industries, construction companies, English Heritage and all sorts of firms. This is an industry full of characters. I have known a lot of them for a long time and they are first rate firms with hard working people. I believe our family firm has been successful for so long because we will always go that extra mile for our customers because we value them and we would never let them down. It is our customers who have kept us successful for so long and a loyal staff who have all been here for between 22 and 31 years,” added John.
John and his wife Heather, who have two daughters, celebrated the company’s half century with a special birthday cake organised by their long term and loyal employees who planted an Amercian “golden” redwood outside their office. They have personally delivered presentation boxes of Shropshire Gold from the Salopian Brewery complete with a special pint glass for customers to celebrate the golden anniversary with them.
For more history on the firm visit www.hirefreeman.co.uk
