Commercial Overprint Society of Great Britain
Vol. 3 No. 6; December 1, 2005
Pickfords
by Michael Behm
According to one source, Pickfords was inaugurated in 1646. However, the Pickfords' company is more vague about their beginnings, saying only that the Pickford's family was in the road-maintenance business near Manchester at the end of the 17th century. Their quarry provided the materials for road work, and their horses moved stone from the quarry to the parts of the road where stone was needed. Rather than have the horses idle, Pickfords moved goods for others between quarry loads.
By 1756, James Pickford was running a Manchester-to-London wagon route from his company in London. Twenty years later, Pickfords developed the "fly wagon", which reduced the transit time between London and Manchester to a mere four-and-a-half days. These were prosperous times for Pickfords: they acquired other cartage firms and expanded into moving goods by barge.
By the early days of the 19th century, Pickfords was in decline—due, in part, to the economic depression brought about by the Napoleonic Wars. By 1816, Pickfords was at the point of bankruptcy; the family sold the business to a group of investors led by Joseph Baxendale. Baxendale immediately cuts wasteful portions of the company's business and within eight years is able to join the boards of several new railway companies. The company's web site claims that by 1850, Pickfords no longer used canals; however, in 1854 Joseph and Jonah Hadley, the owners of City Flour Mills, sued Baxendale for £200 for loss of profits when Pickfords shipped a vital mill part by barge rather than by land. The court awarded the Hadleys £50. By doing this, the court set a precedent is still studied in cases about how damages should be assessed for breach of contract. It has been called "the most celebrated common law case of all time".
Just prior to World War I, Pickfords amalgamated with three other transportation firms. With the onset of the war, Pickfords was able to thrive in moving goods for the war effort, relocating people, and storing their goods.
In the post-war era, Pickfords was sold to the Hayes Wharf Cartage Company Limited, but retained the Pickfords name. The company expanded into new transportation niches: transporting petrol in tankers, running coach tours of Britain, and transporting meat in refrigerated vans.
In 1934, the company was acquired by the four main railway companies in the UK. It is during this period that commercial overprints are known.
By the end of World War Two, Hayes Wharf Cartage had also come to own another commercial overprint user: Thomas Cook and Sons (T C/& S).
In 1947, Pickfords was nationalized to form British Road Services, which became a public company in 1953. In 1963 it became part of the National Freight Corporation (NFC) and was owned by the Treasury. In 1989, NFC was put on the stock exchange; in 2002, Pickfords became part of SIRVA, Inc., a multi-national moving company. However, the Pickfords name is still used in Britain and around the world.
Send comments or questions to mjbehm@kw.igs.net