Barr & Murphy

Dr Peter Barr and Mr Beverley Murphy

Dr Peter Barr worked in the early 1930s in the evaporator and spray dryer department of Lurgi and in 1935 published his Doctor's Thesis on drop formation from centrifugal atomisers. In 1940, while studying the effect of jet ejectors in evaporators, he came up with the idea of applying the same principle of pneumatic dryers and from this idea developed the Ring dryer which was patented in 1942.

Before 1962 Dr Peter Barr had headed up the Industrial Drying Department (IDD) of F.W. Berk & Co. Ltd, principally a chemical company, but with a small engineering division. In the previous 20 years he had built up a prosperous business with a team of 12 people building drying systems for the chemical, starch and dairy industries.

In 1962 the management of FW Berk retired as a group and a younger generation of the Berk family took over the board. They were keen to reorganise, and decided that as a chemical company they no longer needed their engineering divisions. Peter Barr and the IDD Manager, Beverley Murphy, left the company, and the rest of the Industrial Dryer Division came with them to start Barr & Murphy Ltd. At the time, ICI was in negotiation for a key order, and it decided to 'go with the brains' and order the dryer from the fledgling company.

The Drawing Office at F.W. Berk & Co. Ltd, 1962.

Barr & Murphy Ltd was incorporated in 1963 with an office in Dorset Square, London. It had a flying start thanks to the order from ICI. Dr Barr had also recently sold his first dryer to the American Corn Starch Industry, and the new company was able to build on that success. The FW Berk American agent however, did not want to work for the new company and risk trouble with Berk, but he introduced Barr & Murphy to Roland Calhoun, starting a relationship that was to last for another fifteen years and see the company become the leading dryer supplier to the American Corn Processing Industry.

This is a 1957 photograph of H.M. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother unveiling the plaque at No1 Dorset Square, London, NW1, home of Barr & Murphy Ltd from 1970-1986. This building had been the headquarters of Special Operations Executive's Free French (RF) section during the Second World War. Many French agents, including Jean Moulin and Pierre Brossolette, and their British colleagues in RF section such as Wing-Commander Yeo-Thomas and Captain Desmond Hubble, were briefed at 1 Dorset Square before being sent behind enemy lines. The plaque outside the building commemorates the brave people who left for missions in France and, in particular, the agents who did not return.

Derek Barr, son of Dr Peter Barr, graduated in 1966 and immediately joined the B&M team. The American business was booming and the large flash dryers being built for the Corn Starch Industry were changing the skylines of many Midwestern towns.

One of the group research laboratories.

In the early 1970s the American Corn Starch Industry was booming, and B&M benefited greatly from this. At the same time the Wheat Starch Industry was beginning to expand, with increasing use of wheat gluten to reinforce European flours for high volume bread manufacture. B&M had developed a novel drying technology for this difficult product, and its first sale was to an innovative producer in Germany. This was the beginning of the wheat starch boom that became the backbone of the firm's business in the late 1970s and 1980s.

However, it was not all plain sailing. National strikes in 1972 led to power cuts and the 'three-day week'. The company overcame those challenges by using car batteries connected to strip lights, and Gaz Camping Lights for light, and paraffin heaters for the office, all to ensure that work could continue with the least possible disruption, and that no customer was ever let down.

Derek Barr became a director of the company in 1974. He founded B&M Canada in Montreal initially as a service company for North America though later it became a full North American supply company. As well as its work in the American Corn Starch Industry, Barr & Murphy now started to explore the North American chemical industry and distilleries.

Meanwhile the Wheat Starch Industry in Europe was starting to expand, and B&M was the primary supplier of dryers for the new and expanding plants. It initiated a cooperation with Tenstar Products for its first wheat gluten plant for Miles Israel Ltd.

The company was awarded the Queen's Award for Export Achievement in 1976.

Dr Peter Barr receives the Queen's Award from the Lord Lieutenant in 1976.

Staff at the Queen's Award lunch.

In 1978 B&M had its first contact with the Australian Wheat Starch market. David Willis of Bunge visited a plant in Holland to see the process for a proposed B&M plant in Australia. Over dinner that evening a new wheat starch collaboration was born.

B&M made its first sale of complete wheat starch processing lines process to Allied Mills and Bunge Australia in 1979. These were successful installations and saw the company take a dominant position in the Australian market expansion.

A corn starch ring duct during fabrication at Cordwallis Street, Maidenhead.

GEA Barr-Rosin's test centre in St Peter's Road, Maidenhead.

The 1980s saw the company continue to be successful in the sales of drying systems to the Corn Starch Industry in North America, but the biggest success was in the Wheat starch Industry in Europe, Australia and elsewhere. Barr & Murphy developed from a dryer company into a small specialised process contractor and built a number of complete process plants for Wheat Starch around Europe and Australia, and even in China. In 1989 it bought the first unit in a new development in Bell Street, Maidenhead, which is still the office base today. Both the UK company and the company in Canada had a steadily growing business.

In 1994 GEA acquired B&M's principal European competitor Rosin Engineering. GEA soon realised that if it could bring Rosin and B&M together it would have an extremely strong position in the agri-business area, and at the same time could transfer B&M's wheat processing capability to another of its divisions.

A Barr & Murphy exhibition stand at a Powder Bulk Show in 1994.

GEA made an approach to B&M in 1995 and in 1996 the acquisition was completed. After some initial teething problems the merger between B&M and Rosin was highly successful and GEA Barr-Rosin was born.

From 1989 until present, the Bell St, Maidenhead address has remained as the main sales, project engineering and design centre, in the UK, with approximately 50 staff based there and around 70 in North America.

GEA Barr-Rosin Ltd has a research and development centre located in St Peter's Road, Maidenhead, with a similar facility in Montreal.

Views from Barr & Murphy, Montreal.

The offices at Lye, West Midlands, were gradually reduced and final closure was in 2001. Proposals are now in place to expand the Bell St address into the adjoining unit. A similar size office unit and test facility is still located in Montreal handling all of the American business and with a sales office located in Chicago.

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An article from a history book Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor Memories. Publisher: True North Books Ltd.