With thanks to Ben O’Neill, who authored the following blog post, as part of his work placement. For more images from this collection, follow the link to the community map on KYP. We’d love to hear from anyone that recognises the people and places shown in the photographs!
Coming to the Worcester City Council Historic Environment Record on work experience, I am glad to say I have made myself useful by contributing to the fantastic Know Your Place website, made to share and explore local history in Worcester. Going through folders of photos of the company Carmichael & Son, provided to us by the family of Dick Peters (an engineer who worked there), I have documented the faces and places that helped make the history of this fire engine-manufacturing company.
The story of Carmichael started in 1849 as coach builders, it was not until almost a century later in 1947 that the company produced their first fire engine. By the seventies, the company was now known for these big red vehicles and donned the name Carmichael Fire and Bulk Ltd.
From here Carmichael helped to distribute fire engines around the globe, all “vehicles built to individual customers’ requirements and comply with all UK and international regulations” as said in their “Worldwide” book.
Fire engines were built for countries and cities far and wide, ranging from Gambia, Lagos to Birmingham and Worcester. This success prompted the renaming of the company to Carmichael International Ltd to incorporate its new market, but by 2004 it went into liquidation and its assets bought by AMDAC Carmichael Ltd (ACL). This story repeated in 2016 as ACL went into liquidation where its assets were bought, and are still owned, by Carmichael Support Services Ltd / SIG.
A picture of a Carmichael engine in Gambia, Africa
Know Your Place Worcester 