Taylor and Barrett

Brothers A R Barrett, S Barrett and F G Taylor founded Taylor and Barrett in 1920. The Barrett brothers had earlier been employed as casters by William Britain Ltd. Three years later the small business had grown enough to enable them to start producing full time, from premises in Upper Holloway, North London.

Among the first models produced were a large camel, governess cart and pony, two Indians paddling a canoe, a Chinaman and Zulu with rickshaw and a large elephant and howdah. A whole range of horse drawn carts and various military and civilian figures quickly followed these. That in turn forced the company to relocate premises to near by East Finchley in 1929 where a range of motor vehicles was first introduced in the mid 1930s.

These were rather crude by comparison with the Dinky Toys of the day as the lead gravity casting process was incapable of working to the fine limits possible with pressure die-casting as used by Meccano Ltd. The majority of the vehicles use a basic chassis incorporating the bonnet and wings. Different bodies are attached to this base unit by tabs and a radiator is plugged into the front. Some versions have the grille cast integrally with the bonnet, and most of these use plain metal wheels instead of having rubber tyres. These vehicles have a tremendous amount of charm as toys while they are only a generic representation of the types of vans and small trucks of the time.

A wide variety of types were made including petrol tankers, a pick-up truck and a couple of mail vans. The breakdown truck is particularly attractive with a working crane on the rear. A range of very nice fire engines came along in the late 1930s with a super turntable ladder appliance as the top of the range. These were longer than the main range and had many parts. To mark the advent of the Home Office Fire Precautions scheme (where fire appliances were made available to local areas by central government), Taylor and Barrett painted its range in grey as well as the more traditional red. These grey models are highly sought after now. Personnel were also available to go with these fire engines. A ‘Decontamination Squad' being a particular favourite with their gas masks and chemical-proof overalls. There is also a less impressive fire engine in the short chassis range.

By 1940 the firm was producing a large range of motor vehicles, horse drawn carts, zoo and farm animals, solders and dolls' house furniture a considerable amount of which was being exported. But also in 1940 all production was halted when the factory was bombed out of existence. All salvageable tools, moulds and stock was moved to a new location in North Finchley but production stopped very soon after because of the munitions requirements of the war effort.

During the war the tools were split between the Taylors and the Barretts for safe keeping but they did not join up again afterwards as family problems forced them to become two separate companies, F.

G. Taylor & Sons and A. Barrett & Sons, in 1945. One of the features of the split was the share of the Zoo Series moulds of the keepers and accessories that resulted in both the new companies issuing the same items. The main part of the range, the small commercial vehicles and the cars, does not seem to have survived the War, only the trolley buses, which became Barrett's, and the Leyland coach which appeared in onepiece casting form as a Taylor. It is interesting to note that the trolleybus carries a route board ‘621 Finchley' which probably means that they went past the factory.

The trolley buses came in two sizes. The large one has a separate driver figure (and conductor as well in the T&B version but not the later Barrett), and the body is in two pieces, upper and lower decks. The small one is in one piece and has no driver. Needless to say there is a vast difference in the values of the two sizes.

There are generic cars, roadster, coupé, and saloon, on the short base but there is also quite a good model of the 1935 Singer Airstream saloon. This is also the poor man's Chrysler Airflow but never really caught on because the styling made the car look too tall to be appealing. A rather crude one-piece Austin Seven racer was the final car but this was to a larger scale.

The Meccano Company with its Dinky Toys range was not the only one to make a model of the Air Mail Service Car based on the Morris Commercial chassis. T&B also made one and a nice chunky toy it is too. A couple of aeroplanes, a De Havilland Comet and an airliner, completed the range of powered vehicles. A modified version of the Comet seems to have been made by Barrett later but it differs a lot from the T&B version, which is a much better model.

Some of the moulds were still around a few years ago and some attempts were made to make models again. These were fairly unsuccessful as casting techniques had changed and the new metals did not have the same flow characteristics as the early lead. Some models are definitely known to have been re-made so collectors are advised to be wary.

A.Barrett & Sons in the 1950s added a range of children's TV characters and hollowcast puppets; it also went on to produce models from Sacul moulds after that company went into liquidation.

A firm called A. Barton & Company later merged with A. Barrett & Sons and the Barrett's production was phased out in favour of dolls' house furniture; Barton then bought out Barretts in 1984 ending 64 years' of production.

The following listing is of models issued by Taylor and Barrett between 1920 and 1939 and post war production which was split between F. G. Taylor & Sons and A. Barrett & Sons, both listing here separately, each firm inheriting some moulds and continuing to make some but not all of the models.