AS the world’s oldest supplier of window components, Crittalls has a lot of history.

And this selection of photographs from its archives takes us through a whistle stop tour of just some of them.

The origins of the company date back to 1849 when Francis Berrington Crittall bought the Bank Street ironmongery in Braintree, but it was not until 1884 when it was being run by his son Francis Henry Crittall, that it began to make metal windows.

In 1880, the company employed 11 men, by the 1890s this figure was 34 and by 1918 it had reached 500.

In 1907, Crittall began to operate the Detroit Steel Product Co, the first steel window factory in the United States.

During the First World War, Crittall’s factories were used in munitions production, but postwar the company returned to steel window manufacture.

It formed a manufacturing agreement with Belgian firmBraat in 1918 and opened a works in Witham, Essex in 1919, partly to supply standard metal windows for the UK government’s housing scheme.

In 1939, Crittall built its first galvanising plant at Witham, shortly before it once again became engaged in munitions production during the Second World War.

During the Fifties, Crittall began to manufacture aluminium windows and curtain walling, and in the Sixties was instrumental in the development of pressure chamber weather performance testing standards that are still used in the UK today.

The post-war period has seen Crittall undergo several major corporate changes including a management buy-out in 2004 and in 2007 it opened a new factory and head office in Witham.

* If you have any images of businesses through the ages please contact us on 01206 508186