Recent meetings

The History of Mouchel’s of West Byfleet

On 3 October our own Ken Bewsey gave an illustrated talk on the company which, for the last four decades, has had its head office in West Byfleet: Mouchel.
The Frenchman who started the company, Louis Gustave Mouchel, was born in Cherbourg in 1852 and studied at the College of Cherbourg. He became an engineer on the staff of Cherbourg Roads and Bridges Department and went on to study mining. In 1875 he moved to Briton Ferry in South Wales and became director of several manufacturing companies mainly with interests in the mining industry and shipping.
Francois Hennebique, another French civil engineer, developed the concept of reinforced concrete. Hennebique’s new system was used for Weaver & Co’s flour mill in Swansea which, in 1897, became the first reinforced concrete building in the UK. Mouchel gained the UK agency and founded the company Mr L. G. Mouchel, General Agent, Hennebique’s Patent Construction in Ferro-concrete.
Concrete is strong in compression but weak in tension; if the span is too long or the load too great it could fail. Steel is strong in tension so Hennebique cast steel bars in the bottom to take the tension while the concrete in the top took the compression.
The first commission was for a sea wall for the London & Southampton Railway at Southampton. More jetties and wharves followed as reinforced concrete is ideal for construction in water where steel structures are susceptible to rusting and timber to marine borers. It has greater fire resistance than steel frameworks for large buildings. The Royal Liver Building, of 1909, is one such building. It was Britain’s tallest at 320 feet until the1960’s.
A local landmark was the Brooklands Bridge which carried the racetrack over the Wey. The bridge had to be built where the track was severely banked and on a curve thus making it unique: Mouchel got the contract for the design.
When in 1899 Hennebique returned to France his Chief Engineer, C. Roch, remained and joined Mouchel’s firm. Now Mouchel’s could do designs themselves. Hennebique arranged for another French engineer, Alfred Gueritte, to join Mouchel. Mouchel opened an office at 124 Holborn, London, but shortly moved on to 38 Victoria Street where the company remained for 59 years.
By 1907 patents on reinforced concrete were running out or being challenged and Mouchel had to face the loss of his monopoly. Such was his reputation that commissions continued to flow in.
Mouchel died of stomach cancer in Cherbourg on 27 May 1908. He never married and turned his business into a limited company, L.G. Mouchel and Partners Ltd. He directed that his holdings in the company be offered to the staff at par and, ever since, the company has effectively been owned by the staff. One of the three directors he appointed was Gueritte, who served as director for 41 years, retiring in 1948.
During WWI Germans found reinforced concrete bridges more difficult to destroy than those of steel and both sides used reinforced concrete extensively for defences. Steel production struggled to keep pace with the demands of the armed forces and Mouchel looked at other uses of reinforced concrete to replace steel. The seemingly unlikely idea they came up with was ships. The first concrete ship was the SS Armistice, a cargo ship of 1150 tons deadweight launched in 1919 at Barrow in Furness. It traded between Liverpool and Lagos for 25 years and then became a floating warehouse until 1969 and so was seaborne for 50 years. A 70 ft barge with elaborate decorative structure was designed in 1926 for Magdalen College Boat Club: it is now moored by a hotel at Streatley on Thames and is used as part of their conference facilities.
Inter war years led to considerable work on bridges with road bridges being found inadequate for the increased levels of transport. There was also the Broadmead Bridge over the Wey at Old Woking, built in 1915. There were also buildings; including Earls Court exhibition building in 1935 which included a large section of floor which can be raised or lowered on jacks to provide a pool, such as is used as the harbour at boat shows. WWII saw the company move from London to Sutton although after the blitz they moved back to Victoria. Mouchel was involved in the design of the 115 huge caissons 200 ft long by 60ft high and 50 ft wide to form the six mile breakwater to enclose Mulberry Harbour for D-Day. Designed to last for the six month projected use of the harbour, some can still be seen today.
In 1960 the firm had to move from Victoria Street as the site was to be redeveloped as the New Scotland Yard building. They moved to Lambeth but when one of the Directors came across West Hall, a mansion set in 12 acres of parkland at West Byfleet, the company moved there in June 1964. The house still had many of its original features. Some staff moved with the company. One was C.G.Mileham, who had been on the staff since 1928. He moved his family from Beckenham to Mayford and, four years later, became one of the founder members of what is now the Woking History Society.
Power stations became the most important work in terms of fees and numbers of staff involved.
In the late 60’s a presence was established in the Middle East and, when this proved a success, it was extended to the Far East. In the UK the firm had moved into highway engineering. The company designed the first two multi storey car parks at Heathrow and others, including the one in Victoria Way, Woking, built at the end of the 1960’s followed by the Toys R Us store and car park, the Central Swimming Pool and the Central Library. These last two were eventually demolished to make room for the Peacocks: one of several shopping centres for which Mouchel has designed the structure.
Ken’s talk, and illustrations, were most interesting and the more so because they were about a now local company.
Ann Harington