The History of Garrard, from its origin as an offshoot of the Crown jewellers, up to its closure in 1992, is told by Roy Poulton, who spent twenty eight years in the company.

(Pictured left: A Garrard brochure from the early Sixties starring an unknown model with typical bouffant hairstyle)

The Garrard story goes back a long way, to the 'Great War' of 1914-18 when Garrard the Crown Jewellers were anxious to make a contribution to the war effort, but at the same time retain their skilled craftsmen. In 1915 they rented a small building in Willesden, North West London, and formed the Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company, producing precision mechanisms for the Ministry of Defence.

After the war the gramophone became a popular source of home entertainment. Although manufacture of various parts, such as amplifiers and loudspeakers, had begun in Britain, most turntables were imported. Garrard saw an opportunity here and decided to make a gramophone motor. Although experiments in electrical recording and reproduction had begun in Britain and America, early turntables were driven by spring motors. 

Garrard's first spring motor, called the Number 1, was a quality design having a cast iron mainframe with a thick baseplate, between which were supported two strong coil springs. With a full wind it would play three ten-inch or two twelve-inch diameter records. 

The ratchet winding mechanism was virtually silent and the twelve-inch turntable was dnven at 78 rpm through gears. Its speed was controlled by a worm drive to a centrifugal govemor with three springs and bob weights, plus a sliding polished steel disc which was pulled on to felt pads as the governor springs rotated.

This tumtable quickly became popular, so it was followed by several cheaper models and then a
prestige model called the Garrard Super Spring Motor. This was totally enclosed, with an oil pump
and sump contained within the casing. As the motor was wound, the pump operated and small
copper tubes carried the oil to the bearings. Business boomed and production reached 25,000 per week.

(Pictured right: The Garrard Factory in Swindon in the Thirties. At one time the company employed 4500 people there. A clay pit behind the factory was used for skating and swimming.)

Garrard didn't stay long at Willesden. The company soon found a site in Swindon, Wiltshire, with a 27,000sq.ft. factory. Behind it was an old water filled clay pit, useful for swimming, skating and suicides! The iate Mr. H.V. Slade ran the company for many years as both Chairman and Managing Director. Eventually he was succeeded by his son, Hector Slade, who now lives in retirement in Australia. The claypit was filled in, consolidated and the company continued to expand.

With the development of radio and the spread of electricity into homes, the management decided to research and produce electric gramophone motors. In 1932 they made their first record changer,
designed by the late Edmund Mortimer. The R.C.I. was a fearsomely heavy beast. It would accept up to ten shellac 78 rpm records, either ten or twelve inches diameter, and play them sequentially with a pickup whose needle pressure was over half a pound (230gms!). 

It was quickly followed by the R.C.I.A., which was similar, but the records could be mixed. The mechanism would sense their diameter and deposit the needle automatically on the correct spot at the beginning of a record, tripping at the end and retuming the arm to its rest. It would also switch off at the end of the last record.

Around this time Garrard cashed in on their mechanical expertise and began to manufacture clocks of various kinds, still maintaining their by now well known quality. Durng the 1939-45 war large quantities of clock type mechanisms were produced for use in strategic mining, course plotting, mine sweeping, radar and such like. After the war there was heavy competition from cheap clocks produced in subsidised factories, so in 1954 clock making was abandoned. 

(Pictured left: The heavy cast rotor of the 201 which carried the platter. Frequent oiling was required to minimise flutter.)

Even in the early Thirties there was a recognised need for a high performance, heavy duty tumtable for broadcasting and recording studios, so Garrard designed and produced the Model 201. It had a direct-drive electric motor, plus a heavy cast rotor carrying a twelve inch turntable. Its speed of 78 rpm was controlled by a three-ball governor, similar to that used on the first spring motor unit
and it needed frequent oiling to minimise flutter. A special version was made forthe B.B.C. for 'instant' starting.

(Pictured right: Garrard's heavy-duty 201 player from the Thirties, designed for reproducing 78's in broadcasting and recording studios. Direct drive was used, plus a mechanical speed govenor.)

SHIPMENT SUNK
Just before the 1939/45 war a complicated unit, the R.C. 100, was  designed, which would accept and play both sldes of a stack of ten mixed ten and twelve-inch  records. About a hundred  were made and shipped to America, but the ship sank, the units were lost and they were never mentioned again.

(Pictured left: Garrard sales Corporation was set up just after the Second World War, when U.S.A. sales accounted for half of the company's production. It also sold Leak amplifiers in the States.)

After the war the company grew rapidly exporting 70% of its output throughout the world. The U.S.A. was a very strong market, taking about 50% of production, so an independent American company called Garrard Sales Inc. was formed. It sold their record changers directly into the retail market of the U.S.A. Later, more British products were taken on, among them Leak amplifiers, and Ersin Multicore solder, so the name was changed to Brtish Industries Corporation. 

Great efforts were made by both companies to keep autochangers, the new name for record changers, at the forefront ofthe hi-fi market, because the difhculty of producing them to give good performance and reliability helped keep out foreign competition; it is much easier to make a single play turntable.

Over the years various high perfommance changers were made, the most popular being the R.C.80 and culminating in the Zero 100S, which had a precision parallel tracking pickup arm. But it was the budget SP25 that ended up in most homes, metamorphosing through numerous model changes to keep it competitive.

(Pictured right: An original box for a Garrard 301 turntable, first produced in 1954. Many are still in use today.)

Despite the company's interest in mass production, it never lost slght of more serious hi-h requirements and in 1954 produced the world famous Model 301 turntable, with its high power motor, heavy cast aluminium tumtable, three speeds with variable control and meticulously designed and produced bearings. The unit dominated the market for many years, until the need for an update was felt necessary; then the 401 was introduced.

(Pictured left: A refurbished Garrard 401.  Although they were not readily accepted when first launched, nowadays, they are much sought after.)

The 401 was similar to the 301, but its motor was encased in a heavy iron cage to minimise hum induction into sensitive cartridges, notably Deccaís. Despite its similarity to the 301, extra features and attractive styling, the 401 was not as well accepted by the market; Garrard could never understand why.

The company didn't stick with tumtables. An attempt was made in the early Sixties to break into the tape market with a cartridge tape deck, the Magazine Tape Deck. It was robustly made, featuring a plastic magazine enclosing two 4" tape spools. Most of these recorders were sold into the instrumentation field because record companies could not be persuaded to issue prerecorded tapes on the format; the Magazine was cumbersome compared to the Philips Compact Cassette which followed some time after, in 1963.

(Pictured right: At the beginning of the Sixties, Garrard introduced the 'Autoslim' series of LP turntables. there can be few people in that decade who did not, at some time, have a Garrard SP25 model from the range in a 'starter system' of thirty years ago. Less attractive in the marketplace was Garrard's reel-to-reel tape magazine, seen on the other page of this brochure, which was bulky and clumsy compared to the Compact Cassette which was launched by Philips just a few years later.)

A total design change and tooling for mass production demands very high financial investment. When in 1959 the new 'Autoslim' series, including the SP25, was designed, Garrard teamed up with Plessey for assistance. Plessey had proved their worth in the defence industry but had never significantly been able to break into the domestic market. This was their chance.

(Pictured left: Garrard the Crown Jewellers in London's Regent Street, now long separated from its Garrard Engineering offshoot.)

Plessey also used the Garrard name as a spearhead to enter the U.S. and quickly dispensed with the services of The British Industries Corporation. This proved to be a bad move for a variety of commercial reasons - and Japanese competition had begun to hot up as well. Garrard lost valuable U.S. sales and went into rapid decline, from which it never recovered. 

In 1979 it was sold to the Brazilian company Gradiente Electronica. From employing no fewer than 4500 people in the early Seventies, the company ended up with a staff of four who continued to work in Swindon until June 1992. Then the operation was finally closed.