The early records show that the company's predecessors, Messrs Brown and Marshalls were well-known manufacturers of stagecoach in small premises in New Canal Street, Birmingham, and afterwards of railway carriages and wagons. In 1853 the firm moved to Adderley Park, Birmingham, where they built the Britannia Works, so well known in the the early days of rolling stock manufacture. In 1869 the business was converted into a limited liability company and continued to produce rolling stock of every description for home and foreign railways, specialising in work of a particularly luxurious character. Special mention may perhaps be made of the Peninsular and Oriental Express dining cars completed in 1892 for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-lits et des Grands Express Europeans of Paris which ran between Calais and Brindisi connecting with the Peninsular and Oriental Steamers. The business was transferred to Saltley in 1908 and the works were sold to the Wolseley Motor-car company Ltd in 1911, the site was eventually occupied by Messrs Morris Commercial Cars Ltd.

C G Wallace June1945