We all depend on road gritters to clear the roads when there is a heavy snowfall or ice during the winter months. But did you know that a north Berkshire business was a pioneer in the field (or rather, road)? The Ashbury road gritting machine was not just a random name – it was named for the Berkshire village where it was invented and manufactured by Messrs Bunce.
We discovered it thanks to this recently catalogued advertising card (shown above; ref. D/EX1837/1/1/2) printed on cardboard to hang up in a workshop or office, complete with instructions for maintenance of your own machine and handy pictures of the various spare parts. However, the grit used to melt the snow and ice could easily damage the machine, and as the card cautions, ‘the least particle of grit in [the] bearings spells disaster’.
The machine was invented by William John Bunce of Ashbury in 1927, and manufactured by his family firm William Bunce & Son until at least 1966. William was a trained blacksmith with an eye for innovation. His other inventions included ‘horse whipple trees’ which balanced the load to enable one horse to pull a weight which normally needed two, three or even four horses; there was also the Berkshire Patent Artificial Fertiliser Distributor; as well as snow ploughs for lorries and tractors with special tripping edges which would spring back when they encountered a manhole or similar obstacle.
Bunce started his own business in Ashbury in 1896 by buying an existing smithy in his mid 20s for the princely sum of £17.10s. As time went on, he diversified from the standard work of shoeing horses into repairing farm machinery, becoming an early agricultural engineer. In 1926 he brought his three children into the business. Daughter Doris drove a lorry all over the country to demonstrate the Ashbury Gritting Machine, and she and her sister Miss E Bunce remained active in the business until they retired in 1961. William stayed in overall charge until he became ill in 1949, when son Albert took over, and Albert’s son became the third generation of the family to be involved when he started work in 1951, the year William died aged 80.
The snow ploughs and gritting machines were a big success, and no wonder. In 1941 they contributed to the war effort when the Air Ministry ordered 666 snow ploughs, later almost doubling the order to 1320. Two ploughs and one gritting machine were earmarked for each aerodrome in the country, to help in the Battle of Britain and later in bombing raids over Germany. This enormous order was completed within a year with the help of some other local firms. The order was worth almost £60,000 – less £33,000 tax, which the firm said they ‘gladly handed over ... as their war effort’.
The firm continued to innovate into the 1960s as business boomed with more local authorities keen to ensure roads were cleared of snow. In 1965 they took over a firm which manufactured salt spreading machines, and they acted as importers of a German range of snow clearing machines.
As well as being an entrepreneur and inventor, Mr Bunce was apparently ‘loved and respected by everyone. His employees were his friends; he took a kindly interest in them and their concerns’. We can celebrate every aspect of this wonderful Berkshire invention, which continues to make life better today.