Wheelwrights and Blacksmiths
Gillibrand was established in 1859 by Mr J.Gillibrand, who started building horse-drawn carts in a small workshop very close to where the business is currently located. The firm had its own wheelwrights shop and blacksmiths forge, and was able to provide a comprehensive service to the customers from that era.
The next generation of the Gillibrand family were brothers, Thomas and Henry, who ran the business towards the end of the 19th Century. Whilst still building and repairing horse drawn carts and coaches, more sophisticated modes of transport were being developed and the business adapted accordingly. Thomas Gillibrand was the mainstay of the business until his death in 1924. As well as being a highly respected businessman in the town, Thomas Gillibrand was closely connected to Blackburn Rovers, becoming a Director and Vice President of the Club during his lifetime.
Coachbuilding
In 1891, Thomas Gillibrand moved the business into its new premises, a small workshop on Cherry Street in Blackburn. Over a hundred years on, the business is still located on that same site.
As the Company developed, it became ideally placed to take advantage of one of the biggest commercial opportunities to present itself at the time – the advent of Motor Transport.
Having survived the pre-war depression, the company emerged after it well equipped to exploit the huge demand for building and repairing motor body vehicles.
Motor Cars
In the early part of the 1950’s the business was acquired from the Gillibrand family by Thomas Ellis, who had originally worked for the Gillibrand family as an apprentice as early as the 1920’s before gaining lots of experience in Coachbuilding by working in a number of other local businesses. He eventually returned to Gillibrands with the knowledge necessary to further develop the business. It was around this time that Gillibrands started to repair motor cars as well as coachbuilding.
The ongoing success of the business was reflected in the expansion of the workshop to accommodate the new car repair business and the building, repairing and painting of large commercial vehicles. There were a number of extensions carried out during the 1960’s and 1970’s, which provided the 20,000 square feet of workshop space still used today.
Accident Repair Centre
The business today still bears the name of the original “Gillibrand” owners, though it is now owned by the Weddle family and managed by brothers Michael and Peter Weddle, grandsons of Thomas Ellis. The business ceased building vehicle bodies at the end of the last century and is now entirely dedicated to the Accident Repair Industry, particularly aligning itself with the demands of the Approved Repair Contracts issued by large Insurance Companies, such as Norwich Union, Royal & Sun Alliance and CIS.
Gillibrand Accident Repair Centre is a fine example of a company that has moved with the times and survived major changes not just to modes of transport and repair technology, but to customer service and customer expectations.
