The Firm Changes Hands.
by John Ince

At the recent meeting of the International Society of Meccanomen  at Henley-on-Thames Geoff Wright made this announcement:-

I am delighted to announce that our good friend Howard Somerville has offered to take over and continue MW Mail Order and the Meccanoman's Club for the foreseeable future, and has purchased the business "Lock, Stock & Barrel", as he puts it.  For the time being, mail, telephone calls, and e-mails will be transferred to him, and so for MW Mail Order, it is "Business as usual".

Elizabeth & I want to thank you for all the support and encouragement you have given us over the past 35 years, and ask for your support in encouraging Howard in his endeavours for the future.

Besides building on his ever expanding Meccano CD service, Howard will also print and/or supply ModelPlans, DataFiles, and our wide range of Modelbuilding Literature. He will also be delighted to consider the publication of further new ModelPlans and associated literature.  He will not however be taking on the dealership for current Meccano sets.

MW Models first made its appearance in the Meccano scene in the early 1970s. The March 1971 Meccano Magazine contained this advertisement - probably the first one by Geoff in his new role. It was not long before Geoff took over the running of The Meccanoman's Club. The July 1975 Meccano Magazine reported this event in the following report:- 

AN ERA in the annals of the Meccano hobby is shortly to come to an end with the imminent retirement from the Meccanoman's Club of Mr G. Maurice Morris, the Club's founder, and Mr. John Pearce, his able Assistant. Though the activities of the Club will continue, these worthy gentlemen, who are advancing in years, feel that the time has now come for them to withdraw from the pressures of running the Organisation if they are to enjoy the leisure of their later years. Thousands of enthusiasts around the world will be sorry to see them go, but all will join `with me in saying that they deserve the relaxation after all they have done for the Meccano hobby. We all wish them many happy years in retirement

Nearly twenty years ago, Mr. Morris started to supply other Meccano enthusiasts with long-obsolete Meccano literature and parts. It was early appreciated that very few specimens of Meccano literature dating from 1901 were available and when originals were unobtainable, photo-copies were supplied.

As time went on, what had started as a hobby developed into a business and it was quite impossible for Mr. Morris to continue alone. In 1960 Mr. John Pearce joined him and took over the bulk of the work, but soon he, too, was over-whelmed with the sheer mass of activity. So a small staff was built up and The Meccanoman's Club was formed, operating from Abbey Wood in London. Since then over one hundred different Meccano publications have been produced by the Club, beginning with `The Meccanoman's Guide' and ranging through `The Meccanoman's Journal', no less than 56 Modern Supermodel Leaflets and `The Development of the Meccano System', a supplement to which is now being produced.

From 1st October this year, with the retirement of Mr. Morris and Mr. Pearce, all Club activities will be sponsored by Mr. Geoff Wright of M. W. Models, 165 Reading Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 1DP. Thus, no correspondence can be dealt with at the Club's present postal address after 30th September. From then onwards, all enquiries should be addressed to M. W. Models. Mr. Wright assures us, incidentally, that, as far as possible, all Meccanoman's Club publications will be available indefinitely, though perhaps in updated form. Long may they continue.

This same issue had a rather more comprehensive MW Models advertisement.

In the early days of MW Models Geoff depended on the Binns Road factory for his supply of Meccano parts. He held most parts in stock although in May 1972 a circular sent to Bruce Neilson advised that there were temporary shortages of a few parts especially some electrical parts. Geoff was already offering second hand parts but very few brass parts were available in this catergory. This situation changed, of course, in 1979 with the collapse of the Liverpool factory in November of that year. By that time Meccano Ltd was part of the Airfix group and I understand that after the closure the remainder of the Meccano stock was moved to an Airfix warehouse in London. MW Models made a successful bid to purchase this stock and after a few frantic days the whole lot was moved to Henley. Many readers will have benefited from Geoff's foresight in making this purchase and thereby ensuring that Meccanoman worldwide continued to have access to vital components.

Peter King of the Christchurch Meccano Club, who was the source of the above comments, notes that Geoff also visited the Liverpool factory after the closure and purchased several odds and ends plus some machinery – in particular the ‘sprocket chain’ making machines and a great amorphous pile of press tooling some of which not being ‘Meccano’ was on-sold. Geoff told Peter that he made a crazy bid (scrap metal price) to the receiver for the tooling without any expectations of acceptance and had some difficulty in keeping a straight face and remaining calm and collected when it was accepted! Peter does not know where all this stuff went but it would have been priceless to the right buyers.

Most readers will be familiar with the News Sheets, price lists and numerous ModelPlans and other literature published by Geoff over subsequent years until a few years ago he quit the Meccano spare parts side of the business. This change resulted in the name becoming MW Mailorder and the ModelPlans being distributed by The Meccanoman's Club rather than by MW Models.

The following letter was published in the International Meccanoman in May 1999:

WHY IS GEOFF WRIGHT'S SHOP MW MODELS AND NOT GW MODELS

Dear Spanners

Our family firm used to make Architectural Models. Dad's name was Maxwell Wright so the firm was called Maxwell Wright Scale Models. A family friend designed a beautiful little MW logo for him.

Later on after Dad's death we turned to model railways, and arranged for the production of a five pole motor among other activities. The MW logo came in most useful for our advertising. So we called the new firm MW Models.

So that's where the MW came from. And why it isn't GW Models. No connection!

Regards,
Geoff

Now we have to welcome a new player in the publications field - Howard Somerville. Howard is already well known to many Meccanomen especially through his production of the CDs of reproduced Meccano Magazines but here are a few notes about him.

Howard is pictured wearing his Dunhill outfit, a gratuity from the West London Meccano Society Dunhill Meccano project last year. This event was described in the January 2005 issue of The International Meccanoman. Alfred Dunhill of Jermyn Street, London is a store selling top fashion menswear

Follow this link for the MW Website.

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