Catalogue description G H Gledhill and sons Ltd. Cash register and time clock manufacturers, records.

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G H Gledhill and Sons Limited, cash registers and time clock manufacturers of Halifax

• Manufacturing industry

G H Gledhill and Sons Ltd was established by George H Gledhill (supported by his sons, Arthur H Gledhill, Gilbert Gledhill and Walter G Gledhill), to produce his new inventions. Whilst running a millinery business in Northgate, Halifax in 1886, he invented an automatic cash till and automatic cash displayer. In 1892, the company moved into the top floor of the Trinity Works on Harrison Road, Halifax, to manufacture cash tills. He subsequently took over the whole factory and opened two others in Halifax and one in Huddersfield. The firm bought Frank Brooks time recording business to form Gledhill-Brook Time Recorders Ltd in 1912.

During World War 1,, the company developed a bomb-release mechanism. This was fitted as standard to the early bombers of the Royal Flying Corps and, later, the Royal Air Force. During the 2nd World War, the company produced a range of military equipment: sun compasses for desert operations, a field service level for use in road and trench construction, map measurers, booby traps, tanks and torpedoes.

In 1964, the time-recorder business was sold to the Simplex Time Recorder Company of Gardner, Massachusetts. The business closed in 1975.