Technical Manager David Allsopp Retires

On the 28th of October 2014 an extremely influential figure at Owen Springs Ltd called time on his illustrious career in the spring trade. During his time at Owen Springs, David was involved in a number of high profile projects, including helping determine the correct design of springs for The Unknown Warrior and drawing spring specifications for one of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang replicas. In addition to this David produced many designs which converted a multi leaf spring to a parabolic spring as well as redesigning many of our classic car spring specifications to suit race or rally applications.

Operations Manager Martyn Gibson (pictured above with David) said, “David’s work has been invaluable, he will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues but we wish him a very happy retirement.”

• David began work in 1966 as an Engineering Apprentice at John Brockhouse and Co.
• In 1969 Richard Berry & Sons, who were part of the Brockhouse Group, asked if they could take one of the apprentices. David was chosen and started work as an Apprentice Toolroom Operative.
• His former employers eventually merged and became Brockhouse Berry where David worked as a Draughtsman until the company closed in 1986.
• The company was sold to British Springs Ltd in Bridgnorth where David continued to work as a Draughtsman and later absorbed the role of Works Engineer.
• In 2007 the OSL Group purchased British Springs Ltd and David continued to work out of the company’s Bridgnorth warehouse.
• In 2008 the warehouse closed and British Springs merged with Owen Springs (established 1983) to create the company you see today. David was employed as the Technical Manager until his retirement.

In the months leading up to his retirement, David has transferred a great deal of his knowledge to our new Technical Engineer, Jonny Burks.