| Administrative History | The Peveril Engineering Co was representative of the many small engineering workshops which developed after World War II as sub-contractors to larger firms whose business expanded as the national economy improved with the end of wartime and the years of austerity. Peveril Engineering was set up by Arthur Woodhall in the early 1940s. Mr A J Brown was at first manager and then owner when Mr Woodhall decided to return to his native Jersey. Office duties for the business were undertaken by Mr Brown's daughter Jessie who married a carpenter and joiner, Mr J W Reilly. Mr Reilly had experience of engineering tasks during World War II and, when he had worked for Peveril Engineering on a part-time basis for two years or so, he was made a partner in the business. Many of Peveril's clients were in the mining industry (e.g. John Davis & Sons of Derby), but they also carried out work for local textile firms. Equipment at the Drewry Lane premises included milling and drilling machines, centre lathes, a paint spray unit and assembly benches. Numbers of staff employed were small and included family members such as Mr J W Reilly's son Michael, brother Noel and brother-in-law William Moloney. The decline of the coal mining industry led to a reduction in work for Peveril Engineering in the early 1970s. Mr Reilly died in 1976 and with the death, aged 83, of Mr Brown, in 1978, Peveril Engineering went out of business. |
| Custodial History | These records were deposited in Derbyshire Record Office by a private individual in 1984. |