1950-2000

PLACING BETTS

 

1952. Arthur Betts died after a lorry backing into the factory gates crushed him against a wall. It was not the driver’s fault .

 

In 1954 the coal and coke that had powered the factory for so long was replaced by oil.  The smelters were fitted with electrostatic precipitators to control particulates (right).

 

The hard work put in by my father revived the firm’s fortunes so that the celebrations of the company’s Bicentenary in 1960 were well deserved. An era of innovation and a new technological revolution had begun. 

 

During all this time, the Betts family had retained its great interest in the natural world, my parents being founder members, with Christopher Cadbury and others, of the Worcestershire Nature Conservation Trust as it was then called, spurred on by the personal contact the founders had with luminaries such as Sir David Attenborough.

 

1963. I started work at the family firm (still John Betts & Sons Ltd at that time) as the eighth generation there.  Modernisation of Birmingham was continuing apace but we were still using avoirdupois weights (and troy ounces for the precious metals).  I introduced metrication, much to the horror of the traditional workforce! Installation of modern analytical and foundry technology, and environmental equipment, followed.

 

The 1960s had seen the construction of the GPO tower in Newhall Street behind our factory. Once it was occupied, it was the beginning of the end for us in central Birmingham which had become a city of “white collar” professionals.  We moved to a new factory in Oldbury which I ran until taking over our overseas work in 1975.  Unfortunately, we were not immune to the problems which beset so many small family businesses in the UK, the high taxes and the asset strippers.  My brother was able to salvage something from the ashes and, with the goodwill of our old clients, managed to rebuild a refinery and precious metals business that thrives today in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter.  I remained interested in the environment and formalised my self-taught interests by reading ecology, biology, environmental science, planning and land-use with the CNAA.  Hence the businesses we have today.

 

1985. Founding of Christopher Betts Environmental Biology (“Betts Ecology”).