Herbert continued the family tradition, designing many items including the horse-drawn marker seen here. This was used to mark out the fields so that the seed could be planted quickly and evenly.
Many types of agricultural carts and wagons were built by Gibbs and in particular, there was a steady trade in dung carts. Dung was an essential commodity for any farmer in an age before artificial fertiliser, for without it, his land would soon bec…
Herbert realised the need for different types of transport required by the farmers and market gardners in and around the Bedfont area. He produced a pattern book in which he drew his designs for carts and wagons. The customer would choose which veh…
Herbert recognised the potential of power driven vehicles on solid tyres and with the end of the First World War providing many redundant military vehicles, he was quick to seize the opportunity. Soon Gibbs were adapting old lorries for use on farms…
In 1920 the firm designed and built the first Gibbs Hampton Pattern Wheelbarrow, specially designed to negotiate the narrow doorways and aisles of the greenhouses in Hampton, Middlesex where flowers, especially carnations and chrysanthemums, were gro…
The horticultural trade around London was also thriving, with growers using greenhouses to provide a wider variety of flowers and edible produce. Gibbs, as usual, was ready to supply this trade with specialist equipment.
Gibbs specialised in building vehicle bodies to meet customers’ specific needs. They bought in the chassis frames and built on a body for a particular purpose, often to the customer’s specification. Lorries used to carry crates of produce to market…
Awarded first prize at the Middlesex Agricultural Society Show on the 5th October 1900. The winner’s plaque can be seen in the Gibbs history display at the Rural Life Centre.
As time passed the business flourished and the range of goods and clientele expanded. Although agricultural wagons and implements remained the mainstay of the business, the firm expanded into building private carriages, commercial vehicles and other…
John Gibbs quickly realised that he could specialise in equipment for the expanding fruit and vegetable industry. One of his innovations was a lightweight cart for transporting strawberries. It was important that the fruit should arrive at market…
The load was then pulled to the road by horses and taken to the grower’s yard by steam engine. Here they were watered by hose to keep them fresh and taken to Covent Garden early next morning in wagons pulled by horses for speed.
