After being inspired by his Uncle Ben, Peter Parker was bit by a radioactive spider becoming Spider-man, Clark Kent was sent to earth by his parents taking up the mantle of Superman, and with the support of her mother, Diana Prince became Wonder Woman. Every great hero has an origin story, Garmendale Engineering Ltd is no different and ours also centres around family. So how did a small family owned business in the heart of Derbyshire go global, working with the likes of Merlin, Universal, and Disney across 4 continents? 

Garmendale team loading a traditional tram for restoration into workshop 1

Roy Shelmerdine, moved to Derbyshire from Manchester and founded Garmendale Engineering Ltd in 1980. For a decade following this Garmendale built a name for themselves in the world of specialist engineering, becoming renowned nationwide for solving problems nobody else can. Building strong relationships across water plants and train stations, demonstrating an advanced knowledge of engineering and high quality execution. From building water tanks to manufacturing railway tracks and sleepers.

Throughout Garmendale’s formative years David Shelmerdine, supported his father across a wide selection of challenging engineering projects. Alongside, long serving site engineer Peter Broadhurst, the duo and the rest of the engineering team travelled up and down the UK keeping businesses on track. In 1991 the team was invited to survey and refurbish a local theme park’s headline attraction. American Adventure in the heart of the East Midlands was a wild west themed amusement park, with an iconic cowboy carriage big wheel. Garmendale was tasked with refurbing each carriage and the main structure, setting Garmendale on a very different path spending the next 35 years and counting playing their part in the entertainment engineering industry.

80s newspaper clipping of American Adventure’s Big Wheel

The years that followed revolved around Garmendale’s reputation as problem solvers, and being able to get the job done spreading across the world. Before delving into the world of designing, building, and installing ride systems, we cut our teeth on manufacturing trains. Garmendale Engineers travelled worldwide for the best part of 10 years installing track and locomotives transporting happy guests around remarkable venues. A range of Garmendale’s train systems can be found in France, Japan, Brunei, Greece, and Singapore.

The Wonderland Express

Across the first 20 years of growth, development, and exciting engineering challenges, 1 project will always remain very close to our hearts. This project centres around an icon of the engineering industry often overlooked. In the 19th century, bridges, buildings, and machinery relied heavily on wrought and cast iron, but the world needed a better alternative. Steel was ideal, yet early production methods were slow, costly, and inefficient. Enter Henry Bessemer, born in 1813 in Bedfordshire. The son of an ironworker, Bessemer sought a better way to make steel. He discovered that impurities in iron could be removed by blowing air through molten iron, causing a chemical reaction that eliminated unwanted materials—without extra fuel.

His invention, the Bessemer Converter, revolutionized steel production. The process involved:

• Charging: Filling the converter with molten pig iron.
• Blowing: Forcing air through the iron to burn off impurities.
• Tapping: Pouring the purified steel into molds.

This method could produce 30 tons of steel in 30 minutes and slashed prices from £80 to £10 per ton. It made steel a practical material for construction and machinery.

The Bessemer converter being weathered with fire

The Bessemer process remained in use until 1974. Knighted in 1879, Sir Henry Bessemer became a pivotal, though often overlooked, figure in the Industrial Revolution, impacting not just Britain but also industrial growth in countries like Japan.

Riveting the Bessemer converter is a 4 person job

You might be wondering, ‘what does this have to do with Garmendale?’ Well in 1993 a Japanese museum enquired about a Bessemer converter model, built with the same equipment available back in the day. Using traditional engineering methods and 1850’s materials, Garmendale built a quarter scale model of the original Bessemer converter. Over three months the Garmendale team of engineers, hot rivetted and aged the steel before transporting the Bessemer Converter to its new home in Japan. Overseen by Garmendale’s founder Roy Shelmerdine, pictured below on the right. Garmendale was the team chosen to take on the project as we were the only team that could meet the project requirements, materials requested, and the time line set. 

The projects listed above are the tip of the iceberg, telling a story of hard work and resilience. Garmendale’s first 20 years revolved around hard work, reliability, and innovation completing projects others struggled to do so. Being renowned as an engineering team you can always rely on is a reputation we proudly wear on our chest, still today. The story doesn’t end in the year 2000, we’ll be updating our blog soon continuing the superhero origin story of Garmendale Engineering Ltd.