Sentinel Valve Works

Design expertise allowed them to expand into other potentially lucrative markets: specifically steam-powered lorries, and valves for civic clean water and sewage systems, both major growth areas in the United Kingdom.

In 1915 Alley & MacLellan moved the steam lorry business to a new company The Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd in Shrewsbury, England allowing the design and production of steam lorries to expand and become successful whilst freeing up space in the Glasgow factory.

Three years later with the success of the Shrewsbury business, Alley & Maclellan formed a second subsidiary company in 1918, this time based in Worcester England, the aim of this company being to expand the design and manufacture of mechanical valves with the initial focus of new civic clean water and sewage systems.

Although the impetus for expansion for this factory was the rapid growth of UK civic clean fresh water and waste sewerage systems, the business designed and manufactured valves of all sizes and for almost every industry, this included heating systems, chemical plants, electricity generation (steam turbines)[2] and the oil mining industry.

One area of success, was in a new patented design of capping value for the oil mining industry,[3] designed by chief draftsman Mr D.C. Murray who had transferred from Glasgow, this involved building a ring valve made up of three parts around the top of the drilling pipe, a sliding valve could then be slowly screwed by hand across the vertical flow of oil, capping and containing the pressurized flow until collection pipework was assembled.