Denford Engineering was established by Horace Stanley Frederick Denford about 1944, "in the closing years of the war", to manufacture engineering inspection and measuring equipment as well as tool holders. After the war a new company, Denford Machine Tools, was created to manufacture bench lathes. Denford Machine Tools was located in Box Tree Mills in the Wheatley (now Ben Ryydding) village which is part of the Ilkley parish in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The new lathe line was called "Box-Ford", a portmanteau of Box Tree and Denford.
During the 1950s the lathe manufacturing was relocated to Brighouse, a town a few miles southeast of Halifax. The Viceroy lines of wood lathes and metal lathes were aimed primarily at schools. Also introduced at this time were tool sharpening equipment, grinders, and polishers.
In 1962 the founder's son, Gerald Denford, took over as company head. Gerald led the company into the then-new CNC machinery business, which in the present day remains the company's core business. In 1987 Gerald's son Andrew Denford took over control of the business. The company's product lineup now includes CNC mills, lathes and routers and is primarily focused on the educational market.
Information Sources