The picture above is the site of the Bailey Meters & Controls factory and offices at 218 Purley Way Croydon. In the late 1970s, the company was taken over by the large engineering group Babcock International, headed up by the late Lord King, who was also chairman of British Airways at the time. The vast Purley Way site became the home of the large systems integrator Bristol Babcock Limited (BBL).
We have a highly motivated team of staff who combine their skills and passion to create and deliver solutions in the power, water, rail, tunnelling, energy from waste, transport and process sectors.
BBL was a market leading process automation contractor working across a number of sectors worldwide, and were heavily involved in the C&I design and installation solutions at Heysham II & Torness nuclear power stations in the 1980s. The company was acquired by the FKI group in 1990 and was later to become part of the Emerson Process Management Group. The Field Services Department (FSD) of Bristol Babcock had some 98 field service engineers at peak, working throughout the world in all sectors where a process control solution was required. With the closure of the Purley Way site in 1988, BBL relocated to smaller modern premises at Parsonage House in Dorking, Surrey and began to broaden their water sector business in parallel with power station activities.
In mid-1991, BBL was on the ground in Kuwait following the evacuation after the Iraqi invasion and was soon delivering the first major power station project, with the complete electrical control room replacement at Doha West power station. Following on from this success, the electrical control room at Doha East power station was completely replaced and BBL won the contract for the Shuwaikh distillation plant refurbishment.
In parallel with the £30M desalination refurbishment, BBL were awarded a contract at Az Zour South power station, close to the Saudi border, to complete the construction and commissioning of two gas scrubber and pressure reducing stations. It was at this stage in 1994 that the management instigated a buyout of the field services division of BBL and FIELD SYSTEMS DESIGNS was created, retaining the FSD acronym.
In 2009, we established FSDe, which focused specific attention on rail and specialist building services installations.
In February 2012 the Group acquired Tom Finney Services Ltd (TFS). Operating as part of the FSD Electrical Services division (FSDe), the addition of TFS, an experienced electrical installation contractor based in the North of England, consolidated our capabilities in Fire, Intruder, CCTV and Lightning Protection installation.
FSD Mech were established in 2012 to supplement FSD’s existing Electrical capabilities. FSD Mech offer a complete pipework supply and installation service to the Water, Petrochemical and Process Industries.
FSD Electrical Services (FSDe) were re-established in 2017 to provide Telemetry, Control & Automation Solutions to FSD’s already large offering. FSDe now also manufactures a variety of systems and provides services to the automotive manufacturing industry
Today, FSD still retain a number of staff who were involved at Heysham, Torness and the Middle East projects and have developed our team and skills to operate as a respected solution provider within a number of sectors.