The Griffiths’ family connections with the building industry date back to the second half of the 19th Century, at a time when Gladstone and Disraeli dominated Parliament and the British Empire controlled much of the land area of the world.  In the countryside steam powered traction engines were beginning to appear causing many workers to move to towns and cities.  In the village of Knockin, near Oswestry, the Griffiths family ran a grocery shop. At 25 years of age William Griffiths decided that he did not want to follow his father as a sawyer in the local timber yard, but that he would set himself up as a builder working for local farms and estate owners.  The year was 1874.
By all accounts William was regarded as being a clever and forward thinking individual and he soon branched out into larger scale general construction work, by 1879 he was undertaking contracts such as the United Reform Church at Dovaston. In 1881 he was awarded the contract to build the Baptist Chapel in Newtown,  Even today, with our modern communications, this would be regarded as a major contract, but it was a dramatic step forward for a small village builder. The main chapel sat 1100 and in addition there was 12 classrooms and a large hall.  The Montgomeryshire Express reported on 25th January 1881 that “the contract for the erection of the chapel was let to William Griffiths, builder, Knockin......  There will be few chapels more handsome in the United Kingdom.”  It is still considered to be the largest ecclesiastical building in Wales, excluding cathedrals.
It is a measure of the capable and competent person he must have been, that he was able to convince the architect and the Church of Wales that he could build, what is truly a magnificent building.
After completing the Newtown Chapel, Williams Griffiths had established a considerable reputation for building chapels, and he was subsequently commissioned to build further chapels at Oswestry, Whittington, Sandford and Ellesmere, where he built both the Methodist and Congregational Chapels. 
The minutes of the Trustees of Ellesmere Methodist Church record that in 1906 the contract for a new chapel was awarded to W Griffiths & Sons at a price of £1493.17s.10d, plus an additional £70 for the cost of wood block floors.
He also built the Masonic Hall in Oswestry.  It was about the time that he move to Ellesmere where he built houses in Scotland Street, Brownlow Road and Elson Road.  In 1906 he built Ellesmere Cottage Hospital, and established a brick-works outside the town at Elson.
As well as being a very busy businessman he was a committed family man with a family of nine children.
One of his children was William Henry Griffiths, who is the grandfather of the current Chairman, Mr W M Griffiths.  In 1907  William Henry decided to emigrate to Canada to seek a new life on the other side of the Atlantic.  He arrived in Calgary, Alberta at the same time as 50 families from the Oswestry/Whittington area.  They were very demanding days but William Henry thrived in Canada forming an endearment  for Canada that never diminished.  He started as a bricklayer but soon had his own construction business.  William met and married a lady who had emigrated from Builth Wells.  After their first child had arrived they returned to this country in 1915 at the request of his father whose health was failing.  One brother had moved to Crewe taking the family business with him. On returning to Ellesmere William Henry, with his brothers Tom and Fred, started a new firm, Griffiths Bros., their yard was alongside the Old Smithfield in Ellesmere.
During the 1920’s and 1930’s the Griffiths Bros partnership flourished and they gained a considerable reputation as quality builders not only locally but throughout the north west.  They travelled to Bromborough on the Wirral to build a large housing estate, nearer home they built and enlarged the United Dairies at the Wharf in Ellesmere and the Kraft Dairy (later to become Express) in Whittington.  In Ellesmere they constructed Cambria Avenue, bungalows in Beech Grove, further houses in Brownlow Road, Willow Crescent and some of the larger houses on Elson Road.  They decided to commence speculative building and developed Oak Drive in Oswestry. It was a time when many farms were mechanising, and they built a large number of cow houses throughout the area.  In the 1930’s William Henry was joined by his son Tudor Griffiths who had served his apprenticeship as a bricklayer.
In 1930 William Henry moved to Aston Farm and the Griffiths family’s involvement with farming began.  He always remembered what he had seen in Canada and was keen to introduce new and progressive ideas.  He imported the first Canadian Holstein into the country and in conjunction with Liverpool University he embarked on a brucellosis eradication scheme.  Later on the first milking parlour in the area was brought into operation at Aston Farm which Fullwood and Bland used as a site for experimental and development work.
In the Ellesmere area in the 1930’s the main local source for sand and gravel was Mr F Sproston’s pit at Wood Lane, which was operated largely by pick and shovel.  William Henry purchased the lease and started to increase production.  The pit was mechanised, steam engines provided the motive power, but hard work was still the key component.
As the threat of war grew closer, the demand for sand and gravel increased as army camps ammunition dumps, airfields spawned like mushrooms, in this seemingly quiet isolated area.  Transport was in short supply so the Ministry requisitioned lorries and drivers from the south of England to haul sand and gravel to the various sites.  Improvisation was the order of the day but by one way or another outputs of 1,000 tonnes a day were managed.
During the war ships returning to the USA carried sand and gravel from Ellesmere.  On arrival in New York the aggregates were unloaded and used on construction sites, so Ellesmere Sand and Gravel has been used world-wide!
Tudor Griffiths had married and moved to Willow Crescent in Ellesmere and was mechanising farm methods to increase production and make up for the loss of farm labour. Kilhendre Hall had been purchased and the extra land was amalgamated into the farming operations.
When the second world war ended, the need was for rebuilding. Sand and gravel was being produced and conveyed to the cities of Manchester and Liverpool. Tudor Griffiths started a plant hire business using ex army bulldozers and quickly built up a large fleet working throughout Wales and the west midlands.  The building company, with no young blood to propel it on, continued to build locally and concentrated on council houses and constructing new farm buildings, for which there was a great demand.
In 1956 William Henry, due to ill health, handed over the running of the sand and gravel pit to Tudor Griffiths.  On leaving school his son, W M Griffiths, joined the company at the same time.
Tudor Griffiths was conscious that increased mechanisation and technological development would in the future be the only way that Wood Lane could economically and efficiently produce sand and gravel in a viable and competitive manner. To be able to sustain the type of capital expenditure that would be required, the first step was to broaden and secure a more guaranteed market place for the aggregates produced at Wood Lane. Therefore at a Directors’ meeting on 22nd January 1960 it was resolved that the company should order a ready mixed concrete plant and one truck mixer.  The plant was operational by May 1960 and a number of further truck mixers were soon on order.  The plant at Wood Lane was the most westerly located concrete plant in the midlands, and consequently it served all mid and north Wales. In the 1960’s deliveries of concrete from Ellesmere to Aberystwyth were not uncommon. To underline that he was selling quality concrete Tudor Griffiths introduced the name Proper Mixed Concrete to emphasize that the concrete was produced and mixed to the highest and correct specifications.
This development into ready mixed concrete was then followed in 1962 by a very significant investment programme to modernise and automate the sand and gravel production process.  This modernisation took nearly two years to complete.  With this increased production capacity the company was able to win the contract to supply sand and gravel for the construction of the Clywedog Dam at Llandiloes. This contract ran for 2½ years from 1964 to 1966.  At that time it was the biggest mass concrete dam to be built in Britain. Not only did the contract present a considerable production challenge in terms of making sufficient sand and gravel of the required and consistent specification, it created a logistical dilemma as regards the delivery of the material on the 120 miles round trip from Wood Lane to the dam. At the start of the contract Tudor Griffiths estimated that he would need to hire every available tipper of suitable type within 30 miles of Ellesmere to maintain the required delivery schedules. Through a combination of increasing the company’s fleet of vehicles and offering long-term contracts to owner drivers, all the aggregate was delivered on time and the dam commenced to impound water on time on 22nd December 1966.
Ellesmere Agricultural Supply Co. was purchased in 1968 mainly to achieve better purchasing arrangements for supplies of cement for the developing ready mixed concrete business. It was soon recognised that builders merchants products offered a good opportunity to broaden the trading base with existing aggregate and concrete customers.
In 1973 a second ready mixed concrete plant was opened in Black Park Road, Whitchurch (this was replaced in 1994 when the concrete plant on the Prees Industrial Estate was purchased from Tarmac). Further Concrete Plants were subsequently established in Welshpool in 1977, Tattenhall near Chester in 1979 and Oswestry in 1981. By the 1980’s the total number of mixer trucks in the fleet was around 25. In the 1990’s a plant was erected near Pwllheli and at the same time a trade and equity relationship was established with Porthmadog Concrete Co. Ltd.
On the 30th July 1977 Tudor Griffiths died unexpectedly at the early age of 59. This left his son W M Griffiths to take over the helm on his own. Later in the same year the company purchased the site of the Tattenhall Brick and Pipe Company at Tattenhall, 5 miles south east of Chester.  Clay pipe manufacture had previously ceased but it was decided to continue to merchant bought-in clay land drains.  A range of building products was soon added and hence the second builders merchants outlet was established.  By 1979 a ready mixed concrete batching plant was also in operation on the site at Tattenhall.  W M Griffiths recognised the logistical and commercial trading advantage, to both the company and to customers, in having multi-activity branches. The concept of establishing multi-use locations was a strategy that was further developed during the 1980’s and 1990’s.
To further expand the range of products and services available to customers, Tudor Griffiths Fuel Oils was launched in 1981. Initially Mobil lubricants and fuel were distributed to customers across North and Mid Wales, Shropshire and Cheshire from Wood Lane.  In 1987 the business was renamed Swan Petroleum and traded as an independent fuel distributor with supplies being sourced from a number of major oil companies. To enable Swan to provide a more responsive service over a wider area, a depot was opened at Middlewich in 1990 and at Kingsbury (on M42 near Birmingham Airport) in 1992.
In 1982 a former feed mill property was purchased in Northwich and a builders merchants was opened in that year on the site. This brought the total number of builders merchants business outlets to three. To provide an integrated and decisive marketing image the three depots became known as TG Builders Merchants in 1988. Since 1988 the TG Builders Merchants division opened a branch on a green-field site at Oswestry in 1990 and took over an existing business to create their fifth depot in Nantwich in 1996.
From the early 1970’s the company provided a skip hire service to customers, principally in conjunction with deliveries of sand and gravel. In the UK prior to 1974 there was little statutory control on the disposal of wastes, but following the Control of Pollution Act 1974 the company was well placed to offer a professional and properly managed waste disposal service to its customers. In 1983 a waste transfer station facility was opened on the site at Tattenhall and a similar facility adjacent to the existing builders merchants and concrete plant at Oswestry in 1992.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s W M Griffiths’ wife, Mrs Moyra Griffiths, has played a key role as a Director of the various trading companies. Over the years they have also been joined in the business by their children Michael, Tudor and Joy, who now represent the 5th generation of the Griffiths family to be involved with the Group.
In anticipation of changes in the wholesale fuel market place Swan Petroleum decided to link-up its Ellesmere Distribution depot with Gulf as a branded distributor in 1994. As part of the consolidation of international oil companies, Gulf was subsequently acquired by Shell in 1997. Since then Swan has been appointed as an independent distributor by Shell, the first such appointment by Shell since 1954.  Swan has also recently entered into a distributor agreement with Texaco in respect of the Distribution Centres at Middlewich and Kingsbury.
Following on from William Henry’s move to Aston Farm in 1930, both Tudor Griffiths and W M Griffiths maintained a progressive interest in farming latterly through W M Griffiths Farms. The company has acquired further farming land over the years.  In particular the Frankton Estate was purchased in 1966, Aston Hall and land in 1968, Hisland Farm in 1982 and Cim Farm, Abersoch in 1982.
The total land farmed is in excess of 2000 acres, although mostly by tenants or through share farming arrangements. In 1981 Lleyn sheep were introduced to W M Griffiths Farms, it was felt that the breed had real potential despite being an endangered breed at that time. The flock has since become established as one of the leading pedigree breeding flocks of Lleyn in the UK.
Joy Griffiths, part of the next generation of the Griffiths family, established her own fold of pedigree Highland Cattle in 1985. The fold gained pedigree status in 1992 since when it has gone from strength to strength, winning acclaim at local and national level. Both the Lleyn Flock and the Highland Cattle Fold produced champion animals at the 1999 Royal Show.
As a landowner the company believes that the leisure industry offers an opportunity to diversify and produce alternative income streams. The company developed holiday apartments and a caravan site in Abersoch in 1983. A further caravan site was acquired in 1995.
The worked out parts of the quarry site provide a perfect opportunity to enhance nature conservation in the areas around the Meres of North Shropshire and provide various habitats for a wide range of wildlife. The company has designated part of the restored area of Wood Lane quarry as a Nature Reserve. This has been established jointly with Shropshire Wildlife Trust as part of the nation-wide network of Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves. The nature reserve was officially opened by Pat Larney, Chairman of Shropshire County Council on Monday, 7th June 1999.
It is fitting that the Group celebrates its 125 year anniversary as it approaches the new millennium.  When William Griffiths ventured on his own as a builder in 1874, he could have hardly imagined that the business he was starting-up would be trading at the end of the next century, employing over 200 people and with an annual turnover of £30 million.
A significant milestone for the Group was the demonstration of how extraction and conservation can work together and ultimately benefit the local community with the opening of the Wood Lane Wetland Nature Reserve on June 7th.
The venture was a result of a project undertaken with Shropshire Wildlife Trust.
School children from over 60 schools in North Shropshire will have visited Wood Lane to view the working quarry. This will be followed by a visit to the 15 acre nature reserve including two purpose built hides. The educational programme developed for the children will focus on environmental issues and the pupils will  have an opportunity to see a wide variety of birds that  use the site, in particular lapwing, ringed plover and sand martins which breed in the exposed sand deposits in the quarry face.
Also, a number of rare and endangered species of flora and fauna have been identified on the site.