How it started
Taylor Woodrow
Taylor Woodrow was founded in 1921 by 16-year-old Frank Taylor as Taylor, Woodrow Limited. Though Taylor had borrowed money to build two houses in Blackpool, as he was too young to form his own company, his uncle Jack Woodrow lent his name to the business.
In the 1930s, Taylor Woodrow diversified into building temporary hospitals, and thereby moved into general construction. Taylor Woodrow Homes constituted a relatively small part of the business, and with housing sales declining in the following 50 years, at the beginning of the 1980s, Taylor Woodrow Homes was still only building around 500 to 600 houses a year.
In January 2001, Taylor Woodrow acquired Bryant Group, a business founded in Birmingham in 1885 by Chris Bryant, for £556 million, and in October 2003 Taylor Woodrow acquired Wilson Connolly in a cash and shares deal worth £499 million.
George Wimpey
George Wimpey was founded by George Wimpey and Walter Tomes as a stone-working partnership in 1880 in Hammersmith. Tomes would later sell his portion of the business in 1893.
From Wikipedia’s article on Taylor Wimpey, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2