engineering

William Hare Group

William Hare Group is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand William Hare Group rather than just read about it. In short: William Hare Group Ltd is a UK headquartered structural steel contractor and the second largest, by turnover, in the country. It is family owned and has carried out projects in over fifty countries.

William Hare Group — illustration

Key takeaways

William Hare Group belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect William Hare Group to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of William Hare Group from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

William Hare Group Ltd is a UK headquartered structural steel contractor and the second largest, by turnover, in the country. It is family owned and has carried out projects in over fifty countries. Landmark works include structural steelwork for 20 Fenchurch Street and 201 Bishopsgate in London, and the Aldar Headquarters and Al Bahr Towers in Abu Dhabi. William Hare Group manufactures in the UK and United Arab Emirates.

History William Hare started his eponymous enterprise in 1888. It incorporated as William Hare Ltd in 1945, and reorganised as William Hare Group Ltd in 1998. The firm began as a Bolton based steel erector and in 1945 diversified into steel fabrication. During the 1960s and 1970s William Hare Ltd commenced producing fabricated steel for overseas petrochemical projects, in 1977 receiving a Queen's Award for Export. The present Bury fabrication premises was acquired in 1977 with the purchase of California Engineering Company Ltd. In 1992 the business opened an office in Singapore, followed in 2002 by an engineering support office in Chennai. Grandson of the founder, and Group Chief Executive David Hodgkiss, died in 2020. He was succeeded as Group Chief Executive by his sister Susan Hodgkiss.

Acquisitions and new businesses

Locations William Hare Group has steel fabrication facilities at Bury, Scarborough, Newport, Rotherham, Thorp Arch and in the United Arab Emirates. Coatings are applied at a Grantham site. The Derby plant manufactures cold-formed steel components and engineered timber / hybrid structures. The Group operates sales and engineering support offices in London, Chennai, Singapore, Seoul and Porto. A majority of the firm's staff are employed at overseas subsidiaries and branches.

Controversies

Unfair dismissal In a 2010 judgement, William Hare was found to have unfairly dismissed an employee. Judge Brain, however, reduced the financial award by 1⁄3 to take account of the employee's conduct before dismissal.

Trinity Walk In 2008, Shepherd Construction contracted with William Hare Group to provide structural steelwork for Brendan Flood's Trinity Walk shopping centre development in Wakefield. Shepherd Construction subsequently sought, under a pay when paid clause, to withhold payment in the sum of £996,683.35. The ultimate client had gone into Administration. In 2009, Mr Justice Coulson of the Technology and Construction Court ruled against the payment being withheld. That judgement was upheld at the Court of Appeal in 2010. Shepherd Construction had used an obsolete form of words defining insolvency in its contract with William Hare Group.

Fatal fall The Health and Safety Executive fined William Hare Group £75,000 plus £9,000 costs in 2003. An employee fell and died during 1998 extension works to the Imperial War Museum in London. William Hare Group pleaded guilty to a breach of section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The firm was criticised for its vague method statement, and for leaving workers to decide basic safety precautions. The unharnessed victim fell 13m from a precarious platform.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William Hare Group

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what William Hare Group claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to William Hare Group before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about William Hare Group ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of William Hare Group

In research: William Hare Group appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses William Hare Group in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: William Hare Group is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1888 establishments in England, Companies established in the 19th century, Construction and civil engineering companies of the United Kingdom, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William Hare Group outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study William Hare Group in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what William Hare Group means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain William Hare Group out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is William Hare Group in simple terms?

William Hare Group Ltd is a UK headquartered structural steel contractor and the second largest, by turnover, in the country. It is family owned and has carried out projects in over fifty countries.

Why does William Hare Group matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study William Hare Group?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on William Hare Group.