John Thomas Mackley established the company in Shoreham-by-Sea in 1927 alter he’d gained considerable design and contracting experience in London, South Wales and Southampton, Serving as a Royal Engineer Staff Officer during World War 1 in France and Salonika.

In 1931 the company was registered under the Companies Act and known as J T Mackley & Co Ltd - Supervising Engineers and Contractors.

Mackleys imported the first Larssen steel sheet piles into the UK and pioneered their use. The first structure built was the North Wish Wharf at Aldrington Basin, Shoreham Harbour.

Between 1927 & 1940 the Company had become well established and acknowledged in Southern England as the pioneers and specialists in interlocking steel piled construction for wharves and cofferdams. In Shoreham Harbour by 1931, 16 wharves had been built by Mackleys, which represented 60% of all available wharfage. During this period the firm had branched out to general civil engineering work including water and sewage works construction, all with the emphasis on technically challenging projects, just as today.

During the wartime period of 1940 - 1945 the company was employed principally on essential defence works and bomb damage. The conversion of numerous Thames barges into small landing craft was undertaken at Shoreham and Poole Harbour. The barges were engined, fitted with steering and landing ramps and were used initially for the Dieppe Raid of 1941 and the
D’ Day Landings.

Between 1945 and 1955 steel was becoming available after the war years, also the labour shortage was now partially over, The company was able to carry out some new construction of deep water wharves and re-face old wharves to facilitate deeper dredged levels. This was a period in which re-construction of war damaged installations and maintenance, which had been neglected during the period of hostilities took place.

In early 1954 changes were made to the structure of the firm which was still entirely a family concern. John Thomas Mackley stepped down as MD and handed over to "Jack” J R Mackley his eldest son to take day to day control of the firm. The younger son ‘Frank" F H Mackley was to become Director of Engineering and Development under the guidance initially of his father. The two brothers were affectionately known as Mr. "Jack" & Mr. "Frank".

John Thomas Mackley died in February 1960 aged 75.

In 1979"Jack” Mackley stood down as MD and his son John took up the role, the third generation of Mackleys. Today John Mackley is Chairman of the Mackley Group of Companies.

Mr J R Mackley died on Saturday 5th April 2008.“Mr. Jack” was a tremendous character – a hard businessman but extremely loyal to his staff and workforce. He was Managing Director from 1954 until 1979 after which he became Chairman and continued to take an avid interest in the business.

Innovation Landmarks

During 1957 the Mackley Monster was conceived, which was a special transitional piling rig for the construction of a 1.4m diameter sea outfall pipe - extending out to sea 600m. This rig built its own gantry structure and drove the pipe support trestles by a patented air/water piling system.

The company can claim in 1960 to be the first in the world to design and construct a sea outfall pipe made of uPVC plastic over a length of 0.8km, utilising special concrete saddle anchorages. This was followed, when they became available in 1967, by the first large bore pipe, which was nearly one mile in length.

Mackley innovation developed steel silos for clinker storage constructed from straight web steel piles. Silos up to 28m high were built throughout the UK and as far afield as New Zealand.

In 1970 the design and construction of a special hover platform was carried out, initially as an experiment to carry out works on marsh lands and marine environments - this was the pro-runner of various platfoms, which were constructed. Later the largest hover transporter in the world was constructed to carry gas plant assemblies from Abu Dabi to Das Island in the Middle East. Other air cushion developments included the crossing of the Yukon River in Alaska for carrying materials for the Trans American Pipeline an construction of a hover cutter suction dredger.