Based in Leicester, England, Jones and Shipman began life in the late 1800s - though reports of the early company and its constitution and not clear - with products ranging across a wide field and including numerous small very high quality engineering accessories. By the mid 1930s the company were well known not only for their tools but a wide ranger a range of precision drills and a number of grinding machines, the majority of which were cylindrical, universal and tool and cutter. Approaching the 1940s the range of grinders was expanded further and include types with compact built-in motor drives (before then it was common to power them from flat-belt overheads). In 1941 the long-lived and hugely popular Model 540 toolroom surface grinder was introduced.
Post WW2, after 1945, the range expanded further and exports were made world-wide--the 1950s to 1980s being the company's best years as an independent, highly-regarded concern. J & S followed industry trends by introducing machines with NC from the mid 1960s onwards and then with full CNC operation by the mid 1980s. By 1991 J & S had acquired the range of grinders made by their American competitors Brown and Sharpe, then absorbed the Edgetek machine Corporation. Today, although the huge Leicester factory has gone, the company still trade as Jones & Shipman Precision Limited and are part of the Precision Technologies Group.