History of Paxton Founders
Jack Ratcliffe (John Brotherton-Ratcliffe) 1919-2009
In 1939, at the age of 20, after his first year studying Physics & Chemistry at Oxford University, Jack joined the RAF. He spent 5 years at war with as Squadron Leader of Bomber Command, remarkably surviving a total of 3 tours (survival rate 5%) and was awarded the DSO.
In 1946, after the war, he joined his neighbour, Oliver Croudace in a house building venture. After a few years, Jack bought his neighbour out and spent the rest of his life growing the company to a substantial size. In 2002, Jack retired and handed over the Housebuilding and Property groups to his son Tony. Jack’s obituary can be seen here.
Tony Ratcliffe (Anthony Brotherton-Ratcliffe) 1950-
In 1970, Tony went to work for the family company Croudace Ltd. He worked in most departments and sites, ending up as a System Analyst and computer programmer. In 1975, he left Croudace Ltd and started up his own housebuilding company calling it Paxton Homes Ltd (the name Paxton came from Tony’s admiration of Sir Joseph Paxton’s work). The company was successful and built about 50 homes a year. In the early 1980s Tony realised that Paxton Homes Ltd was too small to survive the coming recession. In addition to which, after being robbed of his credit cards by an opportunistic burglar, he decided on a switch to electronic security manufacturing.
So in 1985 with the profits from 10 years’ housebuilding and most of his staff, Paxton Homes Ltd became Paxton Automation Ltd (later to be changed Paxton Access Ltd). In 2001 Jack retired and handed over the role of non- executive Chairman in Croudace Homes and Croudace Properties Chairman to Tony. In 2011, Adam Stroud was appointed CEO and Paxton Access Group took on a high growth path becoming one of the most successful young companies in the UK. In 2020 Tony handed over the company and the non-executive Chairman role to his son Sholto. Tony remains a director and consultant to Paxton Access Ltd.
