Peterborough manufacturing history

 A city dominated by its cathedral; its life revolved around agriculture with regular markets controlled by the Dean & Chapter until the city received its charter in the late nineteenth century. As with so many places, it was the railways which changed everything.

Railway entrepreneurs were attracted by populations and Peterborough’s was growing as people moved there from the fens. The coming of the railways was a tortuous process as I told in my blogs about Doncaster, Stamford and Northampton. The key driver was the desire to get coal to London. York was the destination, it was the intermediate route that attracted debate. The beginning was of shorter routes, so that from Peterborough to Lincoln via Boston and that from Peterborough to Northampton. The line from London to Peterborough encountered problems with boggy land en route and that from Peterborough to Grantham and onward to Doncaster had the cost of tunnelling. Yet by 1850 Peterborough was connected. It is appropriate that an early trade was that of butchering for London’s Smithfield market.

In terms of industry, British Braids producing elastic web was encouraged by the Dean & Chapter to provide work for women. A steam flour mill was run by Cadge and Coleman. Bricks were made from Oxford clay and the works later joined with London Brick in the interwar years. Stanley’s iron works developed into Stanley & Barford eventually joining in Aveling Barford of Grantham in manufacturing rollers. J.P. Hall made pumps.

Peter Brotherhood came from London manufacturing high speed engines and compressors. They moved into tractor manufacture and joined in the Agricultural Engineers Group which in the twenties brought together similar businesses struggling in a tough market. Other members included Barford and Paxman which joined Ruston and Hornsby of Lincoln and Grantham when Agricultural Engineering was liquidated in 1932. In the Second World War a now independent public company Peter Brotherhood produced the Brotherhood-Ricardo diesel engine. They were later bought by Ingersol-Rand who sold out to Siemens. In 2008 they became part of Hayward Tyler supplying specialist equipment to the energy industry.

Another engineering firm from London was Werner, Pfleiderer and Perkins which bought Joseph Baker and Aublet, Harry &Co which was already making laundry-machines in Peterborough. The combined company became Baker Perkins. Perkins, who had developed steam ovens, emigrated to England from the USA. Baker was Canadian and invented a combined flour scoop and sifter which became a market leader in the UK. Although rivals, the two companies collaborated in supplying baking equipment to the armies in the First World War. The combined company also built a plant in Michigan in Canada and are still leaders in food manufacturing machinery.

Another Perkins, Frank, started experimental work on diesel engines in 1932 with talented engineer Charles Chapman. They conceived an idea that diesels, as well as being slow work horses, could run at as high speed as their petrol rivals. As I tell in Vehicles to Vaccines the company was bought by Massey Ferguson. It later became part of Lucas Varity and is now part of Caterpillar. Perkins diesels continues its heritage of innovation.

The city was home to GEC Domestic appliances including Hotpoint and Morphy Richards.

Further reading:

H.F. Tibbs, Peterborough A History (Cambridge: The Oleander Press, 1979)

Grantham manufacturing history

 A good deal of the manufacturing history of this Lincolnshire town revolves round one family and really one man, Richard Hornsby, who on completing his wheelwright apprenticeship at Barnetby-le-Wold joined with blacksmith Richard Seaman of Barrowby. I write of him along with the other pioneering engineers in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World.

The business manufactured agricultural implements to enable farmers to meet the growing demands for food from England’s increasing urban areas. Importantly, Grantham was linked to Nottingham and the Trent by a canal (in the image) which gave a quicker route to market for agricultural produce and a cheaper way to bring the coal that industry needed. To agricultural implements were added steam engines. It was said of Hornsby that ‘he didn’t invent the portable steam engine, but he developed it so successfully that, for some years, he had a virtual monopoly in its manufacture’. I tell in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World how oil engines were then embraced through the patent of Akroyd-Stuart.

The business, now based in Spittlegate in Grantham, made a big impression next to the Great Northern Railway which had arrived in 1852. Hornsby steam and oil engines were known across the world. Company reached its peak with 2,000 employees. In the First World War the factory was taken over by the Admiralty for war work.

The aftermath of war saw the end of government work and, as I tell in my blog on Peterborough, a number of companies came together in the Agricultural Engineering Company. Hornsby chose, or were chosen as their partner by, Ruston & Proctor of Lincoln. I write more about Ruston and Hornsby in my blog on Lincoln, not least their role in the development of the tank.

The new company Ruston and Hornsby took on the combined steam and oil engine business. Thirty acres of the Spittlegate site was taken by two companies which had been part of Agricultural Engineering: Aveling & Porter of Rochester and Barford & Perkins of Peterborough. They formed Aveling Barford which also took the Hornsby steam and road roller business. Agricultural implements went to Ransome Sims & Jefferies of Ipswich, another Agricultural Engineering member.

The Hornsby factory, although smaller, remained busy especially during the Second World War when it supplied generators far and wide. Rustons combined with Davey Paxman of Colchester who developed a vertical oil engine. Hornsby took on its manufacture particularly for overseas development projects. The Hornsby factory finally closed in the sixties and Aveling Barford a little later.

Grantham was of course the birthplace of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher under whose watch the manufacturing sector shrank and many famous businesses closed their doors.

Grantham experienced a resurgence with food processing. Fenland Foods was set up by Northern Foods to supply Marks & Spencer. With the ending of the contract, the plant was closed. Other food processing remains in the town.

Further reading:

• Michael Pointer, Horsbys of Grantham (Bygone Grantham 1978)
• Michael Pointer, Ruston & Hornsby (Bygone Grantham, 1977)