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)

Stamford manufacturing history

Stamford was in sheep country and townsfolk traded in wool and also manufactured woollen cloth and garments. The town, on the river Welland marking the border between Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, was one of the five boroughs of the Danelaw along with Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Lincoln. Unlike them it did not become a shire town, that part to the south of the Welland looking to Northampton and that to the north to Lincoln and its cathedral. Its fortunes changed somewhat when the woollen cloth trade moved more to the Cotswolds and Yorkshire. Yet, Stamford remained important being on routes both east-west as well as north-south, having the Great North Road running through it (although no longer).

William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth I's most trusted adviser, was the son and grandson of Stamford burgesses and became the first Baron Burghley. Of central interest to British manufacturing, he master-minded British patent law which provided protection to those who wished to exploit their inventions here. Many chose Britain in preference to their native land for this reason. The law gave British manufacturers vital protection for the early years of their invention. I wrote of this in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World. The image is of Burghley House, the home of the Cecils.

In the decades following the civil war, Stamford became a fashionable place for the gentry to live, but at the same time a bustling hub for all kinds of trade. Looking at the occupations of freemen at the time, textiles remained the largest but far from dominant.

The nineteenth century almost passed Stamford by. The town failed to get the north-south railway to pass through the town, the railway company choosing the Peterborough to Grantham route instead. Stamford was eventually linked by the Peterborough to Leicester line. With the exception of Blackstones, the town failed to embrace the steam age, once again yielding the advantage to Peterborough. The other downside of the railways was the much reduced coach traffic and associated spending through the town.

In the twentieth century, Blackstones was producing diesel engines, competing with Hornsby of Grantham (later Rustons & Hornsby) and Ransomes of Ipswich. Hayes & Sons manufactured coaches and JH Pick produced motor cars until 1925. In 1969 Blackstones merged with Mirrlees of Stockport keeping production in both towns under the ownership of Hawker Siddelely as Mirrlees Blackstone

Northern Electric Wireless and General Engineering Company was founded in Manchester in 1935 and shortened its name to Newage Engineers. This company bought Stamford Electrical and moved its generator business to Stamford where, in 1967, it manufactured the world's first brushless alternator. In the 1990s the company spun off its transmission business into Newage Transmissions which became an independently quoted company. Newage Engineers eventually became part of Cummins Inc.

Further reading:

Alan Rogers, The Book of Stamford (Buckingham: Barracuda Books, 1983)