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)

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)

Scunthorpe manufacturing history

 The iron ore fields of north Lincolnshire attracted iron smelting to Frodingham and Appleby, two villages within what became Scunthorpe. Both companies added steel making, but Frodingham's pig iron production from the north Lincolnshire ore greatly exceeded its steel making capacity. This attracted Harry Steel, managing director of the Sheffield firm, Steel, Peech and Tozer, who, in the aftermath of the First World War, anticipated some consolidation in the industry. The two works and others were brought together in what became the United Steel Company. In the thirties both of these Scunthorpe plants were further expanded.

Lincolnshire ore was also exploited by Richard Thomas of South Wales at the Redbourn works. However, a plan to extend this into a major tinplating plant was shelved in preference for renewed investment in South Wales. Scunthorpe received further investment from John Lysaght at its Normanby Park steelworks in order to provide steel supplies for their other metal activities. John Brown of Sheffield had bought the Trent Ironworks in Scunthorpe and after the First World War moved their steel foundry to the town.

The nationalisation of the steel industry brought the Scunthorpe plants under a single umbrella. In 1972 the British Steel Corporation embarked on a ten year plan of modernisation and Scunthorpe was one of the centres identified for further investment.

In 1999 British Steel merged with the Dutch steel maker Koninklijke Hoogovens to form Corus. In 2007 Corus was bought by Tata Steel of India creating one of the world’s largest steel makers. British Steel Scunthorpe was bought from Tata Steel in 2016 and sold on to the Chinese Jingye Group in 2020.

Away from steel, Lebus Furniture built a 250,000 square foot factory in the town. I write about British furniture manufacturers in Vehicles to Vaccines.

Further reading:

J.C. Carr and W. Taplin, History of the British Steel Industry (Oxford: Blackwell, 1962)