Benjamin Hick and Sons Information
B. Hick and Sons, later known as Hick, Hargreaves & Co, was a British engineering company, based at the Soho Ironworks in Bolton, England.[1][2] Benjamin Hick had originally been a partner in Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell and set up his company in partnership with this sons, John and Benjamin in 1832. Benjamin however very soon left the firm.
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Locomotives
The first steam locomotive was built in 1833, followed by several more over the remainder of the decade, including an unconventional gear driven steam rail carriage. A number were built for export to America. Between 1837 and 1840 the company became a subcontractor for Edward Bury and Company, supplying engines to the Midland Counties Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway, the North Union Railway and the Manchester and Leeds Railway. Engines were also built for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Paris and Versailles Railway.
In 1841 the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had found some American Norris 4-2-0 locomotives very successful, especially on the notorious Lickey Incline, and Hick built three similar ones for the line. Between 1844 and 1846 the firm built a number of "long boiler" locomotives with haystack fireboxes, plus four 2-4-0s in 1848 for the North Staffordshire Railway.[3]
Hick, Hargreaves & Co
After the death of Benjamin the elder in 1842, the firm continued under the management of his son, John (1815-1894). In 1845 he took into partnership William Hargreaves. Locomotive building continued until 1855, and in all some ninety to a hundred locomotives were produced; but they were a sideline for the company, which concentrated on marine and stationary engines, of which they made a large number. John Hick retired in 1868. William Hargreaves died in 1889 and, under a new directorship, the firm, which had been known as Hick, Hargreaves and Company for some time, acquired limited liability in 1889.
Diversification
At the end of the 19th century they began the manufacture of steam engines for electricity generating power stations, and from 1911 began the manufacture of diesel engines. In World War I the firm did much war work, and began making high vacuum condensing plant, used in power generation. This was greatly expanded in later years as centralised power generation was adopted in Great Britain.
In 1933 they acquired the records, drawings and patterns of three defunct steam engine manufacturers and did a lucrative business in making repairs and supplying spare parts. Large stationary steam engines were still used by many textile manufacturers in the Bolton area until the collapse of the industry after World War II.
After World War II the firm expanded its work in electricity generation, and branched out into food processing, oil refining, petrochemicals and offshore oil equipment production.
Ownership changes
In 1968 the firm was sold to Electrical & Industrial Securities Ltd.. By 2002 the firm was part of The BOC Group, and the historic records were deposited with Bolton library.
Later The BOC Group plc was taken over by Linde A.G. of Germany who intended to return the combined group to a 'pure gas' business and so sold off the BOC Edwards engineering division[4] into which Hick Hargreaves of Bolton had been placed where it had been combined with the Edwards High Vacuum business of BOC Edwards based at Crawley, West Sussex. The business of the vacuum company was sold to private shareholders CCMP Capital and on 1 June 2007 was re-established as an independent UK private limited company "Edwards Limited".
The old Bolton site was sold and became the site of a Sainsbury's supermarket[5] in centre of Bolton.
The Bolton site of Edwards Limited is now a design shop with outsourced UK and foreign manufacture and has moved to new office premises in Lostock, where it continues to sell some steam ejector, feed heater and de-aeration technology of the old Hick Hargreaves business as a Process Vacuum part of Edwards Limited.
References
- ^ P. W. Pilling, Hick Hargreaves and Co., The History of an Engineering Firm c. 1833 – 1939, a Study with Special Reference to Technological Change and Markets (Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1985), p. 20
- ^ Short Histories of Famous Firms, Messrs. Hick, Hargreaves and Co., Reprint from The Engineer, June 25th and July 30th 1920
- ^ Christiansen & Miller p. 309.
- ^ Linde sells BOC Edwards
- ^ Sainsburys-superstore-bolton
Bibliography
- Christiansen, Rex & Miller, Robert William (1971). The North Staffordshire Railway. Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-5121-4.
- Halton, Maurice J., The Impact of Conflict and Political Change on Northern Industrial Towns, 1890 to 1990, MA Dissertation, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Manchester Metropolitan University September 2001 MA Dissertation
- Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing
- Pilling, P W (1985) 'Hick Hargreaves and Co., The History of an Engineering Firm c. 1833 – 1939, a Study with Special Reference to Technological Change and Markets' (Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1985)
External links
Categories:
- Engineering companies of the United Kingdom
- Locomotive manufacturers of the United Kingdom
- Steam engine manufacturers
- Companies based in Bolton
- History of Bolton
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