E. R. and F. Turner
E R & F Turner of St. Peter's, of Grey Friars Works, and of Foxhall Road, Ipswich.
1837 Company established by Walton Turner and two partners under the name Bond, Turner and Hurwood.
1842 Built their first steam engine which was used to drive the St Peter's Works.
1847 Walton Turner died; his son Edward Rush Turner took over the business. The company became Edward Turner, Rush and Co.
1849 Produced their first portable engine to their own design.
By 1851 the other partners had dropped out and Edward carried on the business himself.
1851 Exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition. Details of their products shown at
Frederick Turner joined his brother in the firm which became E. R. and F. Turner
1862 Exhibited at the 1862 London Exhibition. Details of their products shown at
1862 Built a roller mill for Joseph Fison and Co based on the design of G. A. Bucholtz which allowed separation of bran and germ, responding to the demand for white bread.
1863 Extension of the St. Peter's Works into Greyfriars.
1865 introduced a traction engine.
1867 Exhibited a 5 hp portable engine
1868 Manufactured the rock boring machine designed by George Low
1874 Portable engine No. 981 - now on display at the Museum of East Anglian Life. This features a Hartnell governor.
1876 Exhibitor at the Royal Agricultural Show at Birmingham with a new vertical engine and boiler. [1]
1876 Vertical engine and boiler. [2]
1881 Started supplying rollers for flour milling to J. Harrison Carter, which business continued and grew.
1882 Introduced the 'Gippeswyk' engine.
1884 Moved to Grey Friars Works.
1888 E. R. & F. Turner purchased the Stock and Interest of J. Harrison Carter; they retained many of the staff. It would appear that the business of milling machinery was gradually moved from Dunstable to Ipswich.
1890 June. Royal Agricultural Society’s Disintegrator and Grist Mill Trials. [3]
1890s Built internal combustion stationary engines.
1894 June. Roller Mills, Dressing machines, Fixed and Portable steam engines. [4]
1894 Smithfield Club Show. Showed a mill for breaking down maize. [5]
1897 Took limited status.
1899 Designed the "John Bull" Steam Engine to meet the large and increasing demand for a small size engine, which was 'low in price, and yet strong and solidly constructed, and suitable for a boiler up to 100lb per square inch - exhibited at the 1899 Royal Agricultural Show.'[6]
c1900 Introduced the 'John Bull' series of engines.
1900 June. Royal Agricultural Show at York. Showed mills and miller's machinery. [7]
1908 Discontinued building of steam engines and boilers.
Expanded by acquiring Greyfriars Works.
Introduced maize flaking machines for animal feedstuffs.
1910 Stationary engine range in four sizes - 6, 10, 15 and 20 hp. [8]
1911 Royal Agricultural Show. Flour milling machinery. [9]
1911 Smithfield Club Show. Exhibited oil and steam engines, corn grinding and crushing mills, cake breakers etc. [10]
1912 The last engines were made and the company concentrated on the flour milling side of the business.
1914 Engineers. Specialities: flour milling machinery of every description, both for roller and stone systems; wheat-cleaning, washing and conditioning machinery, corn-crushing and fodder-preparing machinery of all kinds; corn grinding mills; high-class steam engines and boilers; oil engines; inventors of the Turner-Hartnell automatic expansion governor and Turner Pegg positive Corliss valve gear for steam engines, the Turner patent wheat drier and conditioner, the Turner patent diagonal four-roller mill, the Turner patent purifier for semolina and middlings. Employees 600. [11]
1920 Joined AGE - Agricultural and General Engineers[12]
1920 June. Issued catalogue on using the Sindar grinding mill. [13]
1922 The Foundry was moved to a new site on Foxhall Road, and the Offices to Greyfriars Works, which had been an extension of the St. Peter's Works since 1863. The original St. Peter's Works, on the north side of College Street, continued in use.
1926 Acquired Bull Motors. The electric motor erecting shop was at the rear of the St. Peter's Works.
1932 AGE was wound up. Turners continued as a separate company under the ownership of the Leggett family, including Bull Motors.
c.1933 Some form of venture in agricultural machinery may have been established with Sturtevant Engineering Co at this time.
1937 Supplied flaking mills to Weetabix
1937 New works were opened in Foxhall Road and the other sites were closed.
1946 Bull Motors advert.
1961 Engineers specialising in flour and provender milling machinery, maize flaking machinery, grain handling and drying equipment and "Bull" electric motors and dynamos.[14]
1961 Arthur Leggett died
1966 The Leggetts sold the firm to an investment company, Forgeway Finance, who sold off much of the property.
1969 W. G. Gosling and Sons (Precision Engineers) Ltd. purchased E. R. & F. Turner, including J. Harrison Carter but not including the electric motors products. Bull Motors was established at Foxhall Road.
The manufacturing firm moved to a new site on Knightsdale Road, where the company continued to thrive.
1969 Sold the grain-handling business; negotiating with Simon Engineering to sell the feed milling interests; planned to concentrate on making Bull electric motors and Turn-Tuf chilled iron rollers[15]
1986 Acquired Miracle Mills Ltd. of Penge, producers of machinery similar to the Harrison Carter range of crushing and grinding machines. The business was relocated to Ipswich and a new range of hammer mills were produced under the Miracle Mills brand.
2002 Acquired Christy Hunt (Agricultural) Ltd. of Scunthorpe and relocated to Ipswich. They continued to produce hammer mills, pulverizers and grinders.
2004 The group was renamed Christy Turner Ltd. However, this was seen as causing confusion for consumers who thought the old brands no longer existed
2016 The three separate brand names were reintroduced, to counteract confusion amongst customers.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Steam Engine Builders of Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire by Ronald H. Clark. Published 1950 by The Augustine Steward Press
- [1] Mills Archive
- ↑ The Engineer of 21st July 1876 p40
- ↑ The Engineer of 6th October 1876 p254
- ↑ The Engineer 1890/06/27 p521
- ↑ The Engineer of 6th July 1894 p16
- ↑ The Engineer of 14th December 1894 p524
- ↑ The Engineering Times 1899-1900 Jul-Jan.
- ↑ The Engineer of 22nd June 1900 p650
- ↑ A-Z of British Stationary Engines by Patrick Knight. Published 1999. ISBN 1 873098 50 2
- ↑ The Engineer of 7th July 1911 p26
- ↑ The Engineer of 8th December 1911 p594
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ The Times, May 11, 1920
- ↑ The Engineer of 25th June 1920 p662
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ The Times, January 14, 1969