of Boston and Skirbeck Iron Works, Boston were agricultural engineers and produced Traction Engines.
1824-5 William Wedd Tuxford patented a machine for processing wheat
1828 Business started
1835 Listed as 'Tuxford, William Wedd, Corn Chandler, Market Place'.[1]
1838 His two sons Weston Tuxford and Wedd Tuxford (and William Tuxford?) joined him in the business
1841 Listed under Engineers as 'Tuxford and Sons, Market Place'.[2]
1850 First portable steam engine built
1851 Firm of four employing 80 men and boys.[3]
1851 Portable engine shown at the 1851 Great Exhibition. The engine is well-finished, and has a very neat appearance due to much of the mechanism being enclosed against dust and intereference. It is now on display at the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris. See photos.
1856 'Near Skirbeck church are Boston and Skirbeck Iron Works belonging to Messrs. Tuxford and Son, who employ several hundred hands in the manufacture of portable steam engines, thrashing machines, mill work, iron bridges, patent slips, pile-driving engines etc. These works extend over an area of five acres, and were founded many years ago, by the senior partner Mr. Wm Wedd Tuxford, who was the first manufacturer of the portable farm yard steam engines and combined thrashing, shaking and dressing machines, which are are now extensively made at here and Lincoln,'[4]
1856 Listed are: 'Tuxford, Wm. Wedd, Weston and William, Bakers, Ironfounders etc; h. Market Place' and 'Tuxford, Wedd, and Joseph Shepherd, Ironfounders etc.; h. Skirbeck Terrace,.'[5]
1862 May. At the Bath and West Society Show, Tuxford and Son showed a traction engine. [6]
1866 Agricultural equipment [7]
1871 William Wedd Tuxford died aged ninety
1879 Partnership dissolved and company split. '...the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned, Wedd Tuxford, William Tuxford, and Weston Tuxford, of Boston and Skirbeck, in the county of Lincoln, in the trade or business of Iron Founders and Millers, under the firm or style of Tuxford and Sons, has been this day dissolved by mutual consent; and that in future the Iron Founding business will be carried on by the said Weston Tuxford, under the firm or style of Tuxford and Sons, and the Milling business by the said Wedd Tuxford and William Tuxford, under the firm or style of Wedd and William Tuxford...'[8]
1881 New beam engine driving centrifugal pump for Timberland Drainage Trustees, replacing a scoop wheel. Cylinder 36" dia, 6 ft stroke, flywheel 24 ft dia, 13 tons. Location: near River Whitham, 2 miles from Tattershall Station[9]
1883 16-hp steam engine for Branston Island.[10]
1885 Works for sale. 'ALL those valuable & commodious engineering works, known as "Tuxford and Sons Boston and Skirbeck Ironworks," situate in close proximity to the new Boston Docks and the Boston Dock Railway (G.N.R) are, owing to the recent decease Mr. Weston Tuxford, the last surviving partner of the firm of Messrs. Tuxford and Sons, now for disposal. The Works, which have been established since 1830, and have commanded an extensive business, are as present arranged include convenient Accountancy, drawing and private Offices fronting to the Skirbeck-road; also the Iron Foundry, with three cupolas and large pit for pipe casting, drying stoves and 3 powerful cranes; also a conveniently-arranged Brass Foundry, with three furnaces and pattern shop, together with smiths' shop 300ft long and 36ft. wide, fitted up with modern smiths' forges and blasts and appliances; Boiler Shop with all necessary tools of good type for that department; Paint Shop and finished engine Stores, Gas Apparatus with two purifiers and holders, large casting Stores, Stables, Coach-house, &c.; also an excellent Flour Mill, with five pairs of stones, to work by wind or steam; the whole standing upon an area of about 4 1/2 Acres. The new Boston Dock and Boston Dock Railway (G.N.R.) are within a few yards distance, and is anticipated that no difficulty would be met with in connecting these works with both. It is believed that the sale of these Works offers an unusually fine opening for investment enterprise, besides space sufficient for engineering works, as now carried on, there would convenience for making a Slipway directly connected with the Boston Haven and Docks for the repairing of large vessels, and there also be convenience for other businesses requiring room and cheap water and railway carriage.'[11]
1887 Works closed and the premises taken over by Collitt and Co
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 1835 Pigot and Co.'s Directory
- ↑ 1841 Pigot and Co.'s Directory
- ↑ 1851 Census
- ↑ 1856 History, Gazetteer & Directory of Lincolnshire p293
- ↑ 1856 History, Gazetteer & Directory of Lincolnshire p300
- ↑ Trewman's Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser, Wednesday, May 28, 1862
- ↑ The Engineer of 8th June 1866 p409
- ↑ [1] Gazette Issue 24775 published on the 28 October 1879. Page 18 of 50
- ↑ Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 8 July 1881
- ↑ * Fenland Pumping Engines by K. S. G. Hinde, Landmark Publishing Co., 2006 ISBN 1 84306 188 0
- ↑ Stamford Mercury - Friday 10 July 1885
- Steam Engine Builders of Lincolnshire by Ronald H. Clark. Published 1955 by Goose and Son
- Traction Engine Album by Malcolm Ranieri. Pub 2005