Merryweather and Sons
Merryweather and Sons of Tram Locomotive Works, Greenwich Works, London SE 10, fire engines and other pumped appliances.
Also of Longacre, London
1690 The firm was established soon after the Great Fire of London, in Cross Street.
At some point the company moved to Bow Street, Longacre.
1790 Nathaniel Hadley became involved in the business
1790s Maker of fire-engines.[1]
1799 Nathaniel Hadley of 98 Long Acre, engine maker
1804 Hadley and Simpkin delivered a fire engine to Preston (see below)
1807 Moses Merryweather joined the company as an apprentice
1816 The firm of Hadley, Simpkin, and Hadley was dissolved; the business was carried on as Hadley and Simpkin[2]
1824 Charles Simpkin died. At some point Henry Lott became involved in the company which became Hadley, Simpkin and Lott
1836 The company was taken over by Moses Merryweather
1851 Exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition. Details of their products shown at Class V
1851 Award at the 1851 Great Exhibition. See details at Class V.
By 1861 the company was Merryweather and Son, presumably involving Richard Moses Merryweather
The brothers Richard and James introduced steam fire-engines
1862 Merryweather and Son exhibited at the 1862 London Exhibition. Details of their products shown at Class VIII
1862 The Lambeth branch was opened (it closed in 1879).
1863 The firm was known as Merryweather and Sons.
1864 James Compton Merryweather joined his brother and father in the business.
c1866 The company was known as Merryweather and Field, making steam-powered fire engines[3] with Field specialising in the boiler part of the business. The name soon reverted to Merryweather and Sons[4]
1871 Merryweathers supplied a steam fire engine for comparative trials at Preston against an engine made by Shand and Mason[5]
1872 Henry Merryweather became a partner in the business.
1873 William Essex, as the executor and legatee in trust of Moses Merryweather, deceased, left the partnership with Richard Moses Merry weather, James Compton Merryweather, and Henry Merryweather, who were carrying on the business of Fire Engine Manufacturers, Hydraulic,and General Engineers and Coppersmiths, at Long-acre, in the county of Middlesex, and at York-street, Lambeth, in the county of Surrey, under the firm of Merryweather and Sons[6]
James and Henry Merryweather were chiefly responsible for the development of steam tramway-engines.
Tramway Locomotives: An article in the 'Model Engineer' in 1956 [7] describes aspects of Merryweather’s tramway locomotives. Their first venture was proposed by John Grantham in 1870, and built in 1873 by Merryweather in conjunction with the Oldbury Carriage and Wagon Co. It first ran experimentally in West Brompton, and then on the horse tramway track on Vauxhall Bridge Road. The trials were not very satisfactory, and the locomotive was modified by Edward Woods, and used from c.1876 to 1881 on the Wantage Tramroad. From 1875, engines were supplied to Paris, Rouen, Holland, Spain (Barcelona and San Andres Tramway), Guernsey, Cassel, Adelaide, Rangoon, Wellington (NZ), Buenos Aires, and Brazil (Dom Pedro tramway). In the UK, locomotives were supplied to the North Staffordshire Tramway (Stoke to Hanley), Alford & Sutton (Lincs),and London. Further detail on the tramway locomotives may be found in 'Tramways - Their Construction and Working' [8]
1875-77 They supplied 46 tram engines to Paris tramways. Construction of tram engines was carried on until 1892.
1876 The company moved to premises in Greenwich.
1885 Horse-drawn steam fire engine exhibit. [9]
1888 Issued catalogue of steam fire engines, manual fire engines, fire mains. Three catalogues bound in to one. [10]
c1891. A Merryweather steam fire engine was bought new by the Bassett family of Tehidy Park, Camborne to serve Tehidy House.
1892 The company was registered on 22 March, to acquire the business of engineers of the firm of the same name. [11]
1894 Article on the trials of their floating steam fire-engine. [12]
1900 Showed a steam fire engine at the Paris Exhibition. [13]
1899 Introduced the motor fire-engine.
1900 Article and illustration of a Portable Salvage Plant for the Dover Harbour Board in 'the Engineer'. [14]
1905 Instructed by St. Just Urban District Council to prepare plans for a water supply to Boscaswell and Higher Trewellard[15]
1905 September. Details of their 30-hp petrol fire engine.[16]
1911 Motor fire engine with centrifugal pump for Renfrewshire County Council. [17]
1913-1917 For a list of the models and prices of Petrol Motor Commercial Vehicles see the 1917 Red Book
Sea-salvage of HMS Eden.
1914 Fire and water engineers. Specialities: steam fire engines, fire boats, motor fire apparatus, water supply, fire escapes and everything connected with fire extinction. [18]
1920 April. Fire-Float and Salvage and Fire-Tug. Article and photos in The engineer. [19]
1925 Entrusted with the fire protection of the Bath and West and Southern Counties Agricultural Show.[20]
1928 Merryweather and Sons Ltd took over Shand, Mason and Co.
1937 Fire protection engineers. [21]
1966 Acquired by Tecalemit
1967 Merged with Foamite[22], another firm in the Tecalemit group.
1970 Tecalemit sold the company[23] to Siebe, Gorman and Co
J. C. Merryweather invented the Canvas Fire escape chute and various hand-held fire extinguishers, such as the 'Konus Kemik', the 'C. T. C.' and the 'Fire Suds'.
- Note: In the National Museum of Australia there is a Merryweather horse-drawn manual pump unit fire cart (Object number 1986.0096.0004). 'Merryweather red horse drawn manual pump unit fire cart with four wooden spoked wheels and a metal sign 'Royal Patent. Merryweather Engineer. Long Acre London'. It has two red wooden handrails, metal levers to pump with two screws for attaching hoses to, a container for holding water and two retaining pins attached to a chain, painted red, used to hold the pump system in place.' Collection name; Geoff Gray collection. Restorer; Airport Fire Brigade 1973, Canberra, ACT, Australia. Date made 1824-1850. Date of restoration 1977-1979. Dimensions - Length: 3,245mm, Width: 1420mm and Height: 1240mm
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Joseph Bramah by Ian McNeil. 1968
- ↑ London Gazette 1 October 1816
- ↑ The Engineer 1866/09/28
- ↑ The Engineer 1866/10/19
- ↑ The Engineer 1871 various issues
- ↑ London Gazette 23 June 1874
- ↑ 'Unusual Locomotives' by E. F. Carter, Model Engineer 11 October 1956
- ↑ 'Tramways - Their Construction and Working' by. D Kinnear Clark, 1894 (Reprinted and published by Adam Gordon, 1992)
- ↑ Museum of Country Life at Exmouth
- ↑ The Engineer of 27th April 1888 p338
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ The Engineer of 26th January 1894 p64 & p228
- ↑ The Engineer of 27th July 1900 p101
- ↑ The Engineer of 7th December 1900 p571
- ↑ The Engineer 1905/04/14 p382
- ↑ Automotor Journal 1905/09/09
- ↑ The Engineer of 8th December 1911 p595
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ The Engineer of 16th April 1920 p396 & p400
- ↑ The Engineer 1925/05/22
- ↑ 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- ↑ The Times April 10, 1967
- ↑ The Times December 9, 1970
- Traction Engine Album by Malcolm Ranieri. Pub 2005
- British Steam Locomotive Builders by James W. Lowe. Published in 1975. ISBN 0-905100-816