Richard Garrett and Sons
From GracesGuide
Richard Garrett and Sons of Leiston Works, Leiston, Suffolk was a manufacturer of agricultural machinery, steam engines and trolleybuses
- 1778 Richard Garrett set up as a bladesmith in Leiston
- 1805 His son Richard Garrett II took over the business
- 1806 Built the first Horse-power Threshing Machine.
- 1830s The third Richard Garrett III took over the business and started the manufacture of a long line of steam engines
- 1840 First portable engine produced and shown at the Norwich Show
- 1848 Portable engines were being produced
- 1851 Award at the 1851 Great Exhibition. See details at 1851 Great Exhibition: Reports of the Juries: Class IX.
- 1876 Produced traction engine to Garrett's own design after making Avelings under licence
- 1876 Exhibitor at the Royal Agricultural Show at Birmingham with a traction engine and a straw burning engine. [1]
- 1889 Showed portable, simple and compound engines at the RASE at Windsor. [2]
- 1898 Built 10-ton steam roller
- 1904 The first steam lorry was produced
- 1911 Smithfield Club Show. Exhibited semi-portable superheated steam engine and 3-ton steam wagon. [3]
- 1913-1917 For a list of the models and prices of electric vehicles see the 1917 Red Book
- 1913-1917 For a list of the models and prices of Steam Motor Wagons, Tractors and Ploughs etc. see the 1917 Red Book
- 1914 Specialities: Superheated and Saturated Steam Semi-Stationary Engines, Traction Engines, Road Rollers, Motor Tractors and Motor Wagons, Boilers and Patent Superheaters and Steam Threshing Machinery. Employees 1500 to 2000. [4]
- 1920 They showed a steam motor wagon, an electrically propelled wagon driven from accumulators and a semi-stationary steam plant combining a boiler, super-heater and engine at the Darlington Agricultural Show. [5]
- 1920 October. Exhibited at the Commercial Motor Exhibition at Olympia with 3.5 ton electric vehicle with a brewer's type body. Uses an 8 hp motor. Had 30-35 mile range. [6]
- 1920 Became part of AGE
- In 1925 Garrett developed a steam-powered tractor which became known as the Suffolk Punch. It included a 40 HP engine and used Ackermann steering. It was designed for ploughing, pulling work and threshing. It was too expensive to compete with other tractors and only eight were built.
- 1925 They tried to enter the railway locomotive market but without any success
- 1928 Produced some trolley buses
- 1930 Produced their first diesel powered lorry with a Blackstone and Co six-cylinder engine
- 1932 The company was purchased by Beyer-Peacock in after the collapse of AGE. The business continued as Richard Garrett Engineering Works
- 1939 Last lorries produced but continued with other engineering work
- 1978 (1981?) The works closed
- Today, part of the factory is preserved as the Long Shop Steam Museum. The rest has been demolished and the land used for housing.
- The company produced around 22,500 steam engines with 20,000 of those being portable engines
- The financial, technical and production records of Garretts of Leiston are preserved in the Ipswich Record Office of Suffolk Libraries and Heritage under the reference HC 30.
[edit] Sources of Information
- British Lorries 1900-1992 by S. W. Stevens-Stratten. Pub. Ian Allen Publishing
- Traction Engine Album by Malcolm Ranieri. Pub 2005
- [1] Images of some engines
- From 1890 to the Present Day Farm Tractors by Michael Williams published in 2005 by Silverdale Books ISBN 978-1-84509-251-1
- [2] Wikipedia
- British Steam Locomotive Builders by James W. Lowe. Published in 1975. ISBN 0-905100-816
- Steam Engine Builders of Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire by Ronald H. Clark. Published 1950 by The Augustine Steward Press
- ↑ The Engineer of 21st July 1876 p40
- ↑ The Engineer of 28th June 1889 p544
- ↑ The Engineer of 8th December 1911 p595
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ The Engineer of 29th October 1920 p425
- ↑ The Engineer of 9th July 1920
