E. H. Bentall and Co
of Heybridge, Maldon, Essex
See also -
1790 William Bentall, a farmer from Goldhanger, built a plough made of cast iron fixed to a wooden frame
1797 Because of success of the plough, Bentall ceased farming and set up a foundry, smithy and joinery business and produced 'Goldhanger' ploughs
1805 Company founded by William Bentall builds a factory on land close to the Chelmer and Blackwater canal at Heybridge
1836 William died and control passed to Edward Hammond Bentall, his son.
Company renamed
1839 The company was re-named as E. H. Bentall and Co
1843 E. H. Bentall introduced the Broad Share Cultivator and in the next eight years they sell 8,000 of them
1851 Award at the 1851 Great Exhibition. See details at 1851 Great Exhibition: Reports of the Juries: Class IX.
1861 Exhibited at the Royal Agricultural Society of England meeting in Leeds - exhibited harrows, etc[1]
1875 Produced a wide range of agricultural and screw cutting machinery
1885 E. H. Bentall died and the firm was then run by his son Edmund Ernest Bentall
1894 June. Royal Agricultural Society's Show. Grater, or Root Cutting Machine. [2]
1900 E. E. Bentall designed an internal combustion engine to power agricultural machinery
1906 Announced they were introducing 8, 10 and 16-hp cars. [3]
1912 Introduced a 1.5-hp two-stroke engine but it was soon replaced by the Pioneer model. The Pioneer range came in models from 1.5 to 12 hp.
1914 Specialities: Chaff Cutters, Grinding Mills, Cattle Food preparing Machines, Petrol and Oil Engines and Engineers' Bright Steel Nuts, Bolts etc. [4]
1914 The works was employing some six to seven hundred hands with the works covering an area of about fourteen acres
Post WWI: Became part of AGE - Agricultural and General Engineers and were the largest company in the group.
1925 Ceased production of the vertical engine
1933 E. E. Bentall purchased the ordinary shares of the company from the receivers of Agricultural and General Engineers.
WWII. Production set up for the manufacture of small machine parts for the aircraft for Handley Page. Also produced complete assemblies such as tail fins and bomb floor for the new Halifax bombers
1946 Public company with Charles Edward Bentall as Chairman
1949 New foundry built. Also they purchased of Tamkin Brothers and Co of Chelmsford
1961 Manufacturers of field implements, barn machinery, self-filling drinking bowls, grain handling and storage plant, galvanised ware, brewery equipment, dairy equipment, coffee and rice plantation machinery. 500 employees. [5]
1961 the company was taken over by the Acrow group of companies.
1984 Acrow went into receivership. The business founded nearly 180 years before closed in Heybridge.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Farmer's Magazine, 1861
- ↑ The Engineer of 29th June 1894 p562
- ↑ Autocar Magazine of 8th December 1906
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE