Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 115342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 164,359 pages of information and 246,083 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Hamilton's Windsor Ironworks Co

From Graces Guide
1870.

of Garston, Liverpool.

1867 'Crystal Palace Restoration. The London Scotsman announces the completion of a contract with the Hamilton Windsor Ironworks Company of Liverpool for the erection of 145 feet of the north end of the Crystal Palace, destroyed by fire, bringing the restored part up to the spot at which the north transept formerly stood. The work is to be completed by November, and the screen which now stretches across the nave will then be put back to tho extremity of the restored portion.'[1]

1869 'THE TUBULAR LIFE-BOAT. Attention was called by us last week to the tubular life-boats of the National Life-Boat Institution in an account of a gallant rescue performed by one of these stout craft stationed at New Brighton, near Liverpool. We now represent one of these remarkable life-saving boats, which we should like to see more general around our fatal coasts. During 1868, and the first eight months of 1869, 938 lives and 34 vessels were saved by the life-boats of the National Life-Boat Institution alone, and 558 lives by shore-boats and other means, for which the institution granted rewards. Can there be any more powerful appeal than these figures to the British nation for the support of one of our most valued institutions? We think not. Merely reminding the charitable reader, therefore, that the address of Mr. Richard Lewis, secretary of the Life-Boat Institution, is 14, John-street, Adelphi, we proceed to describe the life-boat depicted.

The Rescue was constructed on Richardson’s patent iron tubular principle by Mr. John Hamilton, Windsor Foundry, Liverpool. Forty-two feet in length, with ten feet beam, she is built of iron, with the exception of her washstrake and gunwales, which are of wood. The peculiarity of her construction consists of two iron tubes running from stem to stern, with fourteen water-tight bulkheads; and she presents the shape of an ordinary boat with thwarts, cross thwarts, and open ceiling in the bottom of the boat, so that any water she may ship will immediately pass through her.' [2]

1869 'The new wrought-iron pier, constructed opposite the Royal Gun Factory Department, Royal Arsenal, upon the design of Mr. Grover, civil engineer, and carried out by the contractors, Messrs. Sharrock and Loutitt, of Hamilton's Windsor Iron Works, is nearly completed. The pier is supported upon iron columns and has a plain and neat appearance; it has a tramway running the whole length, about 350 feet, and has three lines of rails upon it. The pier is intended for heavy stores to be conveyed over it from the shipping to the wharf, the depth of water being sufficient for vessels to be brought alongside to discharge.— Times.'[3]. See 1870 image - New Iron Pier at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. Designed by J. W. Grover, C.E.

1873 'NEW FLOATING SWIMMING BATH FOR LIVERPOOL. A new floating swimming bath for the use the boys of the training ship Indefatigable, which is stationed at Liverpool, has just been launched from the yard of the Hamilton Windsor Ironworks. It is constructed from designs by Mr William R. M'Kaig and Mr James Carlton Stitt, of that town, and consists of an iron cylindrical structure, 85 feet long, divided into compartments by means of water-tight bulk-heads. In the interior of this is a water space 50 feet long by 20 feet wide, with a tray at the bottom which can be sloped so as to give a depth of 3 feet 6 inches at one end, and 6 feet 6 inches at the other. This is so constructed that it can be raised at pleasure in the event of any accident to the bathers, or whenever it is necessary to beach the bath for the winter. One of the advantages of this bath is, that the boys can safely practice the art of swimming without any danger from the current which may be running at the time, the external structure protecting them from the power of the stream. As soon as the Indefatigable resumes her place in the river the bath will be used.' [4]

1874 'It seems probable that the famine in Bengal may lead ultimately to valuable commercial results in the utilisation of the rivers and canals in India for navigating purposes. The Indian Government recognising the necessity of such means of transport, on March 4 last ordered for the Famine Relief service ten steamers and five barges from Messrs. J. and G. Rennie, of London, and Hamilton’s Windsor Iron Works, of Garston, near Liverpool, firms of experience in this description of work, with appliances for its rapid execution, such as to enable them, to submit to the condition that if the vessels were not completed bv April 30 the contract would be null and void. ....'[5]

1875-9 Manufactured the castings and wrought iron structures for the Severn Railway Bridge, and erected the bridge. George Earle was the Site Manager. At the end of the project, he was presented with a watch, inscribed: Presented to George Earle, by the Directors of the Severn Bridge Railway Company in recognition of his zeal and ability and uniform cheerfulness in carrying out the work of the Severn Bridge, under exceptional difficulties for the Hamiltons Windsor Iron Works Co. [6]

1879 'A small cable towing steamer has just been launched from the yard of Hamilton's Windsor Ironworks, Limited, Garston, near Liverpool. The vessel has been built on Meyer and Wernigh's patent cable towing system, by Mr. F. J. Meyer, for the German Government, and is intended for towage upon canals in connection with the Upper Rhine. The steamer is 60 feet long by 10 feet beam, and draws 2 feet 8 inches water. The hull is built entirely of steel. The cable gear is worked by a high-pressure engines of 20 H.P. nominal. She is built to tow trains of barges containing about 1000 tons of cargo, at about six miles per hour. As the vessel left the ways she was christened the NV Strassburg by Miss Lion.'[7]

1880 'Fatal Boiler Explosion.— An inquest was held before the Liverpool coroner on the body of Robert Davies, engine tenter, who had died from injuries received through the explosion of a 50 horsepower boiler of which had charge at the Hamilton Windsor Ironworks, Garston. The boiler was fractured just over the furnace, and the deceased was badly scalded. A boilermaker attributed the explosion to the boiler being short of water. The deceased had complained to his brother of the boiler being dirty and about the use of salt water in getting steam ; but it was stated that this could not have had anything to do with the explosion. [!] The jury returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased had died from scalds, but that there was not sufficient evidence show the cause of the explosion.' [8]


See Also

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Sources of Information

  1. South London Chronicle, 31 August 1867
  2. Penny Illustrated Paper, 9 October 1869
  3. Tenby Observer, 4 November 1869
  4. Edinburgh Evening News, 11 September 1873
  5. Homeward Mail from India, China and the East, 2 May 1874
  6. The Rise and Fall of the Severn Bridge Railway 1872 - 1970 by Ron Huxley, published by Alan Sutton and the Gloucestershire County Library, 1984
  7. Liverpool Mercury, 12 February 1879
  8. Derby Daily Telegraph, 22 May 1880