Nelson Engineering
of Lancashire (presumably Nelson)
1920 Company formed
Connected with Nelco
1933 'The Nelson Engineering Co., Ltd., under the direction Mr. J. Duerden, is aiding in the raising of the standard of living and luxury the distribution of a complete line of electrical fixtures and supplies. They are a business that is typical of the late development of present-day civilisation. At the shop in Market Square you can see every electrical appliance that alleviates the work of the household, and the mistaken idea that these are more expensive to operate than other help systems can very easily be shown to be false by a visit and demonstration. Mr. Duerden has been appointed the authorised ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS. distributor for Vac-Tric Automatic Refrigerators, which keeps food delightfully fresh at temperature that is normally fifteen degrees colder than can be secured by the use of ice. A small payment down and the experts employed can instal one — the initial cost will soon be repayed by the saving on the food bill. The Radio Department of the Nelson Engineering Co., Ltd., offers large selections which can be purchased either for cash or on easy terms, enabling you to pay for your radio as you enjoy listening to the world’s best songsters and musicians. They are also the authorised Oldham Battery Service station. In the field of contract work this local firm renders complete service from re winding armatures to wiring installation for homes, mills or industrial plants. They will make full set of plans, estimate, make a contract, put force of men on the job, and complete it the shortest possible time. Both Mr. Duerden and his staff are qualified men of unusual versatility and judges of values in the electrical business, and you will not go far wrong if you consult them about "anything electrical.”'[1]
1957 Verity and Sons and Nelson Engineering agreed that Verity's sales organisation would handle electrical equipment produced by Nelson throughout the world[2].
1958 'NELSON ENGINEERING FIRM TO STEP UP PRODUCTION. THEY'RE stepping up production at Clavell Bate and Nephews, the expanding Nelson firm who are helping to bring, in some small measure, a diverse selection of industries to the area. The firm has taken over a section of Hindley Bros. Ltd., Nelson Mills, who have a financial interest in the firm. It will ultimately mean an increase in the number on the Clavell Bate payroll. Clavell Bate and Nephews started up in 1948 as an aluminium foundry, graduating to precision work on parts for agricultural machines. Then they began to receive contracts from the big sweet manufacturers, repairing and renovating old wrapping machines. In 1964 they started production a fully-automatic perfume-wrapping machine of their own design, which sold at about £3,000. Then, in 1955, in a small red-bricked building at the bottom of Water Street — a building which has been in its time most things from an undertaker’s headquarters to a foundry — the firm started production on the Clavell A1 sausage-wrapping machine, the only one of its kind in the world. It was the brain-child of 28-year-old Mr. Frederick Bate, the firm’s designer and works manager. (His father, Mr. Douglas Bate, is partner in the firm). Besides sausages, it wraps many things, including Swiss rolls, crumpets, Eccles cake, bandages, lint, in fact any article which has a regular shape. In previous machines the article to be wrapped had been pushed and pummelled through various processes, so that anything soft, like sausage or a Swiss roll, would be unrecognisable by the time it came out at the other end. But the Clavell machine changed all that. The article remains stationary while the mechanism is brought to it. A Swiss roll, for example, can be wrapped and heat-sealed in cellophane without being damaged at all. To-day, the firm employs 50 people. Mr. Douglas Bate told a Leader reporter yesterday, however, that the acquirement of part of the Hindley premises will mean an increase in the number of employees, but he is not sure by how many.'[3]
Closely connected with William Roberts and Sons
1962 Clarke, Chapman and Co and W. H. Allen, Sons and Co jointly purchased Nelson Engineering Company, makers of smaller electric motors which would be supplied to the 3 companies[4].
1971 Company closed
See Also
Sources of Information
- History of Clarke Chapman [1]