Royce
of Cooke Street, Hulme, later of Trafford Park, Manchester, electrical and mechanical engineers
Formerly F. H. Royce and Co
1899 F H Royce and Company was put into voluntary liquidation[1] and reconstructed with an enlarged capital, re-registration taking place under the title of Royce Ltd on 17 October. [2]
1903 Listed as 'Royce Limited. Electrical and mechanical engineers, makers of dynamos, meters, electrically driven cranes and hoists, arc lamps etc. Works - Cooke Street, Hulme. Branch works - Trafford Park' [3]
1903 Began experiments with motor car manufacture in a corner of his workshop. In the latter half of the year, Royce began producing a 10 hp model with overhead valves. By the spring of 1904 he had produced three cars. [4]
1904 Of the three cars, which were called Royces and had two-cylinder engines, one was given to Ernest A. Claremont and the other sold to one of the other directors, Henry Edmunds and ultimately to C. S. Rolls. One car was registered as AX 148.
1904 23rd December. Charles Stewart Rolls and Claude Goodman Johnson trading as C. S. Rolls and Co entered into an agreement to market the total output of the company; Rolls would make the bodywork[5]. The cars ranged from a two-cylinder 10 hp chassis to a six-cylinder 30 hp model. [4]
1906 Received an order from Ruston, Proctor and Co of Lincoln, for four three-motor electrically-driven overhead travelling-cranes, for use in their new gas-engine department.[6]
1906 March. Set up the Rolls-Royce company to produce cars, including acquiring the Cooke Street Works. Royce Ltd continued in business making cranes. In December a share issue funded the acquisition of C. S. Rolls and Co and enlargement of the works[7]
1907 'Among a number of recent orders Messrs.
Royce, Limited, Trafford Park, Manchester, have obtained
contracts for four overhead electrically-driven cranes from
Messrs. Richardson and Cruddas, of Bombay; from
Messrs. E. H. Hunter and Co., London, for four for the
Osaka Engineering Company, of Japan; for three for
Messrs. Kerr, Stuart and Co., Stoke, &c.'[8]
Note: The Osaka Engineering Co was not the same business as Osaka Engineering Works, which was not established until 1915.
1909 Listed as Royce Limited. "Electrical and mechanical engineers, makers of dynamos, meters, electrically driven cranes, hoists, capstans and winches etc. Registered office and works - Trafford Park Road, Trafford Park, Manchester" [9]
1909 Electric 'monorail' jib crane for Hawthorn, Leslie and Co., Forth Bank Works[10]
1909 'Messrs. Royce, Limited, Trafford Park, Manchester, have recently booked the following orders :— Two 45-ton overhead electric cranes for Canada, two 125-ton electric cranes for a Japanese dockyard, and 23 electric capstans for the Clyde Navigation Trustees — 14 of the latter being of the Royce patent free-barrel type.'[11]
1911 Listed as Royce Limited. "Electrical and mechanical engineers, makers of dynamos, motors, electrically driven cranes, hoists, capstans and winches etc. Registered office and works - Trafford Park Road, Trafford Park, Manchester" [12]
1922 Manufactured electric cranes, electric capstans, electric winches, electric transporters, D.C. dynamos and motors, electric controllers and switchgear.
1930 Order obtained by Royce Ltd for the supply and erection of the steelwork of the large new building at Erith, Kent, of British Fibrocement Works, Limited, and the supply and erection of the steelwork of the Cumberland-street substation of the Manchester Corporation Electricity Department.[13]
1932 Company acquired by Herbert Morris of Loughborough.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The London Gazette 27 October 1899
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ Slater's Manchester, Salford & Suburban Directory, 1903
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Early History of Motoring by Claude Johnson
- ↑ The Times (London, England), 1906
- ↑ Engineering 1906/02/23
- ↑ The Times, Dec 18, 1906
- ↑ Engineering 1907/11/15
- ↑ Slater's Manchester, Salford & Suburban Directory, 1909
- ↑ The Engineer 1909/03/19
- ↑ Engineering 1909/11/05
- ↑ Slater's Manchester, Salford & Suburban Directory, 1911
- ↑ Engineering 1930/03/28