of Heybridge, Maldon, Essex
General
1805 Company founded by William Bentall on land near to the Chelmer and Blackwater canal at Heybridge
1839 The company was named as E. H. Bentall and Co when the company was managed by Edward Hammond Bentall the son of William
1851 Award at the 1851 Great Exhibition. See details at 1851 Great Exhibition: Reports of the Juries: Class IX.
1889 Edmund Ernest Bentall started to take over the management of the business from his father, Edward.
1894 June. Royal Agricultural Society's Show. Grater, or Root Cutting Machine. [1]
1906 Announced they were introducing 8, 10 and 16-hp cars. [2]
1908 Started production of a range of engines initially from 2.5 to 7 hp and later extending the range to 9 hp.
1912 Production of Bentall cars ceased in 1912 (some lists say 1913) after about 100 cars had been built.
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. [3]
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
In 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 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. [4]
In 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 Engineer of 29th June 1894 p562
- ↑ Autocar Magazine of 8th December 1906
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- [1] It's about Maldon