Hazledine and Rastrick
Hazledine (or Hazeldine) and Rastrick, iron founders, of Bridgnorth
Note: This is a separate business to that of William Hazledine.
c.1792 Hazeldine and Co was set up in Bridgnorth by three brothers of the Hazeldine family - John , Robert and Thomas. The ironworks was located on a 0.8ha site between the east bank of the River Severn north of the bridge and Mill Street.
c.1803 Richard Trevithick asked Hazeldine and Co to produce the castings for an engine for a dredger.
By 1804 seven Trevithick engines were being manufactured at the Bridgnorth foundry.
c.1805 The foundry completed Richard Trevithick's stationary engine labelled No.14, now preserved at the London Science Museum, and two more engines for steam dredgers — Blazer and Plymouth.
c.1807 John Urpeth Rastrick (1780-1856), an engineer from Northumberland, joined the foundry
At some point the firm became known as Hazeldine, Rastrick and Co.
1808 The foundry built Trevithick’s third rail locomotive Catch Me Who Can, supervised by Rastrick. This was the foundry's only locomotive. Rastrick and Hazledine were also working together on the Thames Driftway in London at about this time.
1810 John Hazeldine died; Rastrick was managing partner from July 1811 to February 1812.
1811 Despite financial problems, the foundry carried out work for Simon Goodrich (1773-1847) of the Navy Board, including a copper rolling mill and a mine engine.
The firm made hundreds of engines for Trevithick [1]. The foundry took over casting an engine destined for a West Indian sugar cane plantation in St Kitts from Harveys of Hayle in Cornwall. In 1814 this engine was sent to Peru rather than the West Indies, along with eight others built at Bridgnorth.
1814 Name of the firm was changed when Thomas Davies (John’s brother-in-law) and Alexander Brodie joined the partnership.
1816 Work for Trevithick came to an end when he went to Peru.
1815-16 The company was involved in the construction of Chepstow Bridge, which was designed by Rastrick, though William Hazeldine’s company did some of the casting.
1817 The partnership of Rastrick with R. Hazledine, T. Davies and A. Brodie of the Iron Foundry, Bridgnorth was dissolved [2]. Rastrick moved to West Bromwich to work on his own before joining James Foster in business at Stourbridge as Bradley, Foster, Rastrick and Co and then Foster, Rastrick and Co. The Bridgnorth foundry reverted to Hazeldine and Co.
Work at the foundry stopped in the early 1820s — Davies and Robert Hazeldine were declared bankrupt in 1823.
1824 Foundry re-opened; trade resumed by 1827, undertaking work in the locality.
1829 Some of the foundry’s property was offered for sale in 1829 and 1830
1834 The remaining property was divided in half and sold in 1834 and 1835.
1837 Lawsuit in Chancery.
Robert’s son John Hazledine (1796-1843) continued to work as an iron founder from premises facing Bridge Street until his death, when the Hazeldine firm finally came to an end.
Members of the Pope family continued some foundry work on part of the original site until about 1914 but they had no connection with the Hazeldines.
1819 Announcement that a partnership between J. Dodson and H. Hazledine of Shrewsbury, Ironmasters is to be dissolved. [3]
See Also
Sources of Information
- British Steam Locomotive Builders by James W. Lowe. Published in 1975. ISBN 0-905100-816
- Engineering Timelines [1]