William Pratchitt (1833-1908) of Pratchitt Brothers
1865 William Pratchitt, Pratchitt and Co, Denton Iron Works, Carlisle.[1]
1908 March 28th. Died.[2]
1908 Obituary [3]
WILLIAM PRATCHITT, who came of an old Cheshire family, was born at Chester on 24th February 1833.
He was educated at Chester College, and at sixteen years of age was apprenticed to Messrs. Benjamin Hick and Son, of Bolton, with whom he remained for ten years.
During his apprenticeship he was employed for some time in Liverpool, also in the works of Messrs. Charles Cammell and Co., Sheffield, and before its completion he lived for several months in Blackburn, where he made all the drawings for Messrs. George Whitely and Son's new mill and weaving shed, then one of the largest in that town. Much of the machinery required in extensions of the royal establishments caused by the Crimean War was supplied by Messrs. Hick, of Bolton, whose manager he was at Woolwich Arsenal for two years, and while so employed much work was completed under his superintendence in the Arsenal itself, at Deptford, Sheerness, Chatham, Enfield, Waltham Abbey and the whole of the London district.
When the war ended he returned to Bolton and at the beginning of 1859 settled in Carlisle, where the firm, Messrs. Pratchitt Brothers, of which he was the head, has been chiefly occupied in the manufacture of pumping machinery for water and sewage works, grinding machinery and general work.
His death took place at his residence in Carlisle on 28th March 1908, at the age of seventy-five, after a long illness.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1865.