The Weaver Refining Co Ltd
Riparian Manufactory, Acton Bridge & Witton Brook
caution !! this is an initial draft ...
I keep these notes on my server so I don't loose them !!
During the 18th & 19th centuries the ancient crafts of
rural Cheshire
were slowly industrialised. Innovative products & technologies were introduced
exploiting the synergies of specialisation & scale which were involved in mass production in
factories.
New factory locations were discovered wherever & whenever opportunities arose as enterprising folk wrestled with the new fangled problems of production -
raw material availability?
proximity of markets & customers?
and the quality & costs of capital, land, energy, labour & transport?
but the economics of these complex factory systems always seemed to be bound up with the recovery or disposal of waste ... waste was inevitable ... the 2nd law of thermodynamics saw to that! ... and then, when a few innovations were successful, the many failures from the trials & errors were soon forgotten and the profits were described as 'obscene', the murky result of a 'casino' of exploitation ... but entrepreneurs like Edward Hindley knew it wasn't luck ... he knew 'the harder he tried the luckier he got' ... he knew about hard work, honesty & thrift ... he knew about 'education & compound interest' ...
So why a manufactory at Acton Bridge?
The old spelling of Acton Bridge is Actun; Ac (Saxon) meaning 'oak', and tun meaning 'farm or place' - so we have 'Oak Place' or 'a place in the oak forest'.
The Acton area was described by George Ormerod (1785-1873) in his History of Cheshire as, 'a district consisting principally of fine meadow ground sloping to the banks of the Weever and not destitute of pleasing undulations of surface or fine timber which here, receiving protection from the sea breezes, begins to attain its wonted luzuriancy where deer range from the forest to the banks of the Weever'.
Acton was part of the Weaverham parish after the conquest and at Doomsday the Lords of Helsby and the Abbots of Vale Royal owned most of the land.
But land ownership ebbed and flowed as title resulted from the vagaries of success in wars, patronage, inheritance and, above all, tax raising capacity ... there was no point in owning unproductive land! There were also inevitable disputes between rival Lords and Abbots and a succession of landowner names have been recorded - Duttons, Actons, Leighs ... with a lot of interbreeding?
In the reign of Henry VIII the church lost some of its influence and lands were redistributed. At this time Ormerod writes that the tithes of geese, pigs, hemp and flax in Acton were paid to the Lord of Dutton.
During the Civil War in the 17th century it was the turn of the lords to lose influence. The king's supporters were responsible for 'all manor of outrages and intolerable taxes. They plundered Weaverham and the country about, carried off old men out of their houses, bound them together, tied them to a cart and rove them through mire and water to that dungeon, where they lie without fire or light and now through extremities so diseased, they are ready to give up the ghost'.
After such turmoil Richard Ashton emerged as a considerable landowner but other names were around - Warburtons, Leicesters, Parrs, Lyons, Masseys, Gandys ... and in 1640 some of the lands at Acton Bridge became part of the Milner Estate and remained so until 1918 when the properties were sold off to individual householders & businesses.
But names don't matter? Ownership tells us little about the economic activities on the land and with the animals which generated the wealth for folk to scrape out a living and pay their taxes.
For centuries Cheshire folk farmed, the damp climate and the hills & hollows of the topography had tended to favour pasturing over arable farming so inevitably Cheshire specialised in cows. The animals and associated crafts had always been important and things had changed but slowly ... until industrialisation ...
In the 18th century Acton Bridge was a small rural farming community but change was in the air, populations were rising, there were many mouths to feed and more feet to be shod requiring more food and more shoes and farming and shoemaking were not immune from change.
In addition to farms and cows, Cheshire had salt. Industrialisation was a complex process but rural Cheshire and the Weaver led the 18th century effort to supply much needed alkali for the new industries of soap making & glass making, and the calicos from the mills around Manchester needed washing, bleaching & printing. The exploding cities of nearby Manchester, Warrington, St Helens and Widnes needed soda ash & bleaching powder ... and both needed salt.
The youngsters were looking for new jobs in new factories ... they paid better ... manure factories, shoe factories and chemical factories sprang up and some folk, like edward hindley, a local Barnton man, abandoned their traditional shoemaking craft and ventured into manufacturing (see below) ...
In 1801 Acton Bridge claimed 201 inhabitants, in 1831 - 335, 1850 - 382, 1881 - ?, 1891 - 597, 1901 -?.
Access to cheap bulk transport and water power.
Adam Smith noted in 'The Wealth of Nations' in 1776, 'by means of water carriage, a more extensive market is opened to every sort of industry than what land carriage alone can afford it, so it is upon the sea coast and along the banks of navigable rivers that industry of every kind naturally begins to subdivide and improve itself ...'
The Merchants of Liverpool made several attempts to open up the river Weaver for trade, there were no ruts, mud nor broken axles on the canals! Thwarted by the Cheshire land carriers who anticipated revenue loss the necessary Act of Parliament was not secured until 1721. The initial work was completed in 1734 when the Weaver Navigation started to provide cheap bulk transport for cargoes from the salt industry in Northwich & Winsford to the Mersey estuary and the port of Liverpool. Pack horses to the Mersey used to carry 200lbs, the payload of a 'Weaver flat', a sailing or horse drawn boat, was now 35 tons.
But it was not only salt; other commercial activities began to exploit the facilities available at Acton Bridge.
The original wooden locks and associated weir provided a usable head of water of about 4 feet which lasted until the Dutton locks were operational around 1882. The Dutton locks replaced the Acton locks and, at a stroke, raised the water level and removed the head at Acton Bridge. The Dutton project cost £95,266, an investment of some £108 million in today's money. The new locks used lime stone from Anglesey, sandstone from Runcorn and granite from Cornwall and the project secured big improvements to a busy waterway. However, as Colin Edmondson has confirmed from the Weaver Navigation records, the new locks meant a loss of water power for the factory site at Acton Bridge and ended a series of altercations involving the conflicting interests of the site tenants and the River Weaver Navigation Trustees -
1781 6th September - the minute books of the trustees noted
an agreement for water to be taken from the weir for a cotton mill belonging
to Daniel Whittaker & Co of Manchester.
1800 locks report - the name 'forge' appeared for the first time.
1804 October - a complaint was recorded about water being drawn from the weir at Acton Forge
and at Frodsham Mills.
1806 November - a sill was to be provided at the head of Acton Bridge forge cut to
prevent the water level being drawn down below the weir head.
1807 locks report - named a 'forge' at
the
weir site.
1817 October - a notice was given to Acton Forge stating that unless the sluice
was kept in
repair the water course leading to it would be shut up.
1843 - the tithe maps of Cheshire indicated John Budd was
the tenant of the mill site and had
his 'zinc works and yard' there, he was also the tenant of a second site a few dozen yards
up river, consisting of 'yards, gardens & buildings', the
land was owned by Mr Dennis Milner.
1844 June - Mr Ewbank, occupier of Acton Forge, drew off water from the
Acton pond so low that several down flats missed a tide and up river
flats were delayed several hours ... engineers were instructed to erect a dam across the water
course leading to the wheel of the forge, the same height as the weir so as
to prevent drawing water from below the weir cap.
1850 Bagshaws Directory of Cheshire - the river Weaver at Acton Bridge was crossed by a
bridge of two arches, near to the Acton Zinc Works and Saw Mills of Messrs
Richard Lloyd and Co.
1857 Post Office Directory of Cheshire - Maude W E & Co,
Zinc Rolling Mill, Acton Bridge.
1864 January - Acton Forge was using water required for navigation ... they were
to be reminded
that they used water under sufferance.
1864 October - Acton Forge ... unless Mr Milner gave permission to put a clow on
his land between the river and the works which was to be under Navigation
control the trustees would
take proceedings to protect their interests. If permission was not given
within 2
weeks a stone dam was to be constructed to stop the flow of water to the
wheel clough.
1864 Morris & Co's Directory of Cheshire - W E
Maude & Co, Zinc Rolling Mill, Acton Bridge.
1865 January - the clerk reported that the dam had been made.
1865 May - Milner consented to a clow on his land.
1875 -
the Anderton Boat Lift provided access for narrow boats to the Trent and Mersey canal
and the heart of industrial England and London.
1876 July 1st - an article in
the Northwich Guardian reported the launch of the Lowwood coaster ‘Leven’ by Wincham Co,
to be followed by trials in October & November and at sea in December.
1877 OS map - showed the Acton Mill site as a Manure Works and the second site a few
yards upstream as a Saltpetre Works. The map showed the paired
locks and weir
stream by the island and just above the locks the weir site adjacent to Island Cottage.
1880 November - the clerk was to write to Messrs Milner and Maude owner & lessee of Acton Mills
to inform them that the level of the water will be raised in the next few
months when Dutton Locks were commissioned.
1881 June - water power at Acton Mills was to be independently valued.
1881 July - water now flowed through Dutton sluices but the level had not yet
been raised due
to the arrangements with Acton Mills not being finalised. Mr Leader
Williams was appointed arbitrator.
1881 October - Acton Mills were still delaying the appointment of an arbitrator. They
were to be
given notice to do so within 14 days or the Engineer was to proceed with the
works.
1881 December - agreed to pay £1,680 compensation to Acton Mills including costs. (£1.95
million in today's money)
1881 - Acton Mill machinery was removed for Mr Maude, a shed and boiler were raised.
1881 General Accounts Books, Weaver Navigation - the Lowwood Gunpowder Co
were using
Winnington wharf, 76tons quarter of coal, also 170 tons of coal were
recorded in the Northwich
tonnage records.
1882 February - using the dock, Northwich tonnage records 60 tons
saltpetre refuse quarter.
1882 - £1,680 was paid to Acton Mill as compensation for the loss of water power.
1882 - Engineering reported parts of Acton Mills were raised.
During this period of water power from around 1734 to 1882 the Acton Mill site was owned by the Milner Estate and had a series of tenants. We can now begin to piece together the history of the factory site.
In 1734 the initial Navigation project involved constructing 11 wooded locks & weirs along the natural course of the river. A water head of about 4 feet would have been available at the Acton Bridge site.
It was 1781 before there was a mention of the aborted plan for the Whittaker cotton mill. We know a little about Daniel Whittaker & Co from Manchester ...
In 1782 Daniel Whittaker was a Manchester merchant and a member of The Committee of Trade in Manchester.
Daniel, married Esther Boardman at Manchester Parish Church on November 1st 1756. They had fourteen children. One of the children, Mary, was baptised on 25 January 1769 at St. Mary's Manchester. Mary was the second wife of peter holland (1766-1855), a Knutsford Surgeon, and they were married on 21 January 1809 at Walcot in Somerset. At St. John's in Knutsford there was a monument inscribed as follows -
'Esther Whittaker, widow of the late Daniel Whittaker of Manchester, died January 26th 1813 aged 80. Mary wife of Peter Holland, Surgeon, died August 5th 1840 aged 71 and Catharine, daughter of Daniel and Ester Whittaker, died August 30th 1844 aged 85 years.'
Hunter's 'Familiae Minorum Gentium', Harleian Society, Volume 37, MS 133, page 301 reports that Mary Whitaker's father was incorrectly recorded to be Jememiah Whitaker and this name has been perpetuated in Burke's Peerage and elsewhere? ... T S Willan in his book on the Weaver Navigation also referred to an alias Jeremiah Whittaker ...
However the best lead on Daniel Whittaker comes from his involvement in The Cotton Twist Company of Holywell. Just over three years after his appraisal of the Acton Bridge site he invested in much bigger things in the greenfield valley in Flintshire ...
There is little doubt that Daniel abandoned his plans for investment at Acton Bridge because he had found a better bet in Holywell ... 16 ft of water, high flying partners and a magnificent new cotton mill ... with diversification into corn milling ... and a 'Black Jack' works ... it appears that Daniel Whittaker was involved in the smelting of zinc in Holywell long before John Budd's enterprise at Acton Bridge (see below) ... Acton Bridge was a promising site but no match for the torrents of St Winefride ...
Around 1800 the first site occupant was likely to have been a local blacksmith who set up shop to take advantage of the water head to power the hammers and bellows of his forge. Probably a small 10hp breast shot wheel. The forge would have been a coal fired reverberatory furnace producing 'puddled' wrought iron from pig iron. It's a safe bet that Flintshire pig iron was used at the forge and the source would have been John Wilkinson's blast furnace at bersham?
From 1808 there was multiple site occupancy, not only was there useful power but also opportunities at the wharf for bulk cargoes to be discharged and stored before distribution. In 1808 Sir Henry Holland's book 'General View of the Agriculture of Cheshire' advertised that 'Good lime, brought by the Staffordshire canal in iron boats from the neighbourhood of Leek, may be purchased at the wharf at Acton Bridge at sixpence the bushel'. And 'The Agricultural History of Cheshire 1750-1850' by Clarice Stella Spencer Davies recalled that 'Lime could be purchased at the Acton Bridge wharf, near Northwich for 6d. a bushel, but a four-mile land carriage would increase the cost to 8d'. This confirms the dramatic cost advantages of bulk transport by the waterways. The riparian site at Acton Bridge was a valuable property!
The 1843 tithe maps of Cheshire show a 'zinc works' at Acton Bridge owned by a Mr John Budd?
Why a 'Zinc Works' in the middle of rural Cheshire?
The zinc connection goes back to the early industrialists in Flintshire and capital investment in new metal smelting technology. These early pioneers were primarily interested in lead ores but the processing of zinc became profitable around the turn of the 19th century and it was the availability of cheap zinc that inspired a young Liverpool metal merchant to invest at Acton Bridge.
In 1835 John Budd (1811-18??) developed a patent for using a zinc alloy (zinc 100/tin 10) for the manufacture of printing cylinders for cotton, calico, silk and other fabrics. This alloy was considerably cheaper in material and manufacturing costs than the established copper alternative.
In 1836 Budd formed a partnership with Cooper Ewbank to exploit zinc metal applications at Acton Bridge Mills. The firm 'Budd & Ewbank' was funded by another partnership 'Ewbank & Cordes', owned by Henry Ewbank (1787-1859), Cooper's uncle, and James Jamieson Cordes (1798-1867) who manufactured the 'ewbank nail'.
In 1837 zinc applications were given a fillip with the invention of galvanised iron. This invention led to new markets for the zinc works. Clearly the young partners had printing cylinders and galvanised nails in mind when the started their partnership in 1836. But there was trouble at the mill ...
Obviously tempted by the rosy prospects of cheap zinc and attractive products, in 1841 Henry Ewbank sued the partnership for bankruptcy in the vain hope of unseating John Budd and leaving the Acton Bridge riches in sole possession of his nephew. On Jan 20th 1841 at the court of bankruptcy Sir J Cross found with costs against the petitioning creditor. Bankruptcy laws were designed to protect creditors from loss they didn't enable them to usurp the profits!
In the 1841 Census, John Budd aged 30, a Merchant was living at Mt Pleasant, Liverpool. Perhaps this was a lodging house as 15 people were resident. The 1851 Census records John Budd aged 41 as born at Truro, Cornwall in 1810. Unmarried. A merchant in metals and visitor at Kenyon Terrace, Birkenhead.
In 1853 Gore's Directory of Liverpool lists John Budd & Thomas Bevan's metal brokerage. Thomas was a solicitor and a long time friend and colleague of John Budd, helping him in the court case against Henry Ewbank in 1841.
Slater's Trade Directory of 1850 confirms that John Budd also had an agent and representative in Bristol, edward grevile, who helped to promote and sell the products from the Acton Bridge Mills nationally.
bristol was an established centre for the metal trades in the early days and students of the 'industrial revolution' should ponder why it was that Bristol in the south west, after an initial promising start, did not maintain its dominant position as a trade centre and was usurped by Liverpool and Manchester in the north west?
The Zinc operations at Acton Bridge worked by John Budd & Cooper Ewbank were a consequence of the investments of the lead smelters in Flintshire who took advantage of new technology for the smelting of zinc ores pioneered in Bristol. They produced 'the spelter of commerce' which was traded and exploited by merchants like Budd & Bevan in Liverpool.
This was a story of enterprise in science ...
Industrialised lead smelting in Flintshire was started by the london lead company at Gadlys and by 1849 one quarter of all lead mined in the UK was smelted in Flintshire in coal fired reverberatory furnaces concentrated at Bagillt and Flint. But by 1840 lead smelting had fallen on hard times ... importation was a constant threat.
Lead and zinc ores were found together in Flintshire limestone but the local practice had always been to reject the zinc ores as useless waste because zinc smelting was a problem. The production technology for the extraction of zinc metal was unknown in Europe and other countries in the western world, until William Champion produced zinc from its ore at Bristol in 1750.
william champion (1709–1789) unwittingly offered the lead smelters of Flintshire a life line ... and, significantly, Thomas Pennant records that as early as 1758 in the valley from Holywell to the sea 'Edward Pennant Esq granted a lease of it to Mr Champion, partner in the Warmley Company of Bristol, who there calcined 'black jack'. He was the first who engaged in such a concern in this country, which carried on under the protection of a patent'.
Champion's invention led to opportunities for new zinc works which could exploit the accumulated waste dumps from centuries of lead mining. As foreign competition started to erode profitability in the lead industry, the mining and preparation of zinc provided fruitful employment for capital which was ceasing to be productive. Profitable zinc could now be recovered from waste dumps!
Following the lead of The London Lead Company and bankers like John Freame, a new breed of capitalists opened up new scale & techniques of production in Flintshire. One industry after another responded to the inputs of capital & technology which characterised the industrial revolution and typical were two new zinc works were opened in Greenfield and Bagillt in the 1840s.
In 1842 william crockford (1775-1844) opened a new spelter process at Greenfield. Was the Greenfield Spelter Works, Holywell, Flintshire supplying spelter through the Liverpool brokers to the Acton Bridge zinc works? Or was it one of the other zinc smelters operating at that time -
Bagillt Zinc Smelting Co Ltd, Mold, Flintshire - National Archives - BT 31/3056/17373 - 1882 ??
minera mine - Wrexham ??
Walker, Parker & Co ??
Whoever the supplier, the 'waste' zinc ores from Halkyn were converted in the furnaces of these companies into 'the spelter of commerce' ... zinc metal ingots ... some of which were shipped via the Flintshire wharfs on the Dee to the rolling mills at the Acton Bridge factory site on the Weaver.
'The Northwich Tonnage Book of Goods & Coals', records of the River Weaver Navigation indicate that in 1842/43 The Anderton Carrying Company were regularly shipping zinc and bones in the Weaver flats 'Bee', 'Despatch', 'Davenham', 'Pigott', 'Shamrock', 'Thistle' and 'Yankee' up the river to the Acton Bridge wharf. The Anderton Carrying Company ran a fleet of Weaver flats from the Anderton basin, Daisy Bank Lane, opposite the Winnington Works, right on the Anderton boat lift site.
But what was the shipping route from the smelters to John Budd's mill around 1840? Round the peninsular to Liverpool and then Weston Point on the Weaver or via silts of the Dee to Chester and the canal of 1795 to Ellesmere Port and then the Weaver?
For sure road transport was not on. With impoverished central governments the North Wales roads were a joke. Even in less remote Cheshire, the roads had never been satisfactory since the time of Roman elegance. Inspired land owners and even enterprising innkeepers tried their best and from 1750 the Turnpike Trusts tried to tackle the job. But serving the needs of local farmers and through traffic from London proved difficult, and there remained a stolid Anglo Saxon resistance to 'state control' and the inevitable intrigue and corruption as London bureaucrats spent other folks money ... in spite of Telford's expertise and showers of money the roads never really made it ... although eventually by the 19th century, pack horses and sledges had slowly given way to wagons and even scheduled coaches ...
The Dee estuary was another problem. Canalisation in 1737 had been a flop, expensively pushing a new port at Connah's Quay at the expense of Flint, Bagillt, Greenfield and Mostyn. The investors in the Dee canal made their money from reclamation of vast areas of marsh land around the new cut which now became available for rental. The London Lead Company had opposed the improvements to the Dee, they already had a reliable shipping route for their lead from Bagillt via the cheese ships of Parkgate. The Bagillt creek retained traffic and a daily Bagillt to Liverpool steam packet was established in 1821.
Long before 1840 the Dee and Chester had lost out to the flourishing deepwater facilities in Liverpool.
Thomas Pennant recorded that the Greenfield Valley hosted the 'great behemoths of commerce' like thomas williams who confirmed the dominance of the Greenfield to Liverpool route, 'the number of vessels immediately employed by the copper companies on the river (our little Jordan), to convey the several manufactures, or materials, to and from Liverpool, and other places connected with them, amount to between 30 and 40, from 30 to 50 tons burden'.
Clearly as John Budd was a Liverpool metal broker and the sands of the Dee were impassable, he would have sourced his spelter through the exchanges in Liverpool and shipped it across the Mersey to the Weaver Navigation and up to Acton Bridge. Liverpool and Liverpool merchants dominated the development of the riparian sites on the River Weaver.
The Acton mills functioned around the clock six days a week. Perhaps unhealthy by today's standards but they gave good work and good prospects to the inhabitants of Acton Bridge. The spelter with up to 1% lead impurities was heated to 100 - 150 degrees C where it was malleable and ideal for rolling into sheets and cylinders. Iron increased the hardness of the zinc and was undesirable. The Halkyn ores were <0.15% iron and ideal. John Budd was a smart cookie ...
The commercial rationale for the 'zinc works' at Action Bridge involved cheap waste from the lead spoils of Halkyn as input and the valuable zinc products for the Manchester cotton industry as output ... it was a successful business. The essential business strategy was the application of patentable technology in the exploitation of waste material to produce innovative products serving a growth industry.
The 1843 maps of Cheshire indicate John Budd was operating his zinc works but by 1850 Bagshaws Directory of Cheshire names richard lloyd & Co as the zinc works proprietors, which now included a saw mill. By 1857 the Post Office Directory lists w e maude & co, at the Acton Bridge Rolling Mills.
Francis White & Co, History, Gazetteer & Directory of Cheshire in 1860 describes W E Maude's zinc works adjacent to the stone bridge as 'extensive' and names their local representative as Thomas Priestly.
The Weaver tonnage records also indicate that in 1860/61 W E Maude & Co were shipping both zinc and bones in the Weaver flats 'John & Mary', 'Croydon', 'William', 'Sarah' and 'Garside' up the river to the Acton Bridge wharf.
It appears that William Edward Maude was not only exploiting the economics of waste associated with lead spoils which John Budd had initiated but he had also diversified into a multitude of profitable by products associated with waste from the animal carcase!
The mill by the weir was cashing in on the water head and hot rolling ingots of zinc and grinding bones for chemical manures. When the water level was raised in 1882 and water power ceased, Maude's compensation of £1,680 would have financed a coal fired steam driven mill or retirement?
Who was this guy, william edward maude?
Cheshire cows had long been linked with Cheshire salt to produce scrumptious Cheshire cheese and their posthumous gift of leather to the shoe makers was established in antiquity and now at the start of the 19th century the ubiquitous cow made another contribution to the farming revolution.
In 1813 'Elements of Agricultural Chemistry' by Sir Humphrey Davy recommended the use of bones as a form of manure. Chemistry was beginning to be applied to farming. The importance of a balance of nitrogen, potassium & phosphate in the soil to increase yields was being pinned down and bone meals, acid phosphates and sulphate of ammonia began to appear as chemical manures.
1874 Morris & Co Directory of Cheshire identifies the two works as Astles, Thomas & John, and The Lowwood Gunpowder Company.
1877 O S map shows the land at Acton Bridge was occupied by a 'manure works' and a 'saltpetre works'.
1878 Post Office Directory list the 'manure works' as the business of Thomas Astles, Acton, Northwich - Bone Grinders.
1879 Woods Self Binding Harvesters advertises - acton bridge FFF bone meal - 'Full Particulars of Analysis Supplied to Intending Purchasers. Prices and Terms on application. Thomas Astles, Acton Bridge Bone Mills, Weaverham'.
1883 Slater's Directory of Cheshire & Liverpool noted Mr Thomas Astles, Winnington under 'Nobility, Gentry & Clergy'. And Thomas Astles as a 'Salt Manufacturer' - 'Astles, Thomas (brine agent), Anderton'.
Thomas
Astles (1833-1918) was a pillar of the local community, an enterprising Mechanical
Engineer who ran a corn milling & bone grinding business at Acton Bridge and
a brine pumping operation in Anderton. He was born in Winnington in 1833 on
top of the Cheshire salt deposits. He married Harriet Reader in 18?? and his
step daughter Mary Elizabeth helped out as a Clerk in the Acton Bridge factory. The
family lived on the site at Acton Bridge Mill House and his daughter Mary
Adelaide married the Foreman at the saltpetre works next door, Mr William
Wakefield.
It is likely that Thomas & John Astles subleased the Acton mill from W E Maude sometime before 1874 and when the Weaver lost water power in 1882 due to the new Dutton locks a decision on whether to invest in steam would be necessary. Although Maude had been compensated the economics of milling at Acton Bridge had changed ...
At this time Cornwall Colliery in Tasmania were recruiting engineers to manufacture and install a much needed tramway for transporting coal. Big projects were afoot and Thomas was tempted ...
In 1884 the family split up and Thomas and step daughter Mary Elizabeth Reader emigrated to tasmania in search of fame and fortune, his son Hugh (1865-1911) followed two years later. Tommy applied his skills to building tramways for coal at the cornwall colliery which stared mining in 1886 when the branch railway from St Mary's to Conara was opened. Tramways were needed down Mount Nicholas to the railway siding. The tramway worked on a gravity system where the loaded carts pulled the empty ones back up and ran a distance of about 1 mile. No engine was required, just a braking system. Just Tommy's cup of tea! Maybe some of the engineering work was done in England and shipped out, this would have kept him busy from 1882 until he went to Tasmania in 1884? The prospects at Acton Bridge at the time probably seemed paltry in comparison to Tasmania where new mines were being discovered including silver, tin, lead, gold and high grade iron ore, many dependent on coal from Cornwall Colliery.
Hugh followed his father into engineering, training at Salford before following him to the Antipodes where he enjoyed considerable success.
Thomas died in Brunswick North, Melbourne in 1918 shortly after this last photo was taken. The family often speculated about Tommy's fortune seeking exploits down under and how much better he would have fared had he stayed with salt in Northwich! Perhaps he would have expanded his brine pumping operations and joined the Brunner Mond juggernaut ... Brunner Mond & Astles ... ?!
Whatever Tommy's motivation a manure works was pretty grotty when the alternative was Tasmania & sunshine. In 1882 an Alkali Inspector described a general scene at the works - 'the manure is made from carcases, shoddy, leather, slaughter house refuse and some mineral phosphate. The method is to heap twenty to thirty tones of shoddy in a shed, onto this is poured blood and refuse. Any carcases that the owner may buy are, after being skinned, buried in the heap, the heap is allowed to stand and rot for five or six months. This is then shovelled into a mixer with some leather, crushed bones and acid. After mixing this is let into an open den and a man shovels onto it a certain quantity of mineral phosphate. The stench is simply intolerable. This maybe a public nuisance but my responsibility concerns the acid and mineral phosphate. I consider nothing chemical as alien to myself'.
But the chemical manure trade was modernising and pioneered the chemical analysis of its products and helped mobilise chemists and the Royal Institute of Chemistry in 1877. Why should farmers trust the manure manufacturers? No one could 'see' the potash, nitrogen or phosphate in the meal and the results in the fields could not be evaluated until next season. Fraud and adulteration were always suspected, and some inevitably succumbed to temptation. But reputations for quality & reliability had to be earned and jealously protected if customers were to be loyal and premium prices secured. The industry led the way in establishing British Standard methods of analysis.
Edward Hindley recognised the relationship between quality and price and sent his son Edward junior away to Manchester to study analytical chemistry before he was put in charge of the laboratory at The Weaver Refining Co Ltd charged with the task of maintaining product quality.
Roger Duncalfe a founder of British Glues & Chemicals became President of the British Standards Institute in 192?. But we get ahead of ourselves ...
Why a Saltpetre Works?
There seemed no end to the versatility of the cow as these prolific beasts now began to contribute raw materials to the chemical manufactories through the nitre beds.
As has been noted the 1877 O S map shows the land at Acton Bridge was occupied by a 'manure works' and a 'saltpetre works'.
In 1871 Worrall's Directory of Warrington listed the Lowwood Gunpowder Co Ltd, Acton Bridge under the management of John Edwards Harrison, indicating the Acton bridge saltpetre works was owned by the Lowwood Company.
On July 1st 1876 an article in the Northwich Guardian reported the launch of the Lowwood coaster ‘Leven’ by Wincham Co, followed by trials in October/November and at sea in December. The 'Leven' was owned by The Lowwood Gunpowder Co and shipped saltpetre from the Acton Bridge works up the coast to Ulverston.
The 1881 census records the Manager of the Saltpetre Works was John E Harrison (1826-??) a local Northwich born man who lived on site at Salt Petre Works House with his wife Mary Wakefield who he had married in 1846 at St Mary's Great Budworth. Also resident in the household was John's 23 year old nephew William Wakefield who was an Engine Tester & Driver at the Works ... more of William later ...
The Lowwood Gunpowder business originated in Low Wood, near Ulverston on the river Leven in Cumbria, in the late 18th century. The first licence to manufacture gunpowder at the works was issued at the Lancaster Quarter Sessions on 2nd October 1798. The company was formed by Daye Barker (the senior partner), James King, Christopher Wilson junior and Captain Joseph Fayrer (who also acted as the company's Liverpool agent). The company was officially Daye Barker & Co, but was always know as The Low Wood Gunpowder Co.
The Lowwood site on the Weaver at Acton Bridge may have provided similar attractions to the parent site by the Leven - close proximity to timber and the charcoal that was derived from it, the sparse population which meant that the dangerous processes did not impact on residential areas, and a ready made power supply in the form of fast flowing water. Lowwood manufactured black powder which was prepared by intimately mixing three ingredients - saltpetre, charcoal and sulphur. This was done formerly in barrels with lignum vitae balls, but at Lowwood in a new incorporating mill there was a limestone edged running mill, with dampening of the cake to avoid dust and associated explosion risk. The object was to coat every charcoal and sulphur particle with a layer of saltpetre. The Acton Bridge plant supplied the saltpetre from its nitre beds.
Initial sales of gunpowder, known as 'Africa' powder, were used in the slave trade as well as powder for fighting ships. Until the abolition of slavery in Britain in 1807, the gunpowder formed part of the triangular trade route, being exported to Africa where it was exchanged for the slaves who were then transported to the Americas, the ships returning to Liverpool laden with sugar, cotton & tobacco. After the end of slave trading, Low Wood concentrated on the manufacture of blasting powder for use in the mining and quarrying industries.
Daye Barker died in 1835 and his son (also called Daye) succeeded him in partnership with one of his brothers, John Barker. The firm suffered a decline from the 1860s, with the advent of modern explosives. In 1882 it was sold to a competing gunpowder firm, W H Wakefield & Co. also from Cumbria.
W H Wakefield & Co (National Archives BT 31/31886/77740) acquired its name from William Henry Wakefield (1828-1889), a banker and gunpowder maker, of Sedgwick House, Kendal. He was a descendent of John Wakefield who opened the first gun powder mills in Cumbria, at Sedgwick near Kendal in 1764. The mills moved from Sedgwick to Gatebeck, near Endmoor in 1850. John, an entrepreneur of wide ranging interests, who also opened a bank in Kendal in 1788. In 1890 the London Illustrated News reported the passing of W H - 'Wills and Bequests include - Mr W. H. Wakefield JP and Chairman of the Quarter Sessions late of Sedgwick House near Kendal'.
In 1883 Slater's Directory of Liverpool confirmed the liverpool offices of both The Lowwood Gunpowder Co and W H Wakefield & Co in the centre of town at Orange Court, Castle Street.
Also in 1883 J A Berly's British, American and continental electrical directory indentified the Acton Bridge works as The Lowwood Gunpowder Co, Saltpetre Works, Acton Bridge, Northwich indicating the business continued to trade under the Lowwood name.
In
1882 at the Congregational Church in Over, Northwich, a
local William Wakefield (1858-1936), John Edwards Harrison's nephew,
married Tommy Astles'
19 year old daughter
Mary Adelaide (1864-1929). John Harrison was the manager of the Acton
bridge Saltpetre Works. Tommy's Manure Works was right next
door to the Saltpetre Works. Was this love across the steaming nitre beds at Acton
Bridge?
By 1884 when Maude Alice their first born arrived, William had risen to Foreman at the Saltpetre Works and the family had moved to Juniper Street, Kirkdale, a stones throw from the Orange Court offices. By the time of their second son Herbert Victor in 1891 they had moved back to Little Leigh. Was this imposing gentleman related to the gunpowder dynasty?
Perhaps not ... William's Dad Samuel, was a joiner & cabinet maker from Castle, Northwich. William's Mum, Alice Bostock, had died when his birth was registered on 24/5/1858. This could explain why he went to live with his uncle John Harrison at Salt Petre House. John had married Samuel's sister Mary Wakefield at St Mary's Great Budworth in 1846. Samuel & Mary's father was Thomas Wakefield who married an Elizabeth? No sign of any connection with the 'gunpowder' Wakefields here ... just robust Northwich stock with trades & enterprise!?
Saltpetre manufacture was a filthy process, the potassium nitrate came from the drainings of decomposing organic material, dung heaps! Ammonia from the decomposition of urea produced the nitrate by bacterial oxidation. Nitre beds were prepared by mixing manure with potash and straw to give some porosity to the pile. Under cover from the rain, moistened with urine and turned regularly to accelerate the decomposition, the festering could last a year before the heap was leached with water. Potassium nitrate was then crystallised out with wood ashes. Alternatively stale urine could be soured in a vat with straw hay for several months as urea degraded into ammonium carbonate. Salts would deposit on the straw and be recovered with a water wash and precipitation with wood ashes or potash. There used to be a flourishing trade in urine! Around 1850 in Glasgow, William Twaddle produced a hydrometer to check the gravity of urine ... apparently the canny Scotsmen were known to augment their supplies by dilution ... usually with whiskey!
Cheap imported sources of saltpetre were always a threat to local production and the main supplies came from India. But it was the invention of dynamite and nitro-glycerine based smokeless propellants in 1887 that made the Acton Bridge production uneconomic. Alfred Nobel (1833-96), a founder of ICI in 1926, was a pioneer of this technology. Gunpowder, black powder, produced 55% solids as 'smoke' in addition to the gases powering the explosion. Smoke was not only a visual clue to gun location but it was also hydroscopic and corrosive and gummed up the works when fast reloading could be the difference between life & death! And black powder was ruined by water, 'keeping your powder dry' was a perpetual problem on the battlefield.
Although black powder operations were maintained at Ulverston until 1935 W H Wakefield & Co closed the Acton Bridge unit around 1896?
As a wartime expedient all gunpowder producers in the country, including W H Wakefield & Co, were merged into Nobel Industries Ltd in 1918. In 1926 Imperial Chemical Industries was formed from an amalgamation of Nobel Industries, Brunner Mond, United Alkali Co and British Dyestuffs. Although ICI modernised the Low Wood plant in 1928 this proved to be a last gasp of obsolete technology and the mills finally closed in 1935.
However nitre beds and saltpetre were not only needed for explosives. Saltpetre was used for the manufacture of sulphuric acid via the 'Lead Chamber' process ... sulphuric acid became an important chemical in the manufacture of alkali via the Le Blanc process ...
Complex economic interactions & synergies at Acton Bridge?
Water power for milling provided opportunities for zinc rolling (from lead mining waste) and bone crushing (from animal waste).
Animal waste processing provided opportunities for manures and saltpetre and a host of valuable by products. The value progression which required technical innovations and capital investment was from manure to glue to edible gelatine ... the economics of refining and value added ...
Saltpetre from the nitre beds provided opportunities for gunpowder and sulphuric acid via the Lead Chamber Process.
Sulphuric acid and Northwich salt provided opportunities for the chemical industry and the Le Blanc Process.
Problems with the economics of the Le Blanc process opened up the opportunity for the ammonia soda process and the runaway success of Brunner Mond and ICI and the Northwich chemical industry ...
... and whatever the raw material and whatever the product cheap water transport to the factory and to the customer made the economics buzz. The rule of thumb carrying capacity figures had settled down - pack horse 250 lbs, wagons on poor roads 1400 lbs, wagons on metal roads 2 tons, river flats 35 tons and canal barges & flats 50tons ...
NB After the demise of water power in 1880 the site by the Weaver was powered by coal fired steam raising boilers ... however it was the cheap river transport on the Sankey Brook and the River Weaver for the coal from the pits in St Helens that maintained the economic buzz!
The Gelatine Handbook summarised the requirements for the location of a gelatine plant in the early days, some basic requirements had to be fulfilled -
nearby raw material supply, at that time mainly tanneries ... long transport routes for material comprising 80% water was expensive, as it is today, especially as the raw material degraded rapidly
adequate availability of fresh water wells for groundwater, springs, or good quality river water
location away from housing areas because of the odour of the raw materials and from the plant
close to a river or the sea shore, primarily for disposal of the effluent, but also to transport raw materials and final products
the availability of wood or coal for fuel for firing the boilers
a location close to forests was also an advantage because of the requirements for the drying of the gelatine ... a forest cleans the air of dust and also has a moderating effect on the climate ... this was important because at that time no air conditioning for drying the air was available ... because of this, it is reported that the gelatine quality in winter months was superior of that of summer months ... some companies even manufactured only during winter.
No wonder Edward Hindley was excited in 1900 about the potential of the manufactory at Acton Bridge ...
The Weaver Refining Co Ltd
The land by the side of the River Weaver just before the old swing bridge was owned by the Milner family and had seen a variety of successful enterprises before Edward Hindley expressed his interest. Edward's shoemaking trade in Barnton was under pressure, mass production in the Northamptonshire factories was taking over. Sick of the toil of hand made shoes & cheap competition and with a flourishing wife and exploding family to support, it was time to move on. There was real money to be made from the muck left over after the slaughterhouses had taken their prime cuts of meat from the cows for the hungry folk in the towns.
But processing rotting animals? What a stench of death! The appalling conditions would have deterred all but the most ambitious. But out of the piles of putrefying filth, flies, festering flesh and fat emerged vital products to satisfy the diverse desires of discriminating customers ...
No wonder Edward called his manure works 'The Weaver Refining Co Ltd' ... the craftsmanship of the Cordwainer had been swapped for the technology of waste management and the production of valuable by products, a recycling factory! ... 'waste not want not' ... it was a goldmine!
In 1902 Edward Hindley and Joseph Neill, a local barge owner, purchased the lease on 1600 square yards of land at Acton Bridge including the old Mill chimney, cottage buildings and premises. This was the land that hosted Tommy Astles' Manure Works. But what happened to the business when Tommy emigrated in 1886?
Edward & Joseph also leased the corner of the field opposite, on the road to Acton Bridge including piped water rights. And also 656 square yards hosting two further cottages. All were leased from the owners, the Milner family. The 1902 Kelly's Directory of Cheshire Trades indicates The Weaver Refining Co was a manure, size and tallow manufacturer occupying the site at Acton Bridge Mills.
On July 20th 1903 the duo purchased the freehold of 1241 square yards of land with warehouse, cottage and buildings from William Edward Maude. This was the land that hosted the saltpetre works of The Lowwood Gunpowder Co. It appears some 20 years after Maude lost the water power to his zinc rolling mill, he finally sold out and opened up opportunities for Edward Hindley's new enterprise. But when did W H Wakefield & Co close down the Saltpetre Works?
On the 14th of February 1905 a lease on 1 acre 20 perches of land at witton brook in Northwich, adjoining the Witton Flashes, was purchased from The Salt Union via a Mr Martin Collins with the option of taking a further lease on the same premises.
Edward Hindley's eldest son Samuel operated an offshoot 'animal products' business from properties at Nos. 42, 44 & 46 Waterloo Street, St Helens.
All these properties and a more distant investment in Westhoughton in Lancashire which was owned by Edward and Joseph Neill were injected into The Weaver Refining Co Ltd which was incorporated on the 26th of November 1908.
When the Memorandum of Association was drawn up it was clear the directors were keeping all options open and all opportunities on the boil -
animal products of every conceivable type
food products for human beings and animals of every conceivable type
salt processing of every conceivable type
metal processing of every conceivable type
electricity & gas generation, distribution and supply
'manufacturers & merchants of all articles & things made or capable of being made from the waste products & refuse of such businesses and of or from the by products thereof'
including patenting inventions, property development, mining rights, licensing, transportation, storage, insurance, subcontracting, trading, dealing, merchanting, brokering, advertising, importing & exporting ... anywhere in the world ...
Although it was normal practice for the 'Memorandum' to avoid unnecessary restrictions on future business opportunities, the activities mentioned do tell us something of Edward's thinking. He certainly didn't want to get stuck again in obsolete hand crafts, he also knew about the successful history of the Acton Bridge & the Witton Book sites and he certainly knew about change. Living in Northwich he also knew about the River Weaver & salt and was fully informed about the chemical industry ... so from the start he described himself quite generally as a 'Chemical Manufacturer' ...
So what was the salt connection?
The factory site at witton brook was bang in the middle of the northwich salt operations.
From the start the chemical industry was a prodigious user of salt as a raw material and coal for energy. Coal was shipped up the River Weaver and salt was shipped down, no vessels were empty. The steam engine had been around to help after Watt's triumph in 1776 and then, in Newcastle, in 1884, Charles Algernon Parsons (1854-1931) developed his steam turbine and the generation of electricity to small grids took off. The 'on tap' electrical power gave a further fillip to Joseph Swan's incandescent light bulb which had been developed in Sunderland in 1878. But electricity didn't reach the Acton Bridge factory until 19?? and subsidence arrived at Witton Brook before electricity! It was salt & coal that energised the Northwich industrial revolution.
By 1900 the chemical industry was thriving. Wood ashes had been used and imported as a source of alkali until soda ash and potash were commercially available from kelp. But it was salt and sulphuric acid that led to industrialised alkali production in the 19th century. Nitre from agricultural waste was involved in the production of sulphuric acid by the 'Lead Chamber' process and salt from Northwich was needed for soda ash from the 'Leblanc Process'.
19th century chemistry had been concerned with optimising the leblanc process, William Losh on Tyneside, Charles Tennant in Glasgow, James Muspratt at Newton-le-Willows and William Gossage at Widnes led the way with attempts to solve the inhuman working conditions and the horrific problems of hydrochloric acid fumes and obnoxious though valuable sulphur being sprayed all over town. The industry was partially resuscitated by Deacon's chlorine recovery work which led to profitable production of bleaching powder and the Chance-Clause process helped with sulphur recovery, but problems and inefficiencies persisted. The sparkling Tyne became a stinking ditch and the foul stench of rotten eggs pervaded Widnes. From all this intolerable complexity the interests of the Leblanc producers were merged into The United Alkali Company in 1891 as they watched helplessly as the new technology of Brunner Mond's ammonia soda process triumphed in Northwich from 1873.
Edward was in the middle of all this trauma, change and development. But he operated the only way he knew ... chasing profits and cutting losses ... wherever and when ever they were spotted ... and he spotted something at Witton Brook ...
The history of the Witton Brook site is interesting ...
In 1721 the Witton Brook salt producing land was part of the Venables Estate which was sold to the Leicesters of Tabley in 1758. The Witton Brook cut & locks which date from 17?? opened up river transport to a host of rock pits belonging to what Charles Foster described as 'grander' families - Venables, Barron, Warburton, Lyon, Blackburne and Patten and also some significant lesser families - Antrobus, Claridge, Jeffreys, Vernon and Barrow.
By 1765 the land around Witton Brook which, much later, was to be occupied by The Weaver Refining Company was owned by Sir Peter Leicester and John Jervis Esq. Sir Peter owned the land known as Yates Field where John Jeffreys had his rock pit. Charles Foster suggests John purchased the lease from Benjamin Claridge, a Frandley Quaker, who rented from Hugh Wade. Benjamin ceased trading in 1735 and John and his family took over and were regularly shipping salt down the Weaver until 1767 when his rock pit fell in. The Witton Brook site was typical many commercial salt extraction operations throughout Northwich.
In 1828 the Tabley Estate sold 500 acres of land in the heart of the Northwich salt fields, including the salt works by the brook, which was by now a 'brine pit'. The sitting tenants firth, stock & co purchased the freehold of this 18 acre site where Occupation Road ran through Yates Fields at the foot of Tivis Hill. This purchase was confirmed on the 1840 tithe maps of Cheshire where the site was described as jeffreys field owned by Thomas Firth, a rock salt merchant. Thomas had also established a bank in Northwich in 1817 with his partner Samuel Buckley and his son Frederick Hand Firth. The firm had a branch at Winsford but as reported in The Banker's Magazine in 1866 Messrs Thomas Firth & Son was taken over by parr's banking company from Warrington. Parr's also took over The Consolidated Bank Ltd of Manchester & London, in 1896. Robert Neill junior was a director of consolidated and the uncle of Joseph Oswald Neill who was to become Edward Hindley's partner in The Weaver Refining Co Ltd.
The Parr's banking business flourished and was merged with The Westminster Bank in 1918 and eventually with The National Provincial Bank in 1968 and The Royal Bank of Scotland in 2000.
Thomas Firth was also an investor in Broad Oak and Sankey Brook collieries in St Helens where he helped to finance the deep shafts which were sunk in the mid 1800s. The Weaver and Sankey Brook were the economic links between St Helens coal, Northwich salt & the Port of Liverpool.
Thomas was a considerable land owner in Northwich and was involved in The Marston Salt Co with Thomas Lyon who was Joseph Parr's partner in the Warrington bank. It seems Cheshire business men were an incestuous lot!
The OS map of 1875 identifies the salt works which were being operated on Jeffreys Field, just one of a plethora of similar frantic activities. The map also shows that Jeffreys Field was rapidly sinking into the cavernous holes that were left after the mining of salt and the pumping of brine, and Witton Brook was being transmogrified into an expanse of water, Witton Flashes!
In 1876 the white salt association was to try again to organise some profit 'in the face of the very dismal prospects of the trade'. This time the membership included a Mr James Lovett (1841- ), who with his father, James senior (1813- ), and his brother George (1839- ) were established salt merchants & salt proprietors operating 10 pans in the Northwich area. It is likely that James purchased the Witton Brook salt works from Thomas Firth? According to The Inspector of Mines, Joseph Dickinson, in his 1873 report to The House of Commons re subsidence, the witton brook site was being pumped by the cheshire amalgamated salt works for George Lovett. Was Lovett's brine being supplied to Amalgamated or more likely, was Amalgamated supplying brine to Lovett for evaporation? The Amalgamated prospectus from 1865 clearly anticipates an 'inexhaustible' supply of brine and 'extra revenue of £2,000 pa was to be derived from selling brine to other salt manufacturers'. More and more salt ... it was all too easy ... dig a hole anywhere in Northwich and brine would start to flow ... no wonder prospects for trade were dismal!
In 1888 the salt union was formed in yet another tragic attempt to solve the profitability problems of the industry by creating a monopoly. Some 64 businesses, 90% of the salt works in the country were bought up at inflated prices. Two businesses, the Anderton Salt Works and the Witton Brook Salt Works, were owned by James Lovett's wife, Katherine, when they were purchased by The Salt Union in 1888. They paid £6,750 for the business and then closed them down.
In 1899 after cutting capacity The Salt Union were leasing out their acquired lands for alternative use and they leased the land at Witton Brook to Martin Collins, a horse slaughterer from Sheath Street. And this was the business that aroused the interest of Edward Hindley and Joseph Neill in 1905. Clearly there was more money to be made from dead horses than trying to compete with Brunner Mond!
The Weaver Refining Company soon abandoned the Witton Brook site. Maybe there was trouble with the lease, maybe they feared the site would sink into the great flash that had relentlessly appeared? More likely they simply pursued the good cost savings to be had from rationalising their production facilities at the Acton Bridge site.
At Acton Bridge the company concentrated on the most profitable products from the Cheshire cows and bones which were collected in profusion from local farmers, butchers and even some imports found their way up the Weaver to the boilers.
Kelly's Directory of Cheshire records the Weaver Refining enterprise at Acton Bridge in 1902, 1906, 1910 & 1914 - The Weaver Refining Co Ltd - pure bone manures, tallow, cut bones, glues, gelatines, sizes, acid phosphate - Acton Bridge Mills.
In 1902 Kelly's Directory lists Edward Hindley - rate collector, assistant overseer and clerk to the Parish Council.
1912 The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain - Design - acid phosphates of calcium for manufactures. The Weaver Refining Co Ltd, Acton Mill, Acton Bridge, Northwich, Cheshire. Chemical Manufacturers.
1917 Board of Trade Journal - Phosphates - Weaver Refining Co Ltd, Manufacturers, Acton Bridge.
There were other interesting diversions at the factory. In 1918 The Royal Entomological Society reported the finding of two specimens of 'Apterygida Albipennis' (a short-winged or hop-garden earwig!) at the Acton Bridge Bone Works. Mr J R Le B Tomlin was a bug collector, entomologist and regular visitor, visiting on 19th Oct 1916 & 16th Oct 1917 as he attempted to track down these little beasts.
1918 Department of Employment Gazette on page 10 mentioned The Weaver Refining Co Ltd.
The Weaver Refining Company purchased the freehold of the remaining 2.827 acres of the riverside site for £2,300 from the Milner Estates at auction on Wednesday 13th November 1918.
Perhaps 1919 was The Weaver Refining Company's most successful year, a good business had been built up over 20 years in the face of fierce competition.
The business strategy involved processing & refining the cow carcase to add value by minimising the input & operating costs at the factory and maximising the value of the product delivered to the customer. Superior logistics & technology minimised quality degradation & waste and the marketing efforts were focused on those products with the highest margin. The jewel in the crown of The Weaver Refining Co was edible gelatine.
Problems required solutions and the factory's greatest asset, the River Weaver, also caused a major problem, erosion of the river bank. Cheap bulk transport on the river was critical to profitability but who was responsible for erosion, The River Weaver Navigation Trustees or the factory owners?
In 1919 an exchange of letters records the efforts of Edward Hindley to secure the river bank. Initially he located a supply of tongue & groove piling timber offered at a good price by James Webster & Co of Liverpool. Expertise in gelatine production did not stretch to pitch pine specifications and the necessary dredger & piling and Edward called in the Trustees who quoted £2,855-18-0 for the job. A significant amount in those days, £751,368 in today's money. The matter became urgent following a complaint from the northwich carrying co concerning safety of their steamers accessing the jetty. Alternative facilities for loading/unloading and the Acton Bridge wharf were expensive in time, labour & transport. Furthermore coal contracts for 1920 involved heavy demurrage charges if turnaround exceeded 24 hours, and the installation of a new crane and grab could not be finalised until the piling was completed. And there was more, the piling required the elimination of red hot cinders from the boilers which were still smouldering many feet below the ground. How was this to be done? The problems queued up! Disputes over the line of the piling were of little consequence when the Trustee foreman, Mr J Elson, insisted completion using the timber was impossible and expensive concrete was now necessary. The return of excess timber had to be negotiated with Websters and there were further cost negotiations with Colonel Saner, the Trustees Chief Engineer. Saner had a formidable reputation, he had built the 'pontoon' swing bridges at Northwich in 1898/9 and also redesigned The Anderton Boat Lift in 1908, and questioning the engineering details of the new jetty and controlling the escalating costs was an awesome task for Edward ...
Shareholders in The Weaver Refining Co Ltd
Edward Hindley (1858-1935) - 6,000 shares allotted by agreement. edward was my maternal great grandfather, an inspirational man ...
Joseph Oswald Neill (1871-1934) - 6,000 shares allotted by agreement. Joseph Neill was Edward Hindley's partner from the start in 1900. Born in Manchester in 1871, he lived with his wife Chris and two servants in a big house, Willow Green, Little Leigh, across the Weaver and just across the Trent & Mersey canal at the top of the hill overlooking 'blue bell wood', where the Howards and Joyce & Graeme Andrews used to live.
Joseph came from a remarkable family of business men.
The old man Robert Neill hailed from Inveresk in East Lothian, his son Robert Neill (1817-99) moved to Manchester and founded a large and successful building firm 'Robert Neill & Sons' in 1842. Their most notable work was manchester central station, now the Gmex Centre, designed by Lewis Henry Moorsom with the structure up to platform level being undertaken by Robert Neill & Sons at a cost of £124,778. Work on the building commenced in 1875 and the glorious roof was built by Andrew Handyside & Coof of Derby. This was the age of rail and another notable effort was the great northern warehouse, designed by Richard Johnson, with Robert Neill & Sons the main contractors. And Robert Neil & Sons were the main contractors involved in the building of todmorden town hall which was opened by the Postmaster General on April 3rd 1871. No wonder Robert was famously Mayor of Manchester in 1866/7!
In 1873 Robert Neill became a founding member of the national federation of associated employers of labour. The NFAEL was formed to defend the business of business, and the process of wealth creation and economic growth which powered the industrial revolution. Technological innovations and joint stock companies were victims of relentless interference from the envy & greed of rent seeking politicians & trade unions. From the start of the industrial revolution entrepreneurs in Lancashire & Yorkshire were threatened by the elites in London and the south east! It was a complex educational task ...
The Directory of Directors, 1883 - Mr Robert Neill J.P. of Robert Neill & Sons, builders & co, Sherbourne Street, Strangeways, Manchester. A director of the coal mining company Andrew Knowles & Sons, and the Manchester Carriage & Tramways Company.
A Lancashire & Yorkshire rail contract confirms the two sons Robert junior and Joseph Skidmore were active in the business in 1885 - 'RAIL 795/349 Contract between Robert Neill the Elder, Robert Neill the Younger & Joseph Skidmore Neill (contractors, Manchester) and L&Y for construction of new station at Blackburn 1885 June'. And a third son Alexander Renton was also involved in 1891 - 'An antique manuscript deed survives from from the reign of Queen Victoria in 1891. An indenture between The Manchester Shipping Offices & Packing Co Ltd of the first part, Robert Neill, Robert Neill the younger, Joseph Skidmore Neill and Alexander Renton Neill carrying on the business of contractors at Manchester under the firm of Robert Neill & Sons of the second part and the said Robert Neill (the mortgagee) of the third part. For all that plot of land having frontage to Lloyd Street formerly Back Queen Street and to Jackson Row in the City of Manchester'.
The Architect & Contract Reporter, a weekly illustrated journal, reported in Volume 13 - 'Messrs Robert Neill & Sons of Manchester have obtained a contract for the erection of new barracks at Warrington. The amount is stated to be £9,000 and commencement has been made with the works'.
As reported in the London 'Times' Robert Neill died in 1899.
Robert's second son was Joseph Skidmore Neill, J.P. of Claremont, Broughton Park, Manchester & The Cliff, Acton Bridge, Cheshire. This gentleman was Joseph Oswald's dad. After learning in his father's business he specialised in finance rather than building. He was a Director of -
The Lancashire & Yorkshire Accident Insurance Co Ltd - founded in 1877 and in 1906 the 'Lancashire & Yorkshire' merged into what is now Aviva.
Morison & Marshall Ltd, financiers of Winchester House, Old Broad Street. (BT31/7315/51785)
l. & h. pinto ltd - Mexican merchants, tobacco and cigar manufacturers, and tobacco growers, dating from 1885. They converted their business into a limited company in 1897. The company was wound up in 1906. (J13)
Robert Neill's brother Archibald also started a building business in Bradford. Archibald Neill's investment in new stone dressing machinery was important evidence brought before the Earl Litchfield's royal commission into trades unions in 1867. Luddite restrictive practices of the Unions prevented the use of machine dressed stone in Arichibald's Bradford building business. Gladstone chose to appease the Unions and the 1871 Trade Union Act refused to accept the majority report of the Commission. The Act bestowed legal privileges on the Unions which protected restrictive practices and absolved Unions from liability under the Common Law doctrine of 'restraint of trade'. Thus a millstone was placed round the neck of entrepreneurs like Archibald which impeded wealth creating innovation & investment until the Thatcher reforms of the 1980s. It seems politics of the time was concerned about the threat that socialism posed to the industrial revolution and Gladstone's Liberal Party were fierce tree traders and tax cutters but they chose not to confront the Unions and not to uphold the Common Law. Thus the 1871 Trades Union Act opened up the anti business politics which built the Labour Party and lasted for 100 years, severely restricting the goose that laid the golden egg ... the competitive business enterprise.
Despite this setback Archibald continued to actively innovate up to his death in 1874.
Clearly Joseph Oswald came from a successful business family, builders & bankers of repute, who offered him good opportunities for betterment.
On the 15th of February 1896 Joseph married Ada Chris Sara Hodgson who was born in Crosby or Bootle, Liverpool in 1872.
In the 1901 census Joseph was described as a 'Contractor & Barge Owner'.
'The Times' of London reported that Joseph Oswald Neill died in Llandudno on November 19th 1934, just five months before the death of his old partner Edward Hindley ...
James Evans Grimditch (1872-??) - 4,025 shares allotted payable in cash. Grimditch lived at Hersham Green, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey and joined the two partners as a Director in the Weaver Refining Co Ltd. when it was incorporated as a private limited company 28th of November 1908, with an investment of £4,025.
James was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in 1872. His father William James Grimditch was born in Downham, Cambridge, England in 1847 and at the time of the 1881 census was a Chemist & Farmer (78 acres, 2 men, 2 boys) running a 'market place druggist shop'. His mum was Sarah born in Ely in 1848.
On March 28th 1906 the anglo american cattle products co ltd was incorporated to acquire and take over the business at 81 Dale Street, Liverpool to buy, sell, import, export & deal in animals alive or dead and all kinds of meat. An international meat merchant business with 10,000 £1 shares and seven subscribers of 1 share each -
Henry Thomas Srer, 61 Southport Road, Ormskirk - Cigar Merchant
James Alexander Duncan, 36 Dunluce Street, Walton - Accountant
Thomas James Poole Masters, 8 Abercromby Terrace, Liverpool - Solicitor
Cornelius Joseph Merriman, 62 New Ferry Road, New Ferry - Estate Agent
Frank Willmott Knibb, 74 Claudia Street, Anfield - Cashier & General Merchant
William James Glass, 5 Cook Street, Liverpool - Chartered Accountant
Robert Edward Edwards, 32 Green Lane, Seaforth - Chatered Accountant
The directors of the firm were James Evans Grimditch, his wife Emma Elizabeth, both resident in Rosemont Philadelphia, USA and Mr Alexander Joseph Antoine of 40 Fazakerley Road, Liverpool as Manager.
The Memorandum of Association makes it clear that the strategy of the business was inexorably tied up with the exploitation of the carcase by-products. Mentioned particularly are serum albumin, pepsin extract & pemmican . These were sophisticated high value products and clearly Grimditch was operating an ambitious import/export company focused on trade with North America. In 1906 princes buildings, 81 Dale Street, Liverpool, L2 2HT was a majestic five storey red brick office block in the port of Liverpool with retail use on the ground floor and offices above. It was built in 1882 by Henry Shelmerdine as shops, offices and leather works.
Shareholder allottees were -
James Evans Grimditch, Rosemont Philadelphia - merchant - £2,343
Emma Elizabeth Grimditch, Rosemont Philadelphia - married woman - £450
Alexander Joseph Antoine, 40 Fazakerley Road, Liverpool - manager - £100
Clara Norton, 1 Morningside Road, Bootle - married woman - £400
John Morton Norton, 1 Morningside Road, Bootle - manager & salesman - £150
Emma Ianfield Norton, 1 Morningside Road, Bootle - spinster - £50
Two of the subscribers acted for the company - F W Knibb as Secretary and W J Glass as Auditor.
On the 12th of October 1908 a special resolution was passed changing the Articles of Association to enable Grimditch to take out a £5,000 debenture prior to liquidation. Anglo American Cattle Products Co Ltd was wound up voluntarily following an Extraordinary General Meeting on November 6th 1909 and finalised on July 29th 1910.
It appears James Evans Grimditch had secured a more profitable investment in The Weaver Refining Co Ltd! Interestingly Grimditch also invested in a Sheffield company, Meggits (1917) Ltd, who were also involved in the cattle products business, and also involved in a future merger with The Weaver Refining Co Ltd in 1920.
In 1908 when The Weaver Refining Co Ltd was incorporated Grimditch had returned to England from The Anglo American business in Philadelphia and was living at Hersham Green, Walton on Thames where his wife Emma Elizabeth was born in 1874.
Harold Moreton Moss (1880-??) was the Company solicitor with 1 share. Milling & Moss, Bull Ring Chambers, Northwich, handled the incorporation of the company in 1908. From 1906 to 1916 Harold Moss was in partnership with William Milling, after 1916 Harold continued trading as H M Moss. Moss & Haselhurst was formed in 1946 when John Shand Haselhurst joined. The business continues today and has traded as mosshaselhurst since 2005.
Harold Moreton Moss drew up Edward's will in 1929 and filed for probate on Edward's death in 1935.
William Moss (1851-??) was the Company bank manager with 1 share. He lived at Westfield, 158 Chester Road, Northwich. William was Harold Moreton's father. He had a second son William Herbert, born in 1882, who also went into banking.
William Sharpe Galloway (1863-??) was a nail manufacturer and appeared on the share register in 1914 with 350 shares. Born in Timperley, a Nail Manufacturer. The 1901 Census records - William S Galloway, aged 38, married Maud Constance from Salford, aged 31. 3 servants but no children. Oakleigh, Dunham Road, Dunham Massey. Wholesale hardware merchant.
The 1911 census confirms William was at the same address and in the same condition.
Who was this chap? Was he following in the footsteps of Cooper Ewbank who occupied the site in the 1840s? Why?
He seemed to be unrelated to another William Galloway who was a nail manufacturer with premises at the end of Sunderland Road, Gateshead, established in the late 1850s. In 1900 this firm only employed about 25 to 50 people, many of them women, but, nevertheless, it took business from the local giants, Hawks & Abbot. Specialist manufacturers were more successful than general engineering firms such as Hawks who tried to make everything. William Galloway became a force to be reckoned with in his specialised branch of the iron trade.
One interesting aspect of this business was the fact that it had an agency for French and American steam cars. Galloway's moved to Blaydon in 1952 and was taken over by the industrial giant GKN in 1965.
People - Happy & healthy workers were productive and Edward insisted on discipline in the work place, tippling, fisticuffs, night rambling, mischief, immoral idleness and bad language were all forbidden ... Rechabites were encouraged as a means to some health security ... paternalism of health & safety at work?
no 9 warrington road was one of a group of cottages providing homes for the workers ... the office block was on the site of the 'Rheingold Restaurant', more recently renamed the riverside inn, and was the home of Mr Pickerings, the Factory Manager ...
Who worked at The Weaver Refining Co Ltd? We know of one of the employees, jack barker, a man of substance ...
The Weaver Refining Co Ltd, Acton Bridge was merged into british glues & chemicals on the 7th of May 1920. The company was valued at £102,500 including £27,408 goodwill (£24.7 million in today's money). Edward Hindley, Joseph Neill & James Grimditch held 6,850, 6,350 & 6,900 shares in the Weaver Refining Co Ltd at the time of the merger. There was a public offering for £2,000,000 of British Glues & Chemicals stock. The three directors took £61,842 in cash, £13,553 in preference shares & £277,105 in ordinary shares to the value of £102,500 from the sale.
The Directory of Directors published by Thomas Skinner & Co listed Mr Edward Hindley, The Poplars, Barnton, near Northwich, as a director of British Glues & Chemicals, Limited.
After the British Glues & Chemicals merger the attractiveness of the Acton Bridge site was further questioned -
- cheap water power disappeared in 1882 with the Dutton Locks
- cheap river transport proved less flexible and much slower than the railways which now ran between population centres direct from raw materials to customers
- other British Glues & Chemicals factory sites were now in more favourable locations
- the Acton Bridge site was closed in 1923 when further erosion of the wharf threatened additional reclamation costs only three years after the 1919 trauma. Liability for remedial work was an issue. Edward maintained the erosion was due to the wash of Weaver traffic. Colonel Saner had other ideas, explaining 'the Trustees liability was confined to keeping water from overflowing the land. The river, when in flood, was causing the erosion of the banks, especially on the concave sides of the bends, and the total amount could not be nearly as great in a canalised river as it would have been had the river been in its natural state'. The Weaver Trustees desperate to maintain their tolls offered to pay for the renovation work if the Refining Works were reopened and all materials were shipped via the Navigation ... Edward brought in the big guns from British Glues & Chemicals, Mr Clarke, the Chief Engineer visited the site and a letter was sent from the Company Secretary in London ... to no avail the Acton Bridge site was uneconomic and remained closed ...
... but Edward was ahead of the game, British Glues & Chemicals were focussing their R&D and capital investment on glues and gelatines, under threat from foreign imports, BG&C were not inclined to waste resources repairing unused river banks ...
1919 was probably the best and most profitable year that the Weaver Refining Company Ltd experienced. But ominous clouds were gathering. The animal reprocessing industry was continuously modernising and moving into higher value products. Increasing technological innovation & capital investment were required as more sophisticated refining took the business from manures to glues to edible gelatines. Investment in R&D and plant & equipment made larger scale units and pooling of resources essential. Ever present threats from foreign imports and much tighter regulation of abattoirs, odours and effluents eroded margins and suggested the industry had few friends ... by 1920 the logic of amalgamation was irresistible .. and just in time ... just before the 1921 slump ...
Edward Hindley would have been pleased with the price he got when he sold the business in 1920 but he had no inkling that the payback from his shares in BG&C was to be delayed ... it was only after the depression in 1936 that BG&C started the payment of dividends ... a year after Edward's death ...
Subsequently British Glues & Chemicals proved to be a very successful company and was acquired by Sir Frederick (Freddie) Wood and croda after a hard battle but at a good price on September 18th 1968.
measuring worth - a website that makes sense of money
The picture of Acton Bridge Mills is available courtesy of the weaverham history society
Any corrections and additional information gratefully received contact john p birchall