Ashworth Brothers
of Moss Brook Foundry, Rock Street, Collyhurst, and Ashley Lane, Manchester
George and Elijah Ashworth were prolific patentees, mainly in the field of textile machinery.
1877 Advertisement: 'TO THE DIRECTORS OF COTTON MILLS AND OTHERS. Before ordering a Donkey Engine see ASHWORTH'S PATENT "SIMPLEX" RAM PUMP, Double Acting with one Ram, and Quadruple Acting with Two Rams. It will answer the three following purposes : — 1st. AN EXCELLENT STEAM FIRE ENGINE. 2nd. A CHEAP AND SELF-CONTAINED DRIVING ENGINE. 3rd. AN EXCELLENT BOILER OR CISTERN FEEDER. ASHWORTH BROTHERS, ASHLEY-LAND and MOSS BROOK FOUNDRY : MACHINE AND BOILER WORKS: ROCK- STREET, COLLYHURST-ROAD, MANCHESTER.'[1]
1877 'The Royal Agricultural Show, Liverpool.... Messrs. Ashworth Brothers, of the Moss Brook Ironworks, Manchester, exhibit, in addition to the Simplex steam pump, of which they are the manufacturers, several washing and wringing machines, to which they have given the name of "The Leader." The principal advantages which are secured in these machines is that they are easier to work, are not so liable to disarrangement as some other wringing machines, and are more durable. By a very ingenious contrivance, an article of more than ordinary thickness may be passed through the machine without the rollers afterwards coming together with violence which does so much towards destroying the smoothness of their surface, the pressure on the rollers regulated by a spring instead of a screw weights. There are other advantages which place "The Leader" among the very best wringing machines. The same firm have also produced a "metallic comb-brush" for horses and cattle. The brushes, which are made of fine wire, are flexible and durable, and in every way a great improvement upon the ordinary stable brush, while from economical point of view their advent ought to warmly welcomed. [2]
1880 New factory in Rock Street, Collyhurst, opened[3]
1891 'MANCHESTER MACHINISTS & OPERATIONS MASSACHUSETTS. (from our special correspondent, New York, Wednsday). Messrs. Ashworth Brothers, of Manchester, have secured a tract of land from the Globe Yarn Mills, Falls River, Massachusetts, upon which they will erect large machine shops for the manufacture of carding and general machinery.'[4]
The 1891 O.S. map[5] shows Moss Brook Works (Machinery) occupying an irregularly-shaped plot of land about 500 ft long, bounded by Fitzgeorge Street, Eliza Ann Street, and Moss Brook, a short distance before the brook encountered a weir and entered the River Irk. On the opposite side of Fitzgeorge Street was a large disused quarry.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Lancaster Gazette - Wednesday 23 May 1877
- ↑ Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Wednesday 11 July 1877
- ↑ Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 4 December 1880
- ↑ Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, Tursday 22nd January 1891
- ↑ Godfrey Edition Old Ordnance Survey Maps: Lancashire Sheet 104.03: Manchester (Harpurhey & Collyhurst) 1891