of Lincoln
1859 Company formed when Edward Clarke established a forge on Hungate in Lincoln. Clarke started in business as a manufacturer of agricultural equipment, but he soon began to specialise in the production of crankshafts for steam engines and in 1872 he took out a patent for their manufacture.
By the 1870s the business was expanding rapidly and the firm moved to a larger site on Coultham Street, off Canwick Road in Lincoln.
1874 Advertisement. Edward Clarke, Patent Crank Works, Lincoln.[1]
1875 Incorporated as a Limited Co.
1894 Building a range of oil engines [2].
1894 June. Took part in the Royal Agricultural Society’s Competitive Trial of Oil Engines. Portable engine and locomotive crane. [3] [4]
Engine designs were licensed from Roots and Beverley
1898 June. Reports of oil motor made for Curtis and Mawes, furniture removers, Lincoln. 'its pace is very slow'.[5]
During both the First and Second World War the company made a vital contribution to the war effort by producing marine crankshafts and other heavy forgings for warships.
1919 Joined AGE - Agricultural and General Engineers[6]
1927 See Aberconway for information on the company and its history
1932 AGE was wound up
1948 Clarke’s Crank & Forge was take over by Mitchell, Shackleton and Co of Manchester and subsequently by Walter Somers of Halesowen.
The firm became part of Folkes Plc in 1990
2003 The Coultham Street factory was finally closed and the story of one of Lincoln’s oldest engineering companies was brought to an end.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Lloyd's List - Wednesday 09 September 1874
- ↑ A-Z of British Stationary Engines by Patrick Knight. Published 1996. ISBN 1 873098 37 5
- ↑ The Engineer of 22nd June 1894 p540 & p562
- ↑ The Engineer of 6th July 1894 p5
- ↑ The Autocar 1898/06/04
- ↑ The Times, May 11, 1920
- [1] Lincolnshire Archives