Edward Taylor Bellhouse
Edward Taylor Bellhouse (1816-1881) of E. T. Bellhouse and Co
1816 Born the son of David Bellhouse
c1830 Joined Wren and Bennett
c1837 Worked for the Coloa Mills and St. Helen's Union Plate Glass Works
Worked for William Fairbairn at Millwall
Worked for the Liverpool Grand Junction Railway
1842 Formed E. T. Bellhouse and Co
1844 October 10th. Married to Sarah Jane Lafone
c1846 Birth of daughter Constance
1848 Birth of son Edward Lafone Bellhouse (1848–1924)
1851 Birth of son Herbert Lafone Bellhouse (1851-1907)
1851 Birth of son Sidney Lafone Bellhouse (1851–1883)
1857 of the Eagle Foundry, Manchester.[1]
1871 Living at Sale (age 54 born Manchester), Iron Founder employing 200 men. With his wife Sarah Jane (age 53 born Liverpool) and their children Constance (age 25 born Manchester); Edward Lafone (age 21 born Manchester), Iron Founder; and Sidney Lafone (age 21 born Manchester), Cambridge Colegian. Four servants. [2]
1881 Living at Washway Road, Sale (age 64 born Manchester), Consulting and Mechanical Engineer. With his wife Sarah J. (age 63 born Liverpool) and their son Sidney (age 29 born Manchester), a Mechanical Engineer. Two servants. [3]
1881 October 13th. Died at 8 Lloyd street, Southport age 65, of Dale Heys, Sale. [4]
See here for an excellent account of E. T. Bellhouse & Co[5]
1882 Obituary [6]
EDWARD TAYLOR BELLHOUSE was born at Manchester on 10th October 1816, being the eldest son of David Bellhouse, whose family originally belonged to Yorkshire.
He was apprenticed to Messrs. Wren and Bennett, where he remained for some six and a-half years, and where he acquired a thorough knowledge of practical engineering.
He then worked for about a year as a journeyman millwright at the Caloa Mills, and at the St. Helen's Union Plate Glass Works; and next spent a year as a journeyman at Sir William Fairbairn's works in the Isle of Dogs.
The following year, the last of his actual workshop life, he passed in the employ of the Liverpool Grand Junction Railway.
On 1st July 1842 he started the firm of E. T. Bellhouse and Co., which has carried on a prosperous business for the last forty years at the Eagle Foundry, Hunt Street, Manchester. It was just at a time when all branches of engineering were making large strides that the new firm was started; it rapidly became prosperous, and in a few years grew to be one of the principal engineering establishments in Manchester.
Large contracts were undertaken for the English and for foreign Governments, as well for private companies. Among these may be mentioned the gas works for Buenos Ayres, Pernambuco, and Athens.
Mr. Bellhouse, undertook the erection of many large bridges for various railways; and the whole of the stations required for the Arequipa Railway were constructed by him.
Another branch of engineering in which be took a great interest was the construction of iron buildings. He made and erected many custom-houses of iron; among others, that for Payta, Peru — a building unique of its kind.
Within Manchester he did a large amount of work, both for the corporation and for others. The construction of large roofs, and the general ironwork in connection with the erection of buildings, constituted the principal part of his Manchester business, although he did a large amount of hydraulic work, having among other things designed and made the hydraulic lifts &c. in the new City Hall, Manchester.
Apart from business he took an interest in every institution which tended to the benefit of his fellow-citizens, and showed especially an active desire to better the position of his workmen; for the latter purpose an extensive scientific library was formed at the Eagle Foundry.
He was connected with the formation of the Athenaeum, was president of the Mechanics' Institute, and a director of the Royal Institution of Manchester; and in many other ways he gave all the aid in his power towards benefiting the social life of his native town.
After a life of hard work and disinterested generosity, the ravages of time and over-work began at length to be felt by a constitution which was not naturally of the strongest. Finding himself in failing health, be removed to Southport in hopes of regaining his strength; but on 13th October 1881 he died there at the ago of sixty-five.
He became a Member of the Institution in 1817.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 1857 Institution of Mechanical Engineers
- ↑ 1871 census
- ↑ 1881 Census
- ↑ Manchester Times - Saturday 15 October 1881
- ↑ [1] Bellhouse Family History website by David R. Bellhouse, 2001
- ↑ 1882 Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Obituaries