Elijah Ashworth and Co
Successors to Ashworth Brothers.
Elijah Ashworth and Co of Smedley Road, Irk Vale, Collyhurst and Moss Brook Works, Collyhurst.
1906 Textile machinery makers, who also built a number of gas engines. Details at Anson Engine Museum
1903 'LOCAL PATENT CASE To-day, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Robertson, Lord Shand, and Lord Davey continued in the House of Lords the hearing of the appeal of the English Card Clothing Company against the decision of the Court of Appeal in which it was held that the company had infringed the patent of Mr. Elijah Ashworth of Manchester and Wilmslow, by which he had protected tempered wire from oxydisation and so made a bright wire which could be used directly in the manufacture of card clothing for the cotton and wool industry. Mr. Fletcher Moulton, K.C., addressed the Court with a view to showing that though everybody in the card trade had seen the evils of the discolouration of wire in tempering, yet nobody had recognised that it was due to oxydisation, and that protecting the heated wire from oxygen was a means of overcoming a great difficulty until plaintiff (Mr. Ashworth) did. Mr. Cripps, K.C., having replied for the appellants, the hearing was adjourned until Monday.' [1]
1905/1906 Adverts: CHEAP GAS Gives CHEAP POWER, by using Elijah Ashworth's HIGH-CLASS GAS ENGINES (Improved "OTTO"). All Sizes in Stock. Can be Seen Working. ELIJAH ASHWORTH. MOSS BROOK WORKS, COLLYHURST, MANCHESTER.'[2]
1917 'The death is announced Mr. Elijah Ashworth, a well-known engineer, of Moss Brook Works, Collyhurst, and Harefield Hall, Wilmslow. He was a member of the Royal Horticultural Society and chairman of the North of England Orchid Society. Mr. Ashworth had one of the biggest orchid collections in the country.'[3]
The 1891 O.S. map[4] 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.