George Worsdell

George Worsdell (1821–1912) of Dallam Forge

1821 May 21st. Born at Preston, Lancashire, the youngest child of Thomas Clarke Worsdell

On leaving school trained under his father at the Crown Street works

1837 Moved to Leipzig.

1838 Returned to England

1841 Joined his father in the carriage department of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway or its successor.

By 1845 had set up his own business manufacturing railway equipment.

1851 His Dallam Forge at Warrington in Lancashire was awarded a gold medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851 "for excellence of iron and of railway plant".

1851 March 27th. Married Jane (1820/21–1903), the youngest daughter of Edward Bolton, a prominent local Quaker.

1857 His health broke down when the business failed and he was declared bankrupt

1872 After making a recovery he retired due to ill health

1912 Died on 1 December at his home, 70 Brookfield Terrace, Lancaster.

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1912 Obituary

'MR. GEORGE WORSDELL. A LINK WITH EARLY RAILWAY DAYS.

The death is announced at Lancaster, in his ninety-second year, of Mr. George Worsdell, a member of a well-known Quaker family, whose business enterprise had much to do with the prosperity of Warrington. The deceased was born in Preston in 1821. His father, Mr. T. C. Worsdell, was a coach builder, who, after few Years in Lancaster, established a business in Liverpool in 1827, and constructed the first passenger carriages for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and earned praise from George Stephenson "the best coach builder he ever knew."

After passing through the Crown-street Works, Liverpool, Mr. George Worsdell proceeded to Leipzig in 1836 to construct the carriages for the Leipzig and Dresden Railway. Returning to England, he devoted himself to acquiring fuller knowledge of the engineering profession. At Hull it fell to his lot to repair the engines of the Sirius," the first vessel which crossed the Atlantic under steam.

In 1845 Mr. Worsdell settled in Warrington, and transformed old-time fertiliser works into "the Dallam Forge," rolling with his own hands the first bar of iron produced in Warrington, and therefore, it is believed, in Lancashire. In 1851 he received the much-coveted medal of the great Exhibition "for excellence of iron and railway plant".

In 1857 he had a temporary breakdown in health, and had relinquished to others the business he had founded and brought well on the way to the immense prosperity it has since attained. For two years he resided at Workington, and then took up an engagement in the great railway carriage and plant works of late Mr. John Ashbury, of Openshaw.

In 1863 he was the general manager of that vast concern.. After another breakdown in health he took up the management of the Lancaster Waggon Company, whose affairs he brought to a state of financial prosperity, retiring finally in 1872.

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