Joseph Westwood and Co
of Napier Yard, Millwall, London, E.
c.1881 Joseph Westwood, junior retired from his father's firm, Westwood, Baillie and Co, and took offices in London for a time
1883 On his father's death, Westwood set up new works with more modern machinery and appliances for constructing ironwork and steelwork of every kind, on the site of the old Napier Works at Millwall.
1883 Business established.
c.1882 Under his own name, Joseph Westwood, Junior started manufacturing Hawksley's Patent Treads (see photo) at the Napier Yard (the location of the yard used to build SS Great Eastern in 1854). [1]
1891 Manufacturer of Hawksley's patent tread (see advert)
1897 Private limited company incorporated.
1901 Constructed 100 foot span steel bridge for the Umsindusi River crossing in South Africa. Photograph taken at the Napier Yard.
1905 Made gantry for Stothert and Pitt crane for Durban harbour[2]
1911 Constructional Engineers for the Railways.[3]
1914 Bridge Builders and Constructional Engineers. Specialities: steel bridges and all kinds of steel constructional work, steel corrugated plates. Employees 700 to 800. [4]
1922 Builder of steel bridges, steel constructional work, steel corrugated flooring for bridges, hydraulic pressed work, Hone's patent grabs. Lord Invernairn was one of the directors.
1946 Public company.
1961 Bridge builders and heavy constructional engineers, steel stockholders, grab manufacturers and storage equipment manufacturers. 350 employees. [5]
1961 Fabricated a steel bridge to carry the main Eastern Region lines over an underpass near Clacton, as part of the modernisation scheme to electrify the lines between Chelmsford and Colchester. Main contractors: The Cementation Co.[6]
1968 Built tunnel shield for the cargo tunnel at Heathrow. [7]
Napier yard, after Napier gave it up, had been used to build SS Great Eastern in 1854 and was later occupied by Millwall Ironworks, Shipbuilding, and Graving Dock Company and then by Pile and Co until 1888.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ [1] British History Online
- ↑ The Engineer 1905/03/10
- ↑ Bradshaw’s Railway Manual 1911
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ The Sphere - Saturday 17 June 1961
- ↑ The Engineer of 26th January 1968 p150