Peto, Brassey and Betts
Partnership of Samuel Morton Peto, Thomas Brassey and Edward Ladd Betts
1853 After the Birkenhead Dock Company had completed the Wharf Wall on Wallasey Pool, it disposed of the land for factories. The first to come into operation was the engineering factory of Messrs. Peto, Betts, Brassey and Jackson, the contractors for the Grand Canadian Trunk Railway[1]. These were known as the Canada Works.
1850s Many others large and important works were executed including the Jutland and North and South Schleswig railways, in Denmark; the Lyons and Avignon, in France; the Tilbury and Southend; the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway; the South London and Crystal Palace railways; the Victoria (London) Docks; the Thames Graving Docks; and many other works.
1854 Won a contract for railway work in the Crimea, for which they despatched equipment and navvies[2]
1858 Jackson left the Partnership, in Canada, as Contractors for the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway and other works, under the firm of Jackson, Peto, Brassey, and Betts and, in England, as Iron Bridge Builders, Iron Founders, Locomotive Engine Manufacturers, and Iron Ship Builders, at the Canada Works, in Birkenhead, under the firm of Peto, Brassey, Betts, and Jackson[3]
c.1861 The company built the Victoria Bridge, Worcestershire using arch elements cast by the Coalbrookdale Co.
1866 After the failure of their bank, Peto and Betts went broke.
By 1870 Canada Works were referred to as Thomas Brassey and Co[4].