W. Lucy and Co
of Eagle Ironworks, in the Jericho area of Oxford.
1760 Company founded (according to tradition).
By 1812 William Carter had an ironmongery shop in High Street, Oxford. He founded an iron foundry in Summertown, north of Oxford.
1825 He moved the foundry to the banks of the Oxford Canal in Jericho.
The company specialised in iron castings including lamp-posts, manhole covers, ornamental ironwork and agricultural machinery.
Charles Grafton became a partner
1830 Carter moved to the Eagle Foundry in Leamington Hastings, Warwickshire.
Grafton continued to manage the foundry in Oxford, which became called the Eagle Ironworks.
1846 The business advertised as a manufacturer, Charles Grafton, iron founder, Eagle Foundry, Jericho.
1854 the company bought the freehold for the site from St John's College, which owned much of north Oxford.
1861 Charles Grafton died; William Lucy, his partner, took over the running of the foundry.
By 1864 the business advertised as Grafton and Lucy, ironfounders, Walton Road.
1868 Dissolution of the Partnership between the Reverend William Llewellin Woollett and the Very Reverend Herbert Aubry Woollett (executors of Mary Ann Grafton, deceased), and James Kelley and William Lucy, trading as Ironfounders at the Eagle Foundry, in the city of Oxford, under the style or firm of Grafton and Lucy[1]
1873 Lucy died. The ironworks, W. Lucy and Co, was known as "Lucy's".
1879 Dissolution of the Partnership between James Kelley and Charles Augustine Kelley, as Ironfounders, at the Eagle Foundry, in the city of Oxford, under the style or firm of W. Lucy and Co.[2]
1885 'Messrs. LUCY AND CO. of this city, have received a large order for ironwork required in the construction of a Torpedo factory, about to be erected at the Royal Arsenal Woolwich.'[3]
1897 Public company.
1961 Electrical and mechanical engineers and ironfounders, producing substation fusegear, H.V. and L.V. switchgear, ring main units; air circuit breakers, network protectors, industrial switchgear; distribution pillars, disconnecting boxes, service boxes; house service cut-outs, heavy duty cut-outs, terminal boxes, distribution boards; outdoor fuses, H.V. and L.V. pole boxes; instrument transformers, thermal M.D. indicators, instrument switches; street lighting cut-outs. 800 employees. [4]
2024 The Lucy Group still has its headquarters on the site of the Eagle Works in the Jericho area of Oxford. Lucy Group history here. Lucy Group’s business units include Lucy Electric, Lucy Controls (Lucy Zodion, Lawson Fuses and Flashnet) and Lucy Real Estate (Lucy Developments and Lucy Properties).
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ London Gazette 30 October 1868
- ↑ London Gazette 21 Oct 1879
- ↑ Oxfordshire Weekly News - 2 December 1885
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE