Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies

Ransomes, Sims and Jeffries of Orwell Works, Ipswich

The company was a major British agricultural machinery maker. Their most famous products were Traction Engines, ploughs and other tilling equipment.

• 1789 The company, as Ransomes, was founded by Robert Ransome, an ironfounder in Norwich

• 1783 He received patents for improvements to ploughs.

• 1785 The business was styled Ransome and Co until 1809

• 1789 He moved to Ipswich

• 1803 Plough share of chilled cast iron (Robert Ransome)

• 1809 Robert's son James Ransome became a partner in the company and it was renamed Ransome and Son until 1818

• 1818 It was renamed as Ransome and Sons until 1825 when Robert Junior joined

• 1825 The company became James and Robert Ransome when Robert Senior died

• 1830 The comany was J. R. and A. Ransome

• It became Ransome and May when Charles May of Ampthill joined the company

• 1841 New works were opened - the Orwell Works and by 1849 all the work was transferred here

• 1841 Were building stationery engines

• 1842 Exhibited a self-propelled model

• 1849 Moved to new Orwell Works at Ipswich where they employed a thousand workers.

• 1851 Ransomes and May exhibited a portable engine at the 1851 Great Exhibition. May was a former partner who went on to found Brown and May

• 1854 William Sims joined the company

• 1857 Charles May left the company to set up Brown and May and William Dillwyn Sims joined and they beacme Ransomes and Sims

• 1869 Four engineers J. A. Ransome, R. J. Ransome, R. C. Rapier and A.A. Bennett, left the company, (by then Ransomes, Sims and Head), by agreement to establish a new company, Ransomes and Rapier, on a site on the River Orwell to continue the business of railway equipment and other heavy works.

• 1880 John Jeffries joined the company

• 1884 The company name changed to Ransomes, Sims and Jeffries Ltd

• 1888 Issued catalogue on portable, traction, semi-portable, fixed, horizontal and vertical engines and boilers, portable pumping engines, steam-powered presses, centrifugal pumps, winding engines and gear, locomotive, Cornish, Lancashire and vertical boilers, mills, circular saw benches and log frames

• 1889 Semi-portable engine at the RASE show at Windsor

• 1894 June. Royal Agricultural Society's Show. Chilled digging plough, balance plough and three-furrow plough

• 1894 High-Speed Vertical Engines for Electric Lighting. Illustration and article.

• 1900 June. Royal Agricultural Show at York. Showed traction and portable engines, thrashing machines, horse rakes, ploughing cultivators and lawn mowers

• 1903 Ransome, Sims and Jeffries developed a prototype tractor with a 20 HP engine and a three-ratio gearbox.

• 1911 Smithfield Club Show. Exhibited 4 hp compound light tractor and two traction engines plus other items.

• WWI Makers of aeroplanes

• 1920 The company showed the new motor plough called The Boon at the Darlington Agricultural Show. It was a petrol-paraffin engine of 20 hp at 800 rpm.

• 1920 October. Exhibited at the Commercial Motor Exhibition at Olympia with batteries from Batteries and a 3.5 ton electric tipping wagon and a 2-ton electric chassis.

• 1936 The MG2 tractor was introduced. It was a miniature crawler machine which was aimed at market gardeners and was produced for about thirty years.

• 1956 Sold the steam engine part of the business to Robey and Co

• 1989 The whole of the agricultural implement business was sold to Electrolux and merged with their subsidiary Overum. This left Ransomes solely as a manufacturer of lawn mowers, with the Westwood and Mountfield mower brands. The company accepted a take over offer from Textron Inc, USA their independent existence ended early in 1998.

• The history of company is the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket, Suffolk.

Motor cycles

Ransome Sims and Jeffries produced a motorcycle in 1919.

During 1919, they constructed a battery-powered sidecar outfit, with the batteries fitted under the seat of a rudimentary sidecar body, upon which the passenger sat. Although the motorcycle appeared to be conventional, the control box for the motor was fastened into the space normally taken by a fuel tank.

The machine was registered for road use and trials were conducted, but it is not likely that it got past the prototype stage.

The Orwell marque was also used by the company for some of its products.

Sources of Information

• [1] Wikipedia
• Traction Engine Album by Malcolm Ranieri. Pub 2005
• The Complete Encyclopedia of Tractors by Mirco de Cet published in 2006 by Rebo International ISBN 978-90-366-1893-9
• Aeroplanes of the Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing) by J. M. Bruce. Published 1982 ISBN 0-370-30084-x
• The Engineer of 27th April 1888 p338
• The Engineer of 21st June 1889 p525
• The Engineer of 29th June 1894 p562
• The Engineer of 27th July 1894 p78
• The Engineer of 22nd June 1900 p650
• The Engineer of 9th July 1920
• The Engineer of 22nd October 1920 p400
• The British Motorcycle Directory - Over 1,100 Marques from 1888 - by Roy Bacon and Ken Hallworth. Pub: The Crowood Press
• The Engineer of 8th December 1911 p594
• Steam Engine Builders of Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire by Ronald H. Clark. Published 1950 by The Augustine Steward Press