Charles Wicksteed
Charles Wicksteed (1847-1931) of Charles Wicksteed and Co
his brother was Joseph Hartley Wicksteed
1931 Obituary [1]
BY the death of Charles Wicksteed, which took place at his home in Kettering on Thursday last week, March 19th, we lose one of the earliest members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and an engineer of singular ability and wide talent. Had he lived until the end of this month he would have attained his eighty-fourth year.
He was born at Leeds in 1847, and his father was a famous Unitarian minister, the Rev. Charles Wicksteed. One of his brothers was the late Rev. P. F. Wicksteed, a renowned Dante scholar, and another the late Hartley Wicksteed, for many years managing director of Joshua Buckton and Co., Ltd., of Leeds, and President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1903-4.
Charles Wicksteed went to school at Lancaster, and was apprenticed to Kitson and Co., Ltd., of Leeds, where he received a thorough training in locomotive and general engineering work.
At the early age of twenty-one he began business for himself at Swaffham, in Norfolk, as an owner and operator of steam ploughing tackle. Some of the early experiences in Norfolk, Northamptonshire, and other districts, which are set down in Mr. Wicksteed's own book "Bygone Days and Now," throw an interesting light on the varied and often difficult circumstances which led later to the formation of the engineering works in Kettering. It is recorded that often when taking in water for an engine at Barton Seagreave, he expressed the wish that one day he might own that land.
He went to Kettering in 1872 and four years later the firm, which later became Charles Wicksteed and Co., Ltd., was founded at the Stamford-road Works. More than once the need of one industry has led to the beginning of a new industry. In the operation of ploughing tackle, Charles Wicksteed had often felt the need of spare parts and special tools and devices which would facilitate engine repairs. The absence of such tools and appliances at the time led him to invent and make his patented tube expanders and other tools, such as saws for hand and power operation, with which he began his later business in small machine tools.
In 1874 he gave up the ploughing tackle side of his work and handed them to Mr. J. P. Grundy, in order to give more time to his machine tool business. Incidentally, we may mention that in the early days of the cycle he was the maker of an excellent bicycle.
During the war the Wicksteed works were mainly occupied in the making of munitions, but they also specialised in the production of limit gauges and gears, which later added new branches to the business.
The idea of creating a park for the children and people of Kettering was uppermost in the mind of Charles Wicksteed before 1914, and a few years later he presented the Barton Seagreave Hall and Estate to the community. It was first named the Barton Park at his own request, but by general consent the name was altered to that of the donor, and will always be a lasting memory of the man and his work.
Whilst designing and laying out the park and its artificial lake Charles Wicksteed considered the problem of designing safe playground equipment, and again this new development added a fresh and growing department to his business. Once during a period of depression at the works, he transferred his men to the park and was thus able to give them continued employment, an incident which showed the manner of man he was. He constructed a notable racing track in the park, and at the present time a miniature railway is under construction and will shortly be completed to his designs.
He was an engineer of the old school, who gamed experience alike in difficult and successful times, and applied his knowledge to break up new fields of development. Possessed of a strong personality and determined views, he was a good speaker and could always hold an audience by the energy and raciness of his diction. Up to the last he retained extraordinary vigour, and at the summer meetings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers he entered into all the entertainments, including dancing, with even more enthusiasm than the younger people.
1931 Obituary [2]
CHARLES WICKSTEED was the brother of the late J. Hartley Wicksteed, President of the Institution in 1903 and 1904. He had been a Member of the Institution since 1897, and though nearly 84 years of age at the time of his death, on 19th March 1931, he was a familiar figure at each Summer Meeting of the Institution until the last, at Bristol, 1930, held during his lifetime.
He served his apprenticeship in the works of Messrs. Kitson and Company of Leeds, and at the early age of 21 began business for himself as owner and operator of steam-ploughing tackle at Swaffham, in Norfolk. The need for spare parts and special tools led him to devise and make his own, amongst them his patented tube expanders, and his resourcefulness in this direction resulted in the foundation in 1876 of the Kettering firm, which was later entitled Charles Wicksteed and Company.
He soon devoted himself to the manufacture of machine-tools, though in early days he also manufactured an excellent bicycle, and in 1907, when his firm was converted into a limited liability company, he commenced the manufacture of an ingenious motor-car gear which was not a commercial success.
His success was attained in the development of mechanical hack-saws of various types, for which the firm became famous, and one of the most interesting of his early products was a machine for dressing off the edges of flanged boiler plates, largely used in locomotive works.
In 1911 Mr. Charles Wicksteed read a paper on the subject of hack-saw machines before the Institution. During recent years he was able to realize a long-cherished ambition by presenting to the town of Kettering a large park, the lay-out of which, including a 25-acre lake, he himself designed. One of his chief interests in the park was the equipment of safe and hooligan-proof playthings for children, and here again his resourcefulness brought him opportunities, for his firm soon gained a great reputation for the manufacture of such equipment, and Mr. Wicksteed's appliances are now to be found in playgrounds all over the country.