Gimson and Co

Exhibit at the Snibston Discovery Museum.

Exhibit at the Snibston Discovery Museum.

Exhibit at the Snibston Discovery Museum.

1885 beam pumping engine, which can be seen operating at Claymills Victorian Pumping Station.

1885 beam pumping engine, which can be seen operating at Claymills Victorian Pumping Station.

1887. Pumping engines for Burton-on-Trent Sewage Works.

Art, saved for the nation! Bearing pedestal on one of four superb 1891 Gimson beam engines at Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester

Gimson wall engine at Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester

1892

1895. Horizontal single-cylinder. Exhibit at the Snibston Discovery Museum.

1895. Steam engine at Snibston Discovery Museum.

1880. Beam engine at Snibston Discovery Museum.

Exhibit at the Forncett Industrial Steam Museum.

Exhibit at the Forncett Industrial Steam Museum.

Exhibit at the Forncett Industrial Steam Museum.

July 1949.

Sole stitcher. Exhibit at Amberley Working Museum.

Gimson and Co of Vulcan Works, Vulcan Street, Leicester.

1842 Company founded at Welford Road by the brothers Josiah Gimson and Benjamin Gimson who worked previously at Cort's foundry

Early products were braid machinery for the elastic web trade and they also advertised as brassfounders, millwrights and manufacturers of boot and shoe making machinery

1847 The business as millwrights of Josiah Gimson and Benjamin Gimson of Welford Road is reported as having failed

1861 Employing 35 men and 50 boys

1871 Employing 100 men and 44 boys

In 1878 new works were built at Humberstone Road, Leicester, close to the Midland Railway. The building was designed by John Breedon Everard and is one of the earliest examples of the integration of iron foundry and engineering.

1881 Employing 270 men and one boy

1880 A pair of Single-Cylinder Rotative beam Engines for South Staffordshire Waterworks (Hopwas Pumping Station). These engines are both preserved - one at Snibston Discovery Museum the other at Forncett Industrial Steam Museum

1885 Four engines for Burton-on-Trent Council for sewage pumping at Claymills Victorian Pumping Station.

1887 Gimsons were awarded the contract for the supply and erection of the four beam engines, complete with eight boilers and associated machinery, at the Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester built in 1891.

1891 Four beam engines pumping sewage at Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester

1892 Advert.

1895 Steam engine at Snibston Discovery Museum (see photo). Worked at Chilprufe Manufacturing Co until 1967

1896 Private company. The company was registered on 4 September, to acquire the business of mechanical engineers of the firm of the same name. Directors were Josiah Mentor Gimson, Arthur James Gimson, Sydney Ansell Gimson and Josiah Gimson.

1905-08 Produced the Atkey-Gimson commercial vehicles with A. R. Atkey and Co.

1914 Engineers. Specialities: passenger and goods lifts, boot and shoe machinery and all classes of general engineering. Employees 700.

1930 Gimson Shoe Machinery Co was acquired by the British United Shoe Machinery Co.

1937 General engineers and ironfounders.

1949 Gimson and Co (Leicester) Ltd.

1961 General engineers and ironfounders, producing bottling machinery, conveyors, electric goods and passenger lifts. 450 employees.

1986 Moved to Beaumont Leys, Leicester

See Also

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Sources of Information

• The Steam Engine in Industry by George Watkins in two volumes. Moorland Publishing. 1978. ISBN 0-903485-65-6
• Stationary Steam Engines of Great Britain by George Watkins. Vol 10