Crumlin Viaduct Works
Iron bridge builders of Crumlin
1853 In response to a request for tender from the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway to build a viaduct across the Ebbw river at Crumlin, Mr T W Kennard was awarded the contract. Liddell the engineer for the railway claimed that he had designed it.
Robert William Kennard (1800-1870) MP for Newport, Isle of Wight, the builder of major ironworks at Blaenavon and Falkirk, may have been responsible for the successful establishment of the works which were directed by his sons Thomas Kennard (1825-1893) and Henry Martyn Kennard (1833-1911).
1857 The Crumlin bridge was completed; it was the first product of the Viaduct Works.
1857 As well as developing its bridge business at home and internationally, the company began to diversify into other areas - railway signal and switching gear, steam-powered machine tools for riveting, striking, drilling and lifting and other civil engineering ironwork, such as lighthouses, piers and railway station roofing.
1858 Henry Nathan Maynard managed the works.
Employed about 200 people
1863 one of their largest bridges was Blackfriars which unusually was not designed by the company but by Joseph Cubitt who also installed it.
The company was proud of its speed of delivery, reducing the time for bridge building from years to months
Silver medal at the Paris Exhibition for a rivetting machine (patented by H M Kennard).
1871 a new private company, led by H N Maynard, took over from the Kennards. The shares were taken up by many local people including H M Kennard of Blaenavon Iron and Steel Co.
1877 Although the order books may have been full, the company was making a loss; soon they ran out of cash.
1878 It was a bad time to borrow. The Blaenavon Iron and Steel Co was forced into liquidation when the West of England Bank collapsed so that there was no help from the Kennards and the Crumlin Works were heavily in debt to the same bank.
The Patent Nut and Bolt Co agreed to postpone a claim for money owed but the Company was finished. The operations producing nuts and bolts passed to John Paton and Co for a while.
1878 Liquidation auction
See Also
Sources of Information
- The Crumlin Viaduct Works 1853-1878 : from world leader to Welsh tragedy; Gwent local history, 80 Spring 1996 [1]