Hawthorns and Company of Leith Engine Works, Great Junction Street, Leith, shipbuilders and engineers.
of 210, Great Junction Street, Leith (1922)
1846 The Leith Engine Works were built by R. and W. Hawthorn to assemble steam engines ordered for Scotland
1850 The Leith works were sold to another company, also called Hawthorns and Co, which produced some four hundred locomotives on its own account until 1872.
1851 Award at the 1851 Great Exhibition. See details at 1851 Great Exhibition: Reports of the Juries: Class V.
1861 0-4-0T locomotive 'Ellesmere' is on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. See photos. Note reference to patent of S. D. Davison. Samuel Dobson Davison was the Managing Partner.
1872 The railway engine works closed having built more than 400 engines
The company continued to supply engines for ships
1896 Incorporated as a private limited liability company, Hawthorns and Co Limited, to acquire and take over as a going concern the business carried on at Junction Street, Leith, and at Granton, under the style of Hawthorns and Co, with capital of £55,000.[1]
In 1912, Hawthorns and Co acquired the shipyard of Thomas Morton and Co which lay adjacent to the yard of Ramage and Ferguson.
1913 Built the Alarm, a new lightship that would be stationed at the Mersey Bar.
1920 Became a public company
1922 Shipbuilders and Engineers. 1400 employees. Produced vessels up to 3,500 tons gross; engines and boilers up to 2,000 I.H.P.; floating docks and Morton's patent marine slipways
1924 The Victoria Shipbuilding Yard was taken over by Henry Robb Limited in order to develop the yard's expertise in dredger and pontoon building
1928 Hawthorns and Co Limited went into voluntary liquidation
- See CANMORE website for photo of works building on Mill Lane in 1970[2]
See Also
Sources of Information
- British Steam Locomotive Builders by James W. Lowe. Published in 1975. ISBN 0-905100-816
National Records of Scotland BT2/3161
Shipbuilding and Shipping Record 22 May 1924
Edinburgh Gazette June 15 1928