NOTE: Much of the following information has been taken from my upcoming book “The Slaters Of Wellington Foundry”, due for release in 2021.
Unfortunately, as far as history goes, we don’t have a lot on the Slaters. The entry in William Goodman’s “British Planemakers from 1700, 3rd edition” (c. 1993) states:
SLATER, Henry London
17 Wynyatt St., Goswell Rd. 1868 – 1872
Meredith Rd., Clerkenwell 1873 – 1877SLATER, Benjamin
68 Charles St., City Rd. 1877 – 1887
& 252 High Holborn WC 1877 – 1887SLATER, H. & Son
Clerkenwell Green < 1909 >Metal planemakers with a considerable output. Cast shoulder planes seem to be particularly common.
However, that is only part of the story. Through my own research I do know that both Henry and Benjamin manufactured hand planes for considerably longer than the dates above show. In fact handplanes may have been manufactured right up to the 1920’s.
I say this because it has been told to me that sometime in the mid 1970’s a man, who used to work for the Slaters as a boy, frequented a few of the London tool collector meetings. The man also stated that planemaking was only ever a sideline business for the Slaters. This was met with some disbelief at the time – after all there are quite a few Slater planes out there. Their output was considerable, to say the least. How could it be a sideline business when there were so many Slater planes out there?
One possible answer is ‘time’. After all, even an operation that is run as a sideline business for some 50 or so years can manage to put out a healthy number of planes over that time. The Slaters were obviously skilled metalcasters and craftsmen so, once the moulds had been made, producing cast plane bodies in quantities would be relatively quick in the scheme of things.
At any rate, my own research has indicated that other ventures and products made up the bulk of both Henry and Benjamin Slater’s business output, rather than just planemaking.
Places Of Work
Working out the various addresses is a bit more straightforward. Both 17 Wynyatt Street and 34 Meredith Street are Henry Slater’s home addresses. The Meredith St. address is no more, however the original home situated at Wynyatt St. still exists and, in fact, has had some extensive research done by a forensic investigator on the various paintwork within the house.
It is known that Henry had workshops on the basement floor of both buildings. It is also known that the Wynyatt St. workshop was heated, as there have been accounts of this. It’s a good chance that the Meredith St. workshop was similarly heated.
I believe that the home workshops were, predominantly, where most of the fitting of the wooden infills and final finishing of the handplanes was done. There is a possibility that the ground floor front room may have been a display room for the planes, as this was a fairly common practice at the time. A display room in the family home would also be more presentable to the type of clientele that the Slaters were catering to than a foundry or factory space would be.
Likewise, the 252 High Holborn address of Benjamin Slater was also his home address, and Benjamin may have had a similar setup to Henry in regards to workshop and display space.
The Charles Street address (later renamed Moreland Street) was where the Slater’s main business was located. Here stood the Wellington Foundry, an ironworks foundry of medium size.
Wellington Foundry – Location And History Of The Various Firms Involved On The Premises
The address of Wellington Foundry is often shown as 68 Charles St., City Road. However it was actually situated more than a block away from City Road, rather than at the intersecting crossroads.
The foundry itself was accessed by a laneway to the left of the building (from the road the laneway would be on the right). This laneway was possibly the original continuation of Cross Street, as Cross Street lay directly opposite. There were six two-storey cottages facing into Charles Street. These were known as ‘Wellington Cottages’, and it was here that a young Henry Slater grew up.
There seemed to be a number of different firms operating at the same time within Wellington Foundry over the years. This included such occupations as hinge making, boilermaking, carriage making and, of course, planemaking. The foundry specialised in malleable or soft iron castings, but was also known to make castings in brass, gunmetal, bronze and other metals.
While I have not yet definitively established the date in which business began, it is likely that Wellington Foundry was built sometime around 1828. It is known that the foundry was in operation by 1831, as there is a notice in “The London Times” (dated Thursday December 15, 1831) which states:
MALLEABLE IRON CASTINGS ━ Engineers, Machinists, Smiths, Manufacturers and others requiring SOFT IRON CASTINGS & MALLEABLE IRON CASTINGS will find a great saving of time and labour by having them from the WELLINGTON FOUNDRY, Charles street, City Road, where small castings, ornamental or plain, together with every description of ornamental balusters, are executed in a very superior style, considerably under the usual London prices. Specimens also at the patent hinge warehouse, 56 Greek Street, Soho.
The business at Greek St., Soho was owned and operated by John Gollop & Co., patented rising hinge makers. Gallop also owned the Wellington Foundry. A man named David Redmond was a partner in this business. Earlier, Redmund had been in partnership with James Smith as a Cork Manufacturer, in Plough Yard, Shoreditch, under the firm of D. Redmund and Co. However, this partnership was dissolved by mutual consent on the 15th October, 1819.
In 1821, Redmond registered a patent for a rising hinge, with further improvements being made and patented in 1826. It would seem that this hinge proved to be very popular, as it was advertised in numerous publications for the next 60 years.
The London and Paddington Steam Carriage Co. — 1832-1834
The Wellington Foundry was also the address for the London and Paddington Steam Carriage Co., owned and run by Walter Hancock. Redmond was employed as an engineer by Hancock, but it was not to be a very amicable partnership as it was reported in various publications at the time that Redmund “acted very dishonorably” in his duties as engineer.
In October, 1832, Redmund had patented a boiler especially designed for locomotive use. This boiler was an adaption of the boiler used on Hancock’s steam omnibus the ‘Enterprise’, a fourteen person (inside) vehicle operated by the London and Paddington Steam Carriage Co.
On the 22nd April, 1833, the ‘Enterprise’ began a regular service between London Wall and Paddington, via Islington. In an extract from “Steam Locomotion On Common Roads”, by William Fletcher, published in 1891, it states:
“The Enterprise was built for the London and Paddington Steam Carriage Co, and commenced to run for hire under Mr. Hancock’s personal superintendence between the city and Paddington for sixteen successive days, doing two or three journeys a day “to prove its capability of proceeding through crowded thoroughfares without inconvenience or liability to accident to the persons in the coach or others.”
Mr. Hancock says, respecting these preliminary trips: “It is not intended to run this carriage more than about a week longer; partly because it was only intended as a demonstration of its efficiency, and partly because my own occupation will not admit of my personal attention to the steering, which I have hitherto performed myself, having no other person at present to whose guidance I could, with propriety, entrust it.”
The Enterprise ran from Cottage Lane, City Road to Paddington, and from Paddington to London Wall, and back to Cottage Lane, nine or ten miles, in less than an hour, exclusive of stoppages, performing the trips in an exceedingly satisfactory manner, and the carriage was more under the control of the driver than the best driven horse coach; it ascended Pentonville Hill with ease at six miles an hour.”
The engine worked on a crank, with an iron chain drive applying power to the back wheels. The rear axle was also used to drive a centrifugal blower fan which was used to force air into the firebox. The engine was suspended on leaf springs along with the body of the vehicle, and the axle located with swinging arms. Three operators were required for normal operation. The driver (Walter Hancock himself) sat at the front and was responsible for steering, via a steering wheel rather than a tiller. He also controlled the speed via a regulator. A second operator occupied a small compartment to the rear of the vehicle between the boiler and the engine. This man was responsible for looking after the boiler’s water level and selecting reverse gear when required. The final man stood on a platform at the rear and was responsible for maintaining the fire and braking. Braking was carried out by means of a large lever which acted directly on one of the rear wheels. Nothing is known about how these three people communicated.
The ‘Enterprise’ would prove to be the very first regular steam propelled carriage service designed for omnibus work ever operated.
In an extract from “Steam Locomotion On Common Roads”, by William Fletcher, published in 1891, Fletcher states:
“Mr. D. Redmund, City Road, London, while employed as engineer to the London and Paddington Steam Carriage Company, acted very dishonourably in secretly taking Hancock’s new carriage, the Enterprise, to pieces, so that he could take dimensions and copy the design of the parts, to be embodied in a carriage he was making. He had previously patented a steam boiler, consisting of a series of vertical parallel chambers, an imitation of Hancock’s patent. The manner of driving, the position of the engine, and even the external appearance, resembled the Enterprise closely.
The driving wheels were of ornamental design, the subject of a separate patent, the cast iron spokes were of hollow section. They appeared to be the only part of the carriage not stolen from others, for Hebert says, “The steering arrangement was like Ackerman’s patent of 1816.”
Before Redmund had finished his carriage, or had made many experiments, he boastfully advertised that he was willing to furnish locomotives to run on common roads at any required speed. When his steam carriage was announced as being ready for trial, the editor of the Mechanics’ Magazine said, “We shall soon be able to judge whether he was justified or not in his confidence displayed in the advertisement.”
Redmund intimated that the private trials of his carriage were satisfactory, but publicity is the only test in such matters. But nothing was heard of Redmund’s performances in public with his steam carriage, which he had named the Alpha. It was suggested that it might prove the Omega of his efforts in the steam engine line, and such turned out to be the case. The Alpha was a complete failure, and Redmund’s project met with the fate it deserved.”
The “Engineers And Mechanics Encyclopedia 1839” paints a somewhat rosier picture of Redmund’s ‘Alpha’ Steam Carriage. It states:
“In October, 1832, Mr. Redmund of City Road, patented a boiler, especially designed for locomotive sites. It consists of a series of parallel vertical chambers with corrugated sides, for the purpose of extending the heating surface, and accelerating the production of strain in a compact apparatus.
The principal difference between it and Mr. Hancock’s, is in the circumstance of the corrugation. Mr. Redmund, shortly after the grant of his patent, constructed a very elegant steam carriage, which is represented in the subjoined cut. The wheels, it will be observed, are of a peculiar kind, and are, we are informed, the subject of a distinct patent; our space will not permit us here to describe them.
The arrangement and position of the chief part of the propelling mechanism is the same as Hancock’s. The guiding is effected by reins in a similar manner to those of horses, each rein operating separately through the medium of levers in turning the fore wheels of the carriage to the right or left; and to facilitate this motion, each wheel revolves on a distinct axle supported in a frame that turns horizontally upon a pivot, after the manner of Ackerman’s patent of 1816.”
J. Walby – Engine-wrought Iron Boilers And Tanks — 1834
At around the same time there is reference made to a Mr. J. Walby being involved in business at Wellington Foundry. In the publication “The British Colonies – Their History, Extent, Condition and Resources” (dated 1834), it states:
Walby, J., Manufacturer of Engine-wrought Iron Boilers and Tanks, improved wrought-iron backed Boilers for kitchen ranges and steam purposes, and all kinds of Gas and Steam Pipes ; sole Agent for the sale of Redmond’s Rising and Spring Hinges, Centres, &c., 59, Greek-street, Soho, and Wellington Foundry, Charles street, City-road.
Sadly nothing else is known about Mr. Walby at this stage.
