Fenton, Murray and Jackson was an engineering company at the

Round Foundry The Round Foundry is a former engineering works off Water Lane in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Founded in the late 18th century, the building was developed into the Round Foundry Media Centre in 2005. History The Round Foundry was ...

off Water Lane in

Holbeck Holbeck is an inner city area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It begins on the southern edge of Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 postcode district. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is the o ...

, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

Fenton, Murray and Wood

Fenton Murray and Wood was founded in the 1790s by

ironfounder An iron founder (also iron-founder or ironfounder) in its more general sense is a worker in molten ferrous metal, generally working within an iron foundry. However, the term 'iron founder' is usually reserved for the owner or manager of an iron foun ...

Matthew Murray and textile machine engineer David Wood to build machine tools (mainly for the textile industry) and

stationary steam engine Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam cars ...

s. The company was capitalised by colliery owner James Fenton (1754–1834) as the main financier, and

millwright A millwright is a craftsperson or skilled tradesperson who installs, dismantles, maintains, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. The term ''millwright'' (also known as ''industrial mecha ...

William Lister, a

sleeping partner A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...

. The partnership was approached to design a locomotive that would exploit the rack-and-pinion patent granted to Blenkinsop in 1811. Their 1812 product, ''Salamanca'' was successful, and a total of six engines were built before Murray's death in 1826.

Fenton, Murray and Jackson

After Wood's death in 1820, the company became Fenton, Murray and Jackson. In 1824 the company supplied a 60 hp

beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newco ...

to the commissioners of Deeping Fen as one of two erected at Pode Hole. The other engine was supplied by the Butterley Company as were the scoop wheels for both. Although the Butterley engine was purchased outright (for £3,300), it appears that the Fenton and Murray engine was not. The accounts for 1825 showed a payment of only £127/6/- for the Fenton engine. It was not uncommon for beam engines to be leased, purchased 'on terms', or paid for in other novel ways such as a share of the earnings. The engine was named '' Kesteven'' and worked until 1925. From 1831, work began building engines to Robert Stephenson's designs, both

2-2-0 Under Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and no trailing wheels. This configuration, which became very p ...

Planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...

" and

2-2-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle. The wheel arrangement both ...

"Patentees", many of them under subcontract. Many were exported, and twenty of Daniel Gooch's ''Firefly'' class for the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

. By 1840, they were turning out up to twenty engines a year. The company's name appears on cast iron bollards still in situ at Victoria Lock (built 1843) on the

River Shannon The River Shannon ( ga, Abhainn na Sionainne, ', '), at in length, is the longest river in the British Isles. It drains the Shannon River Basin, which has an area of , – approximately one fifth of the area of the island of Ireland. The Shan ...

in Ireland as Fenton, Murray and Jackson Engineers of Leeds. However, by 1843, the boom was over and the company closed down.

References

* Lowe, J.W., (1989) ''British Steam Locomotive Builders,'' Guild Publishing * G. Cookson, 'Early Textile Engineers in Leeds 1780–1850' ''Publications of Thoresby Society'' n.s. 4 (1994), 40–61.

External links

Hunslet Engine Archive
''Prince Regent'' engine (Fenton Murray and Wood, 1812) {{Authority control Engineering companies of England Engineering companies of the United Kingdom Locomotive manufacturers of the United Kingdom Beam engines Industrial Revolution History of the steam engine Steam engine manufacturers Machine tool builders