Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell was an engineering company in Bolton,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Set up in 1822, the partners became interested in the production of steam locomotives after the Rainhill Trials. The company's first engine was ''Union'', a vertical boiler, with horizontal cylinders for the Bolton and Leigh Railway of which Hick and Rothwell were promoters and original shareholders, followed by three more locomotives the following year for American railways.

Rothwell and Company

In 1832,

Benjamin Hick Benjamin Hick (1 August 1790 – 9 September 1842) was an English civil and mechanical engineer, art collector and patron; his improvements to the steam engine and invention of scientific tools were held in high esteem by the engineering pr ...

left to set up his own business,

B. Hick and Sons B. Hick and Sons, subsequently Hick, Hargreaves & Co, was a British engineering company based at the Soho Ironworks in Bolton, England. Benjamin Hick, a partner in Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell, later Rothwell, Hick & Co., set up the company in par ...

, to be replaced by

Benjamin Cubitt Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thir ...

, (younger brother of

William Cubitt Sir William Cubitt FRS (bapt. 9 October 1785 – 13 October 1861) was an eminent English civil engineer and millwright. Born in Norfolk, England, he was employed in many of the great engineering undertakings of his time. He invented a type of ...

) from

Fenton, Murray and Jackson Fenton, Murray and Jackson was an engineering company at the Round Foundry off Water Lane in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Fenton, Murray and Wood Fenton Murray and Wood was founded in the 1790s by ironfounder Matthew Murray and ...

. The firm then became Rothwell and Company. A further order for America was fulfilled in 1833, then for a couple of years the firm was occupied with

pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they u ...

s and

stationary engines A stationary engine is an engine whose framework does not move. They are used to drive immobile equipment, such as pumps, generators, mills or factory machinery, or cable cars. The term usually refers to large immobile reciprocating engines, pr ...

Locomotives, steam engines and cranes

1820s

About 1827 the company supplied three steam engines to

André Koechlin André Koechlin (1789–1875) was a French industrialist and the railroad equipment maker from the Koechlin family. Life André Koechlin was born in France to the Koechlin family, where he was the grandson of Samuel Koechlin, son-in-law of Dani ...

& Cie in France, one for the

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''Mill (grinding), mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department, in the Grand Est Regions of France, region, eastern France, close to the France–Switzerl ...

cotton mill for which

Sharp, Roberts and Co. Sharp, Stewart and Company was a steam locomotive manufacturer, initially located in Manchester, England. The company was formed in 1843 upon the demise of Sharp, Roberts & Co.. It moved to Glasgow, Scotland, in 1888, eventually amalgamating wi ...

supplied most of the equipment, one for coal mines at

Ronchamp Ronchamp () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is located between the Vosges and the Jura mountains. Mining Museum Mining began in Ronchamp in the mid-18th century and had ...

, and one for the Bourcart factory. Hick attended at least two of these installations in person during 1827. A 1:10

scale model A scale model is a physical model which is geometrically similar to an object (known as the prototype). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small prototypes ...

of a double

jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsails ...

crane designed by Benjamin Hick is displayed at the Musee des Arts et Metiers.

1830s

From 1836 steam locomotives became their main business. Up to 1840 they produced 56, 28 of which went abroad. Of note is a for the

South Carolina Railroad The South Carolina Rail Road Company was a railroad company that operated in South Carolina from 1843 to 1894, when it was succeeded by the Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. It was formed in 1844 by the merger of the South Carolina Canal a ...

to the design of

Horatio Allen Horatio Allen (May 10, 1802 – December 31, 1889) was an American civil engineer and inventor, and President of Erie Railroad in the year 1843–1844. Biography Born in Schenectady, New York, he graduated from Columbia University in 1823, a ...

. This had drivers, with a swivelling front bogie, and reputed to have worked for 35 years. A deal of sub-contract work came from Edward Bury and Company.

1840s

From 1841, the company began a batch of engines for the

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

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 ...

. The largest order came in 1847 for 28 engines for the London and South Western Railway.

1850s

Possibly the most remarkable were some 4-2-4 engines for the

Bristol and Exeter Railway The Bristol & Exeter Railway (B&ER) was an English railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter. It was built on the broad gauge and its engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in stages between 1841 and 1844. It was allied with ...

built in 1853/4 with unflanged driving wheels, and two ball-and-socket swivelled bogies. They weighed 42 tons and achieved speeds of , the fastest engines of the time. The quality of the company's products brought in repeat orders. Many of the engines were still in service twenty years later. From 1857 the engines were to Alexander Allan's design and were similar to the ''Old Crewe'' type. These were sold to the

Lancaster and Carlisle Railway The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway was a main line railway opened between those cities in 1846. With its Scottish counterpart, the Caledonian Railway, the Company launched the first continuous railway connection between the English railway networ ...

and the

Eastern Counties Railway The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English Rail transport, railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Great Yarmouth, Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 on t ...

. The last to be built were four

engines for the

and two saddle tanks for the

Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway The Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway was a broad gauge railway line in Wales that was intended to connect Carmarthen on the South Wales Railway with Cardigan. In fact, it was unable to raise the necessary capital and was loss-making from the time ...

Closure

In the face of reduced business and increasing competition, the company closed in 1864. Part of the works was taken over by the Bolton Iron and Steel Company, which was later absorbed by

Henry Bessemer Sir Henry Bessemer (19 January 1813 – 15 March 1898) was an English inventor, whose steel-making process would become the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century for almost one hundred years from 1856 to 1950. He ...

and Company in 1906.

References

* Lowe, J.W., (1989) ''British Steam Locomotive Builders,'' Guild Publishing * {{cite book , last=Marshall , first=John , chapter=John and William Hargreaves, Benjamin and John Hick , title= A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers , year=1978 , pages=104, 112–3

External links

Internet Archive
Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell Low Pressure engine, p.741-743 Locomotive manufacturers of the United Kingdom Manufacturing companies established in 1822 1864 disestablishments in the United Kingdom History of Bolton Companies disestablished in the 1860s Companies based in Bolton 1822 establishments in England British companies established in 1822