Soho Foundry
Encyclopedia
Soho Foundry was a factory
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...

 created in 1795 by Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton, FRS was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the...

 and James Watt
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...

 at Smethwick
Smethwick
Smethwick is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands of England. It is situated on the edge of the city of Birmingham, within the historic boundaries of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire....

, West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 , for the manufacture of steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

s.

History

The factory was built on the edge of the Birmingham Canal
BCN Main Line
The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line describes the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England....

 on land bought in 1795. The following year the foundry was open. By 1840 James Watt Junior owned the factory after the death of the founding Boulton and Watt. He died in 1848 and his place was taken by H. W. Blake and the name changed from Soho Foundry to James Watt & Co..

In 1857 the screw engines for the steamship SS Great Eastern
SS Great Eastern
SS Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by J. Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall on the River Thames, London. She was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers around the...

were built at the foundry. In 1860 a new mint was started at the Foundry, the Manufactory having closed in 1850.

In 1861 tests were performed at the Soho Foundry for the London Pneumatic Despatch Company
London Pneumatic Despatch Company
The London Pneumatic Despatch Company was formed on 30 June 1859, to design, build and operate an underground railway system for the carrying of mail, parcels and light freight between locations in London...

.

In 1895 W & T Avery Ltd.
W & T Avery Ltd.
W & T Avery Ltd. is a British manufacturer of weighing machines. The company was founded in the early 18th century and took the name W & T Avery in 1818. Having been taken over by GEC in 1979 the company was later renamed into GEC-Avery. The company became Avery Berkel in 1993 when GEC acquired the...

 acquired the Foundry as a going concern.

Today

It is now the home of Avery Weigh-Tronix
Avery Weigh-Tronix
Avery Weigh-Tronix is a company specialising in weighing machines. Its HQ stands on the site of the Soho Foundry overlooking Black Patch Park in Smethwick, Birmingham, England, with a US-based manufacturing and retail manufacturing plant....

 (formerly Avery Berkel
Avery Berkel
Avery Berkel, a major manufacturer of weighing systems and food processing equipment, was formed in 1993 when the British conglomerate GEC combined their GEC Avery Ltd. business with the newly acquired Berkel company...

), who make weighing scale
Weighing scale
A weighing scale is a measuring instrument for determining the weight or mass of an object. A spring scale measures weight by the distance a spring deflects under its load...

s. The site includes William Murdoch
William Murdoch
William Murdoch was a Scottish engineer and long-term inventor.Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England.He was the inventor of the oscillating steam...

's cottage and overlooks Black Patch Park
Black Patch Park
Black Patch Park is a park in Smethwick, England. It is bounded by Foundry Lane, Woodburn Road, Perrott Street and Kitchener Street, at .The park, covering over , was formerly part of a sparsely populated landscape of commons and woodland , dotted with farms and cottages which has been transformed...

.

There is a small museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 there, open only by appointment.

The grade II listed Pooley gates, of cast iron, are marked with "a Liver bird above ropework draped with cloth, flanked by nautical symbols including oars, flags and bugles, ships' wheels and intersecting dolphins". A plaque reads: "These gates were cast by Henry Pooley and Son about 1840 for the Sailors' Home, Liverpool. (See "Liverpool Sailors' Home
Liverpool Sailors' Home
Liverpool Sailors' Home, was open for business in Canning Place, Liverpool, England from December 1850 to July 1969.The home was not only a magnificent building it also played a pivotal role in establishing Liverpool as one of the world's successful commercial seaports following the dismantling of...

"). The Avery and Pooley Foundries were amalgamated in 1931". There is an active campaign to return these gates to Liverpool.

The building is a Grade II* listed building. The gates and adjacent canal bridge are Grade II listed.

The oldest working steam engine, built here, is the Smethwick Engine
Smethwick Engine
The Smethwick Engine is a steam engine made by Boulton and Watt; brought into service in May 1779.Originally, it was one of two engines used to pump water back up to the summit level of the BCN Old Main Line canal at Smethwick, not far from the Soho Foundry where it was made...

 built to recover water used in the nearby canal locks
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...

 at Smethwick Summit, and now in the Thinktank museum.

External links

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