Stothert & Pitt
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
engineering company founded in 1785 in Bath, 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...
. They were the builders of a variety of engineering products ranging from Dock cranes
Crane (machine)
A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
to construction plant and household cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
items. They went out of business in 1989. The name and intellectual property became part of Clarke Chapman
Clarke Chapman
Clarke Chapman is a British engineering firm based in Gateshead, which was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange.-History:The company was founded in 1864 in Gateshead by William Clarke...
.
History
The company was founded by George Stothert in 1785 having taken over Thomas Harris's ironmonger's business. He was an agent for Abraham DarbyAbraham Darby
Abraham Darby may refer to:*Abraham Darby I *Abraham Darby II *Abraham Darby III *Abraham Darby IV , High Sheriff of BuckinghamshireAbraham Darby may also refer to:...
's Coalbrookdale Iron Company
Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined "coking coal". The coal was drawn from drift mines in the sides...
, selling all types of domestic ironmongery. By 1815 they set up their own foundry as Abraham Darby had open his own warehouse in Bristol. The company was now managed by his son, also George. In 1851 they exhibited a hand crane at the Great Exhibition.
Fairbairn steam crane
The Fairbairn steam crane is a type of harbourside crane of an 'improved design', patented in 1850 by Sir William Fairbairn. There is one surviving example in Bristol Docks, England.-Innovative design:...
for Bristol dock
Bristol Harbour
Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It has existed since the 13th century but was developed into its current form in the early 19th century by installing lock gates on a tidal stretch of the River Avon in the centre of the city and...
s in 1876, to an improved design by William Fairbairn
William Fairbairn
Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder.-Early career:...
. The boiler maker's plate reads "Marshall Sons & Co. Ltd., Engineers, Gainsboro, England, No.92766".
In 1837, Henry Stothert, brother of the younger George, began manufacturing steam locomotives in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, first as Henry Stothert & Co., later and better known as Avonside
Avonside Engine Company
The Avonside Engine Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Avon Street, St. Philip's, Bristol, England between 1864 and 1934. However the business originated with an earlier enterprise Henry Stothert and Company.-Origins:...
.
Robert Pitt
Robert Pitt
Robert Pitt was a British politician who sat as Member of Parliament for Old Sarum from 1705, a pocket borough controlled by his family. He was the eldest son of Governor Thomas 'Diamond' Pitt, a businessman who had made a fortune while in India. Governor Pitt built the family's wealth on his...
joined the company in 1844 and the firm became Stothert and Pitt. The firm became a limited company early in the 20th century.
Electric dock cranes
Five examples of electric cranes provided in 1951 have been preserved by Bristol Museum Service at Princes Wharf.
Level-luffing cranes
In 1912, Stothert & Pitt's design team, led by Claude Topliss, developed an improved design of level luffing gear, which greatly improved the speed and efficiency of cargo handling cranes fitted with it. . This used an arrangement of compensating hoist cables to automatically keep the hook, and load, level as the jib was luff
Luff
Luff or luffing may refer to:* Luffing, when a sailing sheet is eased so far past trim that airflow over the surface is disrupted* The leading edge of a sail...
ed up and down.
Bulk handling cranes
As cranes became more common in docks, and as ships became bigger, they also became more specialised. In 1927, Stothert & Pitt produced the first bulk-handling craneBulk-handling crane
A bulk-handling crane is one that, instead of a simple hook that can handle a range of slung loads, has an integral grab for lifting bulk cargoes such as coal, mineral ore etc....
. Rather than a simple hook that could handle a range of slung loads, this was a crane designed around the use of an integral grab. Working the grab requires extra cable or cables from the crane jib, so these are a whole specialised design. The first was to unload coal at a power station in London.
Another innovation was the kangaroo crane. Rather than slewing (rotating) the crane to reach the delivery hopper on-shore, a kangaroo crane has its own in-built hopper beneath the jib, that slews with it. Dumping the grab contents into the hopper now only requires the quicker luff
Luff
Luff or luffing may refer to:* Luffing, when a sailing sheet is eased so far past trim that airflow over the surface is disrupted* The leading edge of a sail...
ing movement, without needing to slew.
Wartime
Built tanks and miniature submarines for the war office during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, as well as armaments.
Tank design
The ChallengerCruiser Mk VIII Challenger
The Tank, Cruiser, Challenger was a British tank of World War II. It mounted the 17 Pounder gun on the Cromwell chassis to add heavier anti-tank firepower to the cruiser tank units....
tank was a development of the Cromwell tank
Cromwell tank
Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Cromwell ,The designation as the eighth Cruiser tank design, its name given for ease of reference and its General Staff specification number respectively and the related Centaur tank, were one of the most successful series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second...
chassis, so as to take the more powerful 17 Pounder gun. Stothert & Pitt not only built this tank, they also designed the modifications. Lengthening the chassis from 5 roadwheels to 6 was no difficulty for such an engineering firm, but designing armoured fighting vehicles was new to them and their results weren't entirely successful. The new turret for Challenger carried the gun and its higher recoil well enough, but only by being nearly twice the height of other turrets for this chassis - making the overall tank a much easier target. The A30 (Avenger)
Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger
The Tank, Cruiser, Challenger was a British tank of World War II. It mounted the 17 Pounder gun on the Cromwell chassis to add heavier anti-tank firepower to the cruiser tank units....
tank destroyer was a similar development of a 17pdr gun on the same lengthened chassis, but had an open-topped turret 2 feet lower than the Challenger. During development of Challenger, the prototype turret was first mounted on the even more leviathan TOG 2
TOG2 (tank)
The Tank, Heavy, TOG 2 was a prototype British super-heavy tank design produced in the early part of the Second World War in case the battlefields of northern France turned into a morass of mud, trenches and craters as had happened during the First World War....
.
Current operations
The firm was sold to Robert MaxwellRobert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire...
's Hollis Group in 1986. Following the collapse of Maxwell's empire a management buy out was undertaken in 1988. But this failed and the company closed in 1989, resulting in all the works shutting down. The Stothert & Pitt name was sold to Langley Holdings, which now belongs to the NEI group owners of Clarke Chapman
Clarke Chapman
Clarke Chapman is a British engineering firm based in Gateshead, which was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange.-History:The company was founded in 1864 in Gateshead by William Clarke...
, and is operated for Dock crane consultancy. Despite ceasing all manufacturing operations, the company existing for consultancy, reference and repairs from their new headquarters at the Bradman Lake offices in Bristol.
Stothert & Pitt moved from Bath to Bristol in Summer 2008 and now occupy three office annexes in the Bradman Lake British headquarters on Yelverton Road in Brislington
Brislington
Brislington is an area in the south east of the city of Bristol, England. It is on the edge of Bristol and from Bath. The Brislington Brook runs through the area in the woodlands of Nightingale Valley...
.
Construction Machinery
- Pedestrian rollers
- Vibroll 28W Roller
- Concrete mixerConcrete mixerA concrete mixer is a device that homogeneously combines cement, aggregate such as sand or gravel, and water to form concrete. A typical concrete mixer uses a revolving drum to mix the components...
s- "Victoria" mobile mixers
- Lorry-mounted concrete mixers
- Concrete batching plants
- "Super 64" concrete mixer - used for runway construction
- No.16 Tarmacadam plant for the war office
- CranesCrane (machine)A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
- Goliath type yard cranes
- "Titan", a 50 ton block-setting cranes built in 1899 for building breakwaters at South ShieldsSouth ShieldsSouth Shields is a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne to Tyne Dock, and about downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne...
.
Other Products
- Dock cranes
- Container loaders from the 1970 onward
- Goliath cranes for dock building
- Electric dock cranes (some still preserved Bristol docks) Also in The Royal Victoria Docks in London's east end of Silver town East 14
- DD2 Dock cranes, 5ton @ 80ft or 3 ton @ 65 ft versions.
- Shipyard cranes
- Hammerhead cranes for Rosyth DockyardRosyth DockyardRosyth Dockyard is a large naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which primarily undertakes refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels.-History:...
, 120 ton max lift or 180ft radius built 1965. - and HMNB DevonportHMNB DevonportHer Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...
in Plymouth, 1,450 tonnes of structure with a lift of 80 tonnes. Recently dismantled.
- Hammerhead cranes for Rosyth Dockyard
- Fire grates & household ironmongery merchants
- Offshore platform cranes (made up until closure of works)
- Pump units (now made by Albany PumpsAlbany PumpsAlbany Pumps are manufactured in Lydney, England by The Albany Engineering Company Limited. It manufacturers pumps for industrial, petroleum, fire and OEM markets.- History :...
) - Railway breakdown cranes (Early 20th century)
- Ship cranes
- Seaplane recovery cranes, for the Admiralty
- Scissor lifts (self propelled) introduced in the 1980s
- Winches
See also
- Clarke ChapmanClarke ChapmanClarke Chapman is a British engineering firm based in Gateshead, which was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange.-History:The company was founded in 1864 in Gateshead by William Clarke...
- Northern Engineering IndustriesNorthern Engineering IndustriesNorthern Engineering Industries plc was a British engineering firm, which for over 10 years was one of the largest employers on Tyneside. It was based in Gosforth in Newcastle upon Tyne.-History:...
Ltd - (NEI) - Albany PumpsAlbany PumpsAlbany Pumps are manufactured in Lydney, England by The Albany Engineering Company Limited. It manufacturers pumps for industrial, petroleum, fire and OEM markets.- History :...