| Brooker, Ron (2006). Wenham & Waters Limited: a forgotten Croydon engineering company?, Bull Croydon Nat Hist Sci Soc, 127: 2-5. |
Wenham & Waters Limited: a forgotten Croydon engineering company?Wenham & Waters Limited were, in their day, a well-known firm of Sanitary, Heating, Electrical Engineers, and Iron and Brass Founders, &c.. (The "&c." covered many aspects of work at the time of their demise as a company.) They were situated at The Paragon Works, Vicarage Road, Waddon, Croydon, Surrey from 1881 until 1911 when the company went into voluntary liquidation. William Philipps Wenham, born in 1835, was originally apprenticed to his father William, a carpenter.1 In the 1850s he worked for Hammond & Purrott (ironmongers - later to be Hammond & Hussey) for two years before starting up on his own account about 1856 as a Gas-fitter and Brass Manufacturer, trading firstly from 44 Church Street and then from newly built premises at 81 Church Street in 1861, at the corner of Ely Davy's Road.2 Local directories for Croydon and advertisements in the Croydon press chart his branching out into various disciplines. By 1861 he also traded as a Bell Hanger, a maker of Gas Pendants, Brackets and Chandeliers, and of "The Horse Singeing Apparatus" as well as giving estimates for Builder's Work.3 The year 1867 saw the inclusion of Plumber, Locksmith and Baths, Conservatories &c. being fixed and heated with hot water;4 whilst in 1869 he was not only preparing plans and estimates for heating conservatories, churches and public buildings, but was also sending experienced workmen to all parts of the country with all works being executed under his own personal superintendence,5 and in 1881 he was advertising his Safety Valve for preventing boiler explosions.6 |
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Ward's Croydon Directory for 1882 carried an advertisement by W.P.W. that the offices were at 81 Church Street and the manufactory was at the Paragon Works. A Mr. Alfred Waters joined with Wenham sometime in 1881/2 and the firm of Wenham & Waters commenced, first as a partnership and then as a limited company two years later with a capital of £20,000.7 In 1883 a showroom and office for receiving orders was opened at 68c North End, Croydon and they now also specialised in Close and Open Fire Kitcheners, Grills, Ranges, Baths and Lavatories, Water Closet Apparatus, Water Waste Preventive Cisterns, Ornamental Wrought Ironwork, Gas Fittings, Electric and Wire Bells, Telephone Speaking Tubes &c., as well as being Heating Apparatus Manufacturers and Horticultural Builders.8 At a Gas Exhibition held at the Public Halls, George Street, Croydon in 1889, their Ranges showed much interest, with one capable of being heated by coal in winter and by gas in summer.9 The Croydon show room, now at 86 North End, was closed in 1891 when more extensive premises were opened at 47 Oxford Street, London, W.,10 previously at 86 Oxford Street from about 1886/7, and the capital of the company was increased to £30,000 in 1892.11 In December 1894 they were one of seven companies who responded to an invitation by Croydon's Town Clerk to submit a tender to run the proposed electric light in the town.12 Although they were unsuccessful, they did win the contract to cast and fit up the arc lamp standards for the Compulsory Area in 1896 and also further orders when the electric lighting was extended. At that time (1896) the capital of the company was increased to £50,000.13 They employed three hundred men and boys in the manufacturing and fixing of the various goods, plus a staff of draughtsmen and clerks. Paragon Works comprised an Engine House with its twenty horse-power horizontal engine to drive the machinery in the smiths' and brass finishers' shop; a radiator room; a smiths' shop with its forges, a steam hammer, drilling machine and planing machine; a sectional and bar iron shop where one hundred tons of iron were stored; a fitting room with its guillotine machine and lathe, twenty-six feet in length that could "turn" iron up to three feet; a brass foundry and a carpenters' shop. An electric motor drove all the machinery in the carpenters', pattern makers' and trimming shops; the steam boiler in the boiler house supplied the steam for all the engines, dynamos, and other machines, and drove the steam hammer, and in winter supplied the steam for heating all of the shops. All offices were illuminated by the electric light, generated from the existing machinery.14 Works carried out, especially at large country houses, included installation of the electric light, sanitary fittings, central heating, cooking apparatus, water mains, fire mains and pumping stations; whilst for their products to be sold in South Africa, they used an agent in Cape Town.15 At Croydon, among their many contracts, they carried out the electric lighting installations at the Parish Church,16 the new Municipal Buildings, Courts and Free Library in Katharine Street,17 and the Croydon Mental Hospital at Warlingham.18 One of their main lines was in casement manufacture advertised under the name of "The Croydon Casement" with their patent casement fittings. The 1910 edition of Laxton's Price Book cites a number of their products for pricing purposes, and an advertisement in that edition expanded their range of activities to include Well Sinking and Boring, Fire Hydrants and Fittings, Electric Bells and Telephones and Laundry Engineering Work.19 Although the company's nameplates might still be seen on light standards, and electrical and heating installations in country houses, though in diminishing numbers, a sample of their work, in fact a work of art according to a national newspaper article in 1967, was installed at the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London - a mahogany, porcelain, brass and ebony artefact, albeit "unlisted" and not on view to the general public - the "Millais" water closet that could only be accessed by male Royal Academicians and Associates.20 The water closet may have been the subject of subsequent repair or replacement works and was removed in 2003. The company went into voluntary liquidation in 1911 and a new company, Wenham & Fowler started up, not at the Paragon Works, but at 70A North End, Croydon. Subsequently, Paragon Works was used by various businesses, one being Trojan Ltd., a motor car manufacturer. At the time of writing, most of the site has been re-developed for housing, but the main building is still in existence. Ron Brooker
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updated September 25th 2006 |