Cherwell Iron Works, Canal Street, Banbury

End of the road for Banbury’s last steam factory? A planning application (Cherwell District Council 14/01685/F) has been lodged for the demolition of a range of historic buildings at the former Burgess site on Canal Street, to be replaced with six new industrial units. If the demolition is carried through, it will mean the end of Banbury’s last substantially intact Victorian steam engine and agricultural implement manufactory and the loss of the last substantive reminder of the town’s once internationally significant Victorian agricultural engineering industry The buildings, previously the Cherwell Iron Works, were built c.1862 in the new industrial suburb of Newlands by Tipton coal-master Thomas Barrows and local engineer and millwright Joseph Kirby, who had been building steam engines and threshing machines in North Bar place from about 1855. The firm, who operated as Kirby & Barrows, Barrows & Carmichael, Barrows & Stewart and Barrows & Co., ceased trading in 1919. In terms of scale, with some 100 employees, Barrows fell somewhere between Thomas Lampitt’s Vulcan Foundry (Neithrop, established 1796) and Bernhard Samuelson’s world-famous Britannia Works (established in Newlands in 1839 by James Gardner). These three engineering works were not only the town’s largest employer, employing a tenth of the town’s working population, but two of them, Barrows and Samuelsons, also famously exported their wares to the four corners of the globe. Of the three companies, Barrows had the most varied and interesting catalogue, based from 1855 on its pioneering portable steam engines, steam ploughing machinery and threshing machines. Other specialist products included mortar mills, saw benches, street sweepers, water vans and winding and pumping engines for coal mines. The company was wound up after the cessation of urgent contracts for essential war work. The surviving buildings, which appear to have probably been Barrows’ main assembly buildings, fitting shops and stores, are on the Local List for their historical interest as a reminder of lost industry and a now vanished industrial heartland that stretched from Morrisons to Bridge Street. Since 2013 they have also been included within CDC and SNDC’s Oxford Canal Conservation Area, as part of the last small group of industrial buildings on the canal. It would seem a great pity to lose this last reminder of a lost world to a new-build shed. It remains to be seen if the owner and / or the council can be persuaded that a more imaginative alternative refurbishment scheme is desirable and deliverable, and therefore worth aiming for.

The Newlands industrial suburb

(Barrows Cherwell Iron Works at top centre)

1868 March. Advertisement as 'Barrows and Carmichael' for Threshing Machinery. Jackson's Oxford Journal, Saturday, March 21, 1868

Contemporary advertisement for Barrows & Carmichael steam ploughing machinery

Advertisement showing Barrows & Stewart Portable Steam Mortar Mill, Jan 1880

8hp Portable engine, 1872

Barrows & Stewart Traction Engine, exhibited at the 1881 Royal Society of Agriculture Show, Derby

Various surviving Barrows engines

Kirby and Barrows (1861-63) of Banbury 1861 October. J. E. Kirby takes Thomas Welch Barrows, a Coal Master of Tipton and residing at Handsworth into partnership and to trade as Kirby and Barrows and produce Portable and fixed engines and also other agricultural machines ( Jackson's Oxford Journal, Saturday, October 12, 1861 1863 February 24th. Dissolution of the partnership between Joseph Edward Kirby and Thomas Welch Barrows trading as Kirby and Barrows. (London Gazette February 24th 1863) 1863 became Barrows and Carmichael

Barrows and Carmichael (1863-68) 1863 June. Advert. 'Barrows and Carmichael, late Kirby and Barrows, Manufacturers of First-class Portable and Fixed Steam Engines, Threshing Machines, Steam Ploughing Apparatus etc.' [1] 1868 March. Advertisement as 'Barrows and Carmichael' for Threshing Machinery. [2] 1868 Became Barrows and Stewart

Barrows and Stewart (1868-88) of Cherwell Works, Banbury, Oxon. Partnership formed by Thomas Welch Barrows and William Stewart 1868 June. Advertising portable steam engines and threshing machines [1] 1868 Exhibited agricultural implements at the Oxfordshire and Banbury Agricultural Societies' Show [2] 1876 Listed as 'Barrows and Stewart, engineers and machinists, manufacturers of traction, portable and fixed steam engines, threshing machines, steam cultivating apparatus, winding and pumping engines for coal mines. Engine and Machine Works, Cherwell Foundry, Banbury' [3] 1876 Exhibitor at the Royal Agricultural Show at Birmingham with an engine and mortar mill. [4] 1881 Employing about 100 men and boys [5] 1882 Listed under Iron Founders, Millwrights, Machinists and Engineers as 'Barrows and Stewart, Cherwell Works, Banbury' [6] 1886 Listed under Iron Founders, Millwrights, Machinists and Engineers as 'Barrows and Stewart, Cherwell Works, Banbury' [7] 1888 Listed under Iron Founders, Millwrights, Machinists and Engineers as 'Barrows and Stewart, Cherwell Works, Banbury' [8] 1888 April. Dissolution of partnership [9]

Barrows and Co (1888-1919?) of Cherwell Works, Banbury, Oxon 1888 April. Following the dissolution of the partnership of Barrows and Stewart, the company became Barrows and Co under Thomas Welch Barrows 1889 Listed under Iron Founders, Millwrights, Machinists and Engineers as 'Barrows and Co, Cherwell Works, Vulcan Works, Foundry Square, Neithrop, Banbury' [1] 1890 Listed under Iron Founders, Millwrights, Machinists and Engineers as 'Barrows and Co, Cherwell Works, Vulcan Works, Foundry Square, Neithrop, Banbury' [2] 1891 Incorporated as a private Limited Company. 1907 Listed as 'Barrows and Co Limited, Engineers, Cherwell Works, Lower Cherwell Street, Banbury' [3] 1914 Specialities: Portable Engines, Mortar Mills, Saw Benches, Street Sweepers, Water Vans, etc. Employees 100. [4]

Notes Kirby and Barrows (none survive) - 1862-1863

Barrows and Carmichael (1 survives) - 1864-1868

Barrows and Stewart (1 survives) - 1868-1886

Barrows and Co (6 survives) - 1891-1919

Thomas Welch Barrows of Kirby and Barrows, Barrows and Stewart and Barrows and Co c1833 Born at Birmingham - probable connection with William Barrows

1861 October. J. E. Kirby takes Thomas Welch Barrows, a Coal Master of Tipton and residing at Handsworth into partnership and to trade as Kirby and Barrows and produce Portable and fixed engines and also other agricultural machines [1] 1871 Living at West Street, Neithrop (age 38 born Birmingham), an Engineer. With his wife Jane M. (age 31 born Handsworth), Staffs) and their children Olive Barrows (age 8 born Banbury) and Arthur M. (age 7 born Banbury). Two servants. [2] 1881 Living at Handsworth Villa, West Bar Street, Banbury (age 48 born Birmingham), an Engineer and Manufacturer Employing About 100 Men and Boys. With his wife Jane Murdock (age 41 born Hansworth, Staffs) and their daughters Emily Olive (age 18 born Banbury) and Jeanie Rose (age 7 born Banbury). Two servants). [3] 1901 Living at Banbury Road, Banbury (age 68), Living on own means and a Widower. With his daughters Emily Olive Barrows (age 38) and Jeanie Rose Barrows (age 27). Three servants. [4]

Joseph Edward Kirby of Kirby and Barrows c1832 Born the son of Benjamin Kirby, a farmer 1857 July 27th. Married Fanny the daughter of ? Warner at Leicester c1859 Birth of son Edward c1860 Birth of son John 1861 Living (Staying?) at the Hydropathic Establishment, Great Malvern (age 29 born Humberstone near Leicester?), Engineer Banbury and Married. (1861 Census ) 1861 June. 'To Joseph Edward Kirby, of Banbury, Oxon, Engineer, for the invention of improvements is steam engines and machinery for giving motion to agricultural implements and other machines' (London Gazette June 28th 1861) 1863 December 12th. Died at Humberstone

William Stewart (of Neithrop) of Barrows and Stewart c1825 Born in Scotland 1871 Living at Calthorpe Road, Neithrop, Banbury (age 46 born Scotland), a Civil Engineer and Unmarried. One servant. [1] 1881 Living at 16 Calthorpe Road, Neithrop, Banbury (age 56 born Scotland), a Civil Engineer and Unmarried. Two servants. [2]