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Steamed to success

There are few heavy industrial companies remaining in Newark which have been in existence as long as Abbott's boiler works on Northern Road.

Situated beside the Great North Eastern Railway line, the site of the factory is quickly identified by its charming, Italianate office block and the timber superstructure of a 19th Century riveting tower - an unusual survivor from a time when the sound of massive drop hammers reverberated across the site as they joined together the plates of Abbott's celebrated steam boilers.

Founded by Thomas Abbott (a native of Lowdham) in 1870, the Newark Boiler Works (as the company was officially named) became the first business to take on the manufacture of steam boilers in the town.

At that time the business was located between Lincoln Street and Northgate, and it was not until 1884 that it moved across the railway line to its present three-acre site off Beacon Hill.

Steam engines, of course, provided the motive power behind Britain's massive economic growth in the 19th Century and Abbott's boilers found a ready market wherever steam engines were in use: charging up and down the country's rail network on high speed express trains, powering ships in Britain's parless Navy and helping to turn the wheels of industry in hundreds of factories across the land.

Under these conditions Abbott's prospered, with the factory in full time work and an office open in Walbrook Street, London.

In 1886, however, only two years after the move to its enlarged premises off Beacon Hill, the Newark Advertiser reported: "The failure of a Newark engineer" when Thomas Abbott's business appeared to be in trouble.

Mr Abbott attributed the collapse to bad trade, over-stocking and losses made on a patent draining machine.

All, however, was not lost. While no report of the meeting of the company's creditors can be found in the newspaper, it would appear that, with only a relatively small shortfall between the value of Abbott's assets and his liabilities, his friends in Newark clubbed together and made good the deficit.

The business continued to operate with apparently no loss or break in production. Only a year later, however, Abbott's works manager of 16 years left to set up a boiler manufactory on his own account.

His name was Alfred Farrar, and with new premises constructed off Northgate beside the River Trent, Farrar's boiler works traded successfully in Newark for many years before becoming a subsidiary of the Swiss company, Hoval.

The story of Farrar's boiler works will form the subject of a future article in this series. In 1898 Abbott's became a private limited liability company with Thomas Abbott, J. C. Wright and George Asbury as its first directors.

The 1890s saw a broadening of the company's business with new contracts being won from the Admiralty to supply 100 Pinnace and Cutter boilers for the new breed of steam-driven warships.

Other prestigious commissions followed and, in 1901, the Advertiser included a lengthy account of the company's most far-flung commission to date as an Abbott boiler was sent off to Africa to power a steamship in Tanzania.

Christened the Chauncy Maples, the steamship was commissioned by British missionaries operating among communities who lived along the shores of the 350-mile-long Lake Nyasa.

The ship was to be manufactured in England then transported to Africa in pieces where it would be re-assembled in-situ on the lakeside. While the ship itself cost £9,000, the cost of transporting it to Lake Nyasa added a further £5,500.

Abbott's won the contract to supply the ship's boiler, which weighed 11 tons and was similar to those built for railway locomotives.

Shipping the boiler to Africa was a relatively straightforward affair, but from the port side at Chinde there still remained a 350-mile trek across Africa by river and road.

Towing the boiler on barges on the first leg of the journey up the Zambesi presented no real problems. When the river became blocked by waterfalls or rapids, however, the barges had to be unloaded and the boiler carried overland.

A special carriage with traction engine wheels had been constructed and at various points on its journey as many as 450 Angoni tribesmen were enlisted to pull it up the steep hills and across boulder-strewn river beds.

They averaged about three miles a day. Triumphantly in May 1901, two years after leaving England, the boiler and other parts of the Chauncy Maples reached the shores of Lake Nyasa and were successfully reassembled.

The ship remained in service with the missionaries for many years with the Abbott boiler being finally replaced in 1921. Back at Abbott's in Newark, meanwhile, other notable events were taking place in connection with the running of the works.

Founder Thomas Abbott retired from the business in about 1907 and moved to live at 18 The Square, East Retford. He subsequently moved to Stevenage where, in February 1928, he died at aged 80.

The company was taken over by his son, Robert, who was to continue at the helm for more than 50 years.

I will continue the story of Abbott's boiler works in a subsequent article, covering the period from the turn of the century to the present day. In compiling this article I am indebted to Mr H. and J. H. Price, the present owners of Abbott's in Newark.

ABOVE: One of Abbott's early vertical steam boilers, photographed outside the Beacon Hill works.

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