B. Hick and Sons#Soho Iron Works

File:Benjamin Hick (colour).jpg ARA (1801–1865)]]

The company's first steam locomotive Soho, named after the works was a {{whyte|0-4-2}} goods type, built in 1833{{sfnp|Marshall|1978|page= 113 }} for carrier John Hargreaves. In 1834 an unconventional, gear-driven four-wheeled rail carriage was conceived{{sfnp|Timmins|1998|pages= 222–223 }} for Bolton solicitor and banker, Thomas Lever Rushton (1810–1883).{{cite web|title=Thomas Lever Rushton|url=http://www.boltonsmayors.org.uk/rushton-t-l.html|work=Links in a Chain – the Mayors of Bolton|publisher=Bolton Council|access-date=7 May 2015|archive-date=18 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518075937/http://www.boltonsmayors.org.uk/rushton-t-l.html|url-status=live}} The engine was the first 3-cylinder locomotive and its design incorporated turned iron wheel rims with aerodynamic plate discs as an alternative to conventional spokes.{{cite journal|last1=Hick|first1=Benjamin|editor1-last=Newton|editor1-first=William|title=for improvements in locomotive steam-carriages|journal=Newton's London Journal of Arts and Sciences|date=1836|volume=VII|pages=265–271|url=https://archive.org/stream/newtonslondonjo41unkngoog#page/n274/mode/2up/search/hick |access-date=12 October 2016|series=Conjoined|language=en}}{{cite book

|last1=Hebert|first1=Luke

|title=The Engineer's and Mechanic's Encyclopædia

|year=1836

|publisher=Thomas Kelly

|volume=II

|pages=568–569

|url=https://archive.org/stream/engineersandmec03hebegoog#page/n576/mode/2up

|access-date=7 September 2016

}} The 3-cylinder concept evolved into Hick's experimental horizontal boiler A 2-2-2 locomotive about 1840, adopting the principle features of the vertical boiler engine.{{cite journal

|last1=Townend

|first1=Peter

|title=The first three cylinder locomotive

|url=http://www.steamindex.com/archive/rlyarch5.htm#i50

|journal=Steamindex

|date=March 2016

|volume=5

|issue=50

|access-date=2016-06-23

|archive-date=2016-07-29

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160729061714/http://www.steamindex.com/archive/rlyarch5.htm#i50

|url-status=live

}} The A {{whyte|2-2-2}} design appears not to have been put into production.

More locomotives were built over the 1830s, some for export to the United

States{{sfnp|Timmins|1998|pages= 222–223 }} including a {{whyte|2-2-0}} Fulton for the Pontchartrain Railroad in 1834,{{cite book

|last1=Guilbeau

|first1=James

|title=St. Charles Streetcar, The: Or, the New Orleans & Carrollton Railroad

|series=Louisiana Landmarks

|orig-year=1975

|year=2011

|publisher=Pelican Publishing Company

|isbn=978-1-879714-02-1

|edition=illustrated

|ref={{harvid|Guilbeau|1975}}

|page=18

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oAgxzQPeAjwC&q=pontchartrain+railroad+hick&pg=PA18

|access-date=2020-12-08

|archive-date=2022-07-24

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724203828/https://books.google.com/books?id=oAgxzQPeAjwC&q=pontchartrain+railroad+hick&pg=PA18

|url-status=live

}} New Orleans and Carrollton for the St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans in 1835{{sfnp|Guilbeau|1975|page= 12 }} and a second New Orleans for the same line in 1837.{{cite web

|last=American Society of Mechanical Engineers Regional Transit Authority

|title=St. Charles Avenue Streetcar Line, 1835

|url=http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/landmarks/3106.pdf

|work=Adapted from {{harvp|Guilbeau|1975}}, revised and reprinted 1977

|publisher=The American Society of Mechanical Engineers 345 East 47th Street New York, N.Y. 10017

|access-date=10 January 2014

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120222637/http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/3106.pdf

|archive-date=20 November 2012

}} A 10 hp stationary engine was supplied to the Carrollton Railroad Company in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, for ironworking purposes, but damaged by fire in 1838.{{cite book|title=Steam Engines: Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury|last=United States Dept. of the Treasury|date=1838|page=306|title-link=Levi Woodbury}} Two {{whyte|0-4-0}} tender locomotives Potomak and Louisa were delivered to the Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad and a third, Virginia to the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad in North Carolina during 1836.{{cite book|last1=Hall |first1=A. Rupert |first2=Norman |last2=Smith |title=History of Technology, Volume 6|date=1981|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781350018006|edition=electronic|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iH4dDQAAQBAJ&q=hick+hargreaves+locomotive+drawings&pg=PT93|access-date=9 November 2017|chapter=Manchester: Sharp Roberts & Co.|archive-date=24 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724203828/https://books.google.com/books?id=iH4dDQAAQBAJ&q=hick+hargreaves+locomotive+drawings&pg=PT93|url-status=live}}

Between 1837 and 1840 the company subcontracted for Edward Bury and Company, supplying engines to the Midland Counties Railway, London and Birmingham Railway, North Union Railway, Manchester and Leeds Railway and indirectly to the Grand Crimean Central Railway via the London and North Western Railway in 1855.{{cite book|last1=Cooke|first1=Brian|title=The Grand Crimean Central Railway|date=1997|publisher=Cavalier House, Knutsford|isbn=978-0951588918|pages=114–115|edition=Second edition, revised and expanded.}} Engines were built for the Taff Vale Railway, Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, Cheshire, Lancashire and Birkenhead Railway, Chester and Birkenhead Railway, Eastern Counties Railway, Liverpool and Manchester Railway, North Midland Railway, Paris and Versailles Railway and Bordeaux Railway.{{cite book|last1=Mackenzie|first1=William|editor1-last=Brooke|editor1-first=David|title=The Diary of William Mackenzie, the First International Railway Contractor|date=2000|publisher=Thomas Telford|isbn=978-0727728302|page=388|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpm55d6FoqcC&q=b.+hick+and+sons+bordeaux&pg=PA338|access-date=2 November 2017|archive-date=24 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724203821/https://books.google.com/books?id=vpm55d6FoqcC&q=b.+hick+and+sons+bordeaux&pg=PA338|url-status=live}}

In 1841 the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway successfully used American Norris {{whyte|4-2-0}} locomotives on the notorious Lickey Incline and Hick built three similar locomotives for the line. Between 1844 and 1846 the firm built a number of "long boiler" locomotives with haystack fireboxes and in 1848, four {{whyte|2-4-0}}s for the North Staffordshire Railway.{{sfnp|Saul|1968|pages= 186–222 }}{{sfnp|Christiansen|Miller|1971|page= 309}}{{cite book|last1=Skeat |last2=Marshall|first1=W. O. |first2=John|title=Catalogue: Hick Hargreaves Exhibition of early locomotive drawings|year=1974|publisher=Rockliff Bros. Ltd., Long Lane, Liverpool L9 7BE}}{{sfnp|Marshall|1978|page= 113 }} In the same year, the company built Chester, probably the earliest known prototype of a 6-wheel coupled {{whyte|0-6-0}}} goods locomotive.

File:Hick's 3-cylinder steam-carriage.jpg 3-cylinder steam-carriage and disc wheel from Newton's London Journal of Arts and Sciences, 1836.]]

Benjamin Hick's wheel design was used on a number of Great Western Railway engines including what may have been the world's first streamlined locomotive; an experimental prototype, nicknamed Grasshoper, driven by Brunel at {{convert|100|mph|kph}}, c.1847. The 10 ft disc wheels from GWR locomotive Ajax were lent to convey the statue of the Duke of Wellington to Hyde Park Corner{{cite web|last1=Speller|first1=John|title=Ajax & Mars|url=http://spellerweb.net/rhindex/UKRH/GreatWestern/Broadgauge/BGLocos/Ajax.html|website=John Speller's Web Pages - GWR Broad Gauge: Locomotives|access-date=11 October 2016|archive-date=11 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011234827/http://spellerweb.net/rhindex/UKRH/GreatWestern/Broadgauge/BGLocos/Ajax.html|url-status=live}} in London.

Hick's patent extended the purpose of the design from the locomotive steam-carriage, '...I do not confine myself to this adaptation. Wheels for carts, waggons, coaches, timber carriages, and for many other uses, may be advantageously constructed on this principle. The forms, dimensions, nature, and strength of material of the naves, discs, and fellies, as well as the mode of uniting the different parts, may be varied, in order to suit the particular purpose for which the wheels are required, and to the wear and tear to which they are liable'.

Examples using wood paneling as streamlining are applied to the 16 ft flywheel and rope races of a Hick Hargreaves and Co. 120hp non-condensing Corliss engine, Caroline installed new at Gurteen's textile manufactorary, Chauntry Mills, Haverhill, Suffolk in 1879.{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Chris |title=TL6745 : D Gurteen, Chauntry Mills, Haverhill |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/401890 |website=Geograph |access-date=17 September 2024 |date=1983}}{{cite web |last1=Dace |first1=Ashley |title=TL6745 : Caroline - Hick, Hargreaves & Co of Bolton (1879) |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3568924 |website=Geograph |access-date=19 November 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Dace |first1=Ashley |title=TL6745 : Caroline - Hick, Hargreaves & Co of Bolton (1879) |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3568927 |website=Geograph |access-date=19 November 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Chris |title=TL6745 : Chauntry Mills, steam engine |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1876281 |website=Geograph |access-date=19 November 2022}}

Disc wheels and wheel fairings have been used for armoured cars, aviation, drag racing, Land speed record attempts, Land speed racing, motor racing, motor scooters, motorcycle speedway, wheelchair racing, icetrack cycling, velomobiles and bicycle racing, particularly track cycling, track bikes and time trials.{{cite web |last1=Thacker |first1=Tony |title=Moon Discs: A Brief History of the World's Fastest Accessory |url=https://www.torqtalk.com/tech/moon-discs-a-brief-history-of-the-worlds-fastest-accessory |website=Torq Talk |publisher=Tony Thacker |access-date=24 May 2023 |date=December 2020}}

File:Hick Hargreaves exhibition catalogue.png, 1974.]]

Hick Hargreaves collection of early locomotive and steam engine drawings represents one of the finest of its kind in the world. The majority were produced by Benjamin Hick senior and John Hick between 1833-1855, they are of significant interest for their technical detail, fine draughtsmanship and artistic merit. The elaborate finish and harmonious colouring extends from the largest drawings for prospective customers to ordinary working drawings and records for the engineer.

Works like this influenced the contemporary illustrators of popular science and technology of the time like John Emslie (1813-1875), their aesthetic quality stems from a romantic outlook in which science and poetry were partners.{{cite book|last1=Klingender|first1=Francis Donald|author-link=Francis Klingender|editor1-last=Elton|editor1-first=Arthur|title=Art and the Industrial Revolution|date=1968|publisher=Augustus M. Kelley|location=University of Michigan|pages=76–77|edition=illustrated, revised|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8pdPAAAAMAAJ|chapter=Documentary Illustration|isbn=9780678077528|access-date=2020-09-21|archive-date=2022-04-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407103342/https://books.google.com/books?id=8pdPAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}

The drawings are held by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Archives and the Transport Trust, University of Surrey.{{cite web |title=Hick Hargreaves & Co.Ltd, Engineers and Millwrights, Soho Works, Bolton |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/8e06026b-cd85-4e51-8117-c60be36e0d1a |website=The National Archives |publisher=Gov.uk |access-date=8 October 2020 |archive-date=9 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009073410/https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/8e06026b-cd85-4e51-8117-c60be36e0d1a |url-status=live }}

After the death of Benjamin Hick in 1842, the firm continued as Benjamin Hick & Son under the management of his eldest son, John Hick; his second son, Benjamin Jr left the company after a year of its founding{{cite web|last1=Jones|first1=Kevin Philip|title=British locomotive manufacturers|url=http://www.steamindex.com/manlocos/manulist.htm#begha|website=Steamindex|access-date=2 November 2016|date=30 March 2016|archive-date=3 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103064004/http://steamindex.com/manlocos/manulist.htm#begha|url-status=live}} for partnership in a Liverpool company about 1834,{{cite journal|last1=Ahrons|first1=Ernest Leopold|author-link=Ernest L. Ahrons|title=Short Histories of Famous Firms, Messrs. Hick, Hargreaves and Co. |journal=The Engineer |date=25 June – 30 July 1920}}{{sfnp|Marshall|1978|page= 113 }} possibly George Forrester & Co.{{cite web|title=MacGregor, Horsfall, Hick|url=http://liverpool-genealogy.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10568|website=Liverpool & South West Lancs Genealogy|access-date=20 February 2015|archive-date=20 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220141800/http://liverpool-genealogy.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10568|url-status=live}} In 1840 he filed a patent governor{{cite book |last1=Bennett |first1=Stuart |title=A History of Control Engineering, 1800-1930 |date=1986 |publisher=IET |isbn=0863410472 |edition=illustrated, reprint, revised}} for B. Hick and Son using an Egyptian winged motif, that featured on the front page of Mechanics' Magazine.{{cite book |editor-last=Robertson |editor-first=J.C. |article=Hick's Patent Governor for Steam-Engines and Water Wheels |title=The Mechanics' Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette |date=15 May 1841 |volume=34 |issue= 927 |pages=369–372 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9tQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA369}} Hick's third and youngest son William (1820–1844) served as an apprentice millwright, engineer in the company from 1834 and a 'fitter' from 1837, he was listed as an iron founder in 1843 with his eldest brother John, but died the next year.{{cite book|title=Slater's Directory 1843 - Bolton|date=1843|publisher=Isaac Slater}}{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|page=475}}{{cite web|last1=Redfern|first1=Diane|title=William Hick|url=http://www.dianeredfern.ca/pafg03.htm#72|website=Diane Redfern Ancestry & Family History|publisher=© 2009-2013 dianeredfern.ca|access-date=20 October 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151127074301/http://www.dianeredfern.ca/pafg03.htm#72|archive-date=27 November 2015|df=dmy-all}}

In 1845 John Hick took his brother-in-law John Hargreaves Jr (1800–1874){{sfnp|Marshall|1978|page= 104 }} into partnership followed by the younger brother William Hargreaves (1821–1889){{sfnp|Marshall|1978|page= 104 }} in 1847.{{cite journal|title=1833 to 1933 at the Soho Iron Works Bolton|journal=Centenary Pamphlet Published by the Firm}} John Hargreaves Jr left the firm in April 1850{{cite journal|journal=The London Gazette|date=28 March 1851|issue=21195|page=874|title=NOTICE|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/21195/page/874/data.pdf|access-date=25 February 2016|archive-date=24 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324080721/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/21195/page/874/data.pdf|url-status=live}}{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|page=102}} before buying Silwood Park in Berkshire.{{cite web |title=A Short History of Silwood Park Sunninghill |url=http://www.sunninghill.org.uk/cgi-bin/gpp/histlist.pl?locid=3&bid=59 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929023222/http://www.sunninghill.org.uk/cgi-bin/gpp/histlist.pl?locid=3&bid=59 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-09-29 |website=Sunninghill Berkshire England |publisher=The Great Park Portal |access-date=5 February 2019 |date=2008 |quote=1854: John Hargreaves, Jnr. purchased at least part of the estate from Mrs Forbes (widow of M Forbes) for £30,000}}

File:benjamin Hick & Son steam engine 2.jpg steam engine, mill-gear and ornamental column at the Great Exhibition. Photograph 1851 by Claude-Marie Ferrier (1811–1889) from the Reports of the Juries.]]

The following year B. Hick and Son exhibited engineering models and machinery at The Great Exhibition in Class VI. Manufacturing Machines and Tools, including a 6 horse power crank overhead engine and mill-gear driving Hibbert, Platt and Sons' cotton machinery and a 2 hp high-pressure oscillating engine{{cite book|title=Great Exhibition 1851. Official, Descriptive and Illustrated catalogue Part II. Classes V. to X.|date=1851|page=293|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/b21495361_0001#page/n549/mode/2up|access-date=21 November 2015|chapter=Hick, B., & Son}} driving a Ryder forging machine.{{cite book|title=Great Exhibition 1851. Official, Descriptive and Illustrated catalogue Part II. Classes V. to X.|date=1851|page=294|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/b21495361_0001#page/n551/mode/2up|access-date=21 November 2015|chapter=Hick, B., & Son}} Both engines were modelled in the Egyptian Style.{{cite web|title=B. Hick & Son - Crank Overhead Engine - Drawings & Photos|url=http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/info_HE_5104.html|website=Hemingway Kits|access-date=10 November 2016|ref=HE 5104|archive-date=3 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160903125419/http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/info%5FHE%5F5104%2Ehtml|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=B. Hick & Son - Oscillating Engine|url=http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/info_HE_5004.html|website=Hemingway Kits|access-date=10 November 2016|ref=HE 5000|archive-date=9 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009134835/http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/info_HE_5004.html|url-status=live}} The company received a Council Medal award for its mill gearing, radial drill mandrils and portable forges.{{cite web|title=1851 Great Exhibition: Reports of the Juries: Class VI.|url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1851_Great_Exhibition:_Reports_of_the_Juries:_Class_VI.|website=Grace's Guide|publisher=Grace's Guide Ltd.|access-date=29 September 2016|pages=203–204|date=1852|archive-date=8 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508072338/http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1851_Great_Exhibition:_Reports_of_the_Juries:_Class_VI.|url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=A.H. Baldwin & Sons Ltd Auction 108 |url=https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=6184&lot=453 |website=NumisBids |publisher=NumisBids LLC |access-date=25 February 2023 |date=8 November 2022}} The B. Hick & Son London office was at 1 New Broad Street in the City.{{cite book|title=Street Directory|via=UK City and County Directories 1600s-1900s|page=395|date=1851}}{{full citation needed|date=June 2024}}{{cite book|title=Commercial Directory|via=UK City and County Directories 1600s -1900s|page=791|date=1851}}{{full citation needed|date=June 2024}}

One of the Great Exhibition models, a 1:10 scale 1840 double beam engine built in the Egyptian style for John Marshall's Temple Works in Leeds,{{cite magazine|last=A.W.M|title=Models of a Beam Engine and Steam Turbine|magazine=Model Engineer|date=16 April 1936|volume= 74|issue=1823|pages=79–80}} is displayed at the Science Museum and considered to be the ultimate development of a Watt engine.{{cite book|title=Science Museum caption|publisher=Science Museum|location=Energy Hall|quote=Model represents the ultimate development of Boulton & Watt's steam engine. By the time the engine was displayed at the 1851 Great Exhibition, Britain used half as much steam power again as the whole of western Europe.}} A second model, apparently built by John Hick and probably shown at the Great Exhibition, is the open ended 3-cylinder A 2-2-2 locomotive on display at Bolton Museum.{{cite web|title=Bolton Museum caption|location=Bolton Museum|quote=Model of an experimental locomotive, about 1840|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/28709338@N04/15468182584/in/photostream/|website=flikcr|access-date=16 October 2016|date=2014-12-23|archive-date=2016-09-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916133837/https://www.flickr.com/photos/28709338@N04/15468182584/in/photostream/|url-status=live}} Bolton Museum holds the best collection of Egyptian cotton products outside the British Museum as a result of the company's strong exports, particularly to Egypt. Leeds Industrial Museum houses a Benjamin Hick and Son beam engine in the Egyptian style c.1845, used for hoisting machinery at the London Road warehouse of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway.{{cite web |last1=Dace |first1=Ashley |title=SE2734 : Armley Mills - Beam engine |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3784976 |website=Geograph |access-date=2 December 2022|date=20 December 2013}}

Locomotive building continued until 1855,{{sfnp|Marshall|1978|page= 113 }} and in all some ninety to a hundred locomotives were produced; but they were a sideline for the company, which concentrated on marine and stationary engines, of which they made a large number.

B. Hick and Son supplied engines for the paddle frigates Dom Afonso by Thomas Royden & Sons{{cite web|title=Dom Afonso|url=http://www.brasilmergulho.com/dom-afonso/|website=Brasil Mergulho|access-date=20 October 2016|date=25 June 2016|archive-date=20 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161020174157/http://www.brasilmergulho.com/dom-afonso/|url-status=live}} and Amazonas by the leading shipbuilder in Liverpool, Thomas Wilson & Co. also builders of the Royal William;{{cite book|last1=Aspinall|first1=Henry Kelsall|title=Birkenhead and Its Surroundings|date=1903|publisher=Рипол Классик|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S3IKAwAAQBAJ&q=thomas+wilson+%26+co+liverpool+birkenheadisbn%3D5874616144&pg=PA307|page=307|access-date=19 October 2016|chapter=Shipbuilding in Liverpool|isbn=9785874616144|quote=the leading shipbuilder in Liverpool was Thomas Wilson|archive-date=24 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724203821/https://books.google.com/books?id=S3IKAwAAQBAJ&q=thomas+wilson+%26+co+liverpool+birkenheadisbn%3D5874616144&pg=PA307|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Fragata a Vapor Amazonas|url=http://www.naval.com.br/ngb/A/A052/A052.htm|website=Navios De Guerra Brasileiros|access-date=19 October 2016|date=2013|archive-date=20 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161020043931/http://www.naval.com.br/ngb/A/A052/A052.htm|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last1=Swiggum and Kohli|first1=S. and M.|title=Royal William of 1838|url=http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/royalwilliam.shtml|website=TheShipsList|publisher=TheShipsList - (Swiggum)|access-date=19 October 2016|date=1997–2016|quote=built by Wilson & Co.|archive-date=5 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161205041937/http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/royalwilliam.shtml|url-status=live}} the screw propelled Mediterranean steamers, Nile and Orontes and the SS Don Manuel built by Alexander Denny and Brothers{{cite web|title=Nile|url=http://clydeships.co.uk/view.php?year_built=&builder=&ref=5223&vessel=Nile|website=The Clyde Built Ships|publisher=Caledonian Maritime Research Trust|access-date=14 November 2016|date=2016|archive-date=16 June 2014|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140616151835/http://clydeships.co.uk/view.php?year_built=&builder=&ref=5223&vessel=NILE|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=ORONTES|url=http://clydeships.co.uk/view.php?year_built=&builder=&ref=5226&vessel=Orontes|website=The Clyde Built Ships|publisher=Caledonian Maritime Research Trust|access-date=14 November 2016|date=2016|archive-date=16 June 2014|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140616152503/http://clydeships.co.uk/view.php?year_built=&builder=&ref=5226&vessel=ORONTES|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Don Manuel|url=http://clydeships.co.uk/view.php?year_built=&builder=&ref=5231&vessel=DON+MANUEL|website=The Clyde Built Ships|publisher=Caledonian Maritime Research Trust|access-date=14 November 2016|date=2016|archive-date=24 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724203851/http://clydeships.co.uk/view.php?year_built=&builder=&ref=5231&vessel=DON+MANUEL|url-status=live}} of Dumbarton. The Brazilian Navy's Afonso rescued passengers from the Ocean Monarch in 1848{{cite news

|title=Burning of the Ocean Monarch

|issue=19952|newspaper=The Times|date=26 August 1848|page=5

}} and took part in the Battle of The Tonelero Pass in 1851;{{cite web|title=Fragata a Vapor Afonso|url=http://www.naval.com.br/ngb/A/A008/A008.htm|website=Navios De Guerra Brasileiros|access-date=19 October 2016|date=2013|archive-date=20 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161020173410/http://www.naval.com.br/ngb/A/A008/A008.htm|url-status=live}} the Amazonas participated in the Battle of Riachuelo in 1865.

The company made blowing engines for furnaces and smelters, boilers, weighing machines, water wheels and mill machinery. It supplied machinery "on a new and perfectly unique" concept together with iron pillars, roofing and fittings for the steam-driven pulp and paper mill at Woolwich Arsenal in 1856. The mill made cartridge bags at the rate of about 20,000 per hour, sufficient to supply the entire British army and navy. The intention was to manufacture paper for various departments of Her Majesty's service.{{cite news

|title=Military and Naval Intelligence

|newspaper=The Times|date=30 August 1856|issue=22460|page=10:col A

}}

Steel boilers were first produced in 1863, mostly of the Lancashire type, and more than 200 locomotive boilers were made for torpedo boats into the 1890s. The Phoenix Boiler Works were purchased in 1891 to meet an increase in demand.{{cite journal|title=Messrs. Hick, Hargreaves and Co., Soho Iron Works, and Phoenix Boiler Works, Bolton.|journal=Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers|date=July 1894|pages=454–455}}

Bolton Steam Museum hold a 1906 Hick, Hargreaves and Co. Ltd. Lancashire boiler front-plate, previously installed at Halliwell Mills, Bolton.{{cite web |last1=Dixon |first1=David |title=SD6909: Lancashire Boiler Front, Bolton Steam Museum |url=http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3632939 |website=Geograph |access-date=2 December 2022|date=2 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417152651/http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3632939 |archive-date=17 April 2016 }}

The company introduced the highly efficient Corliss valve gear into the United Kingdom from the United States in about 1864 and was closely identified with it thereafter; William Inglis being responsible for promoting the high speed Corliss engine. In the same year Swiss engineer Robert Lüthy came to the firm from L. and L.R. Bodmer.{{cite web|title=Robert Lüthy|url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Robert_Luthy|website=Grace's Guide|publisher=Institution of Mechanical Engineers|access-date=4 December 2024|date=1884}} An early horizontal Corliss type built in 1866, arrived in Australia the following year for Bell's Creek gold mine, Araluan, New South Wales; the engine is now housed at Goulburn Historic Waterworks Museum.{{cite web |title=Historic Waterworks Museum |url=http://goulburnwaterworks.com.au/history/index.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013215914/http://goulburnwaterworks.com.au/history/index.php |url-status=dead |archive-date=2016-10-13 |website=Goulburn Historic Waterworks Museum |publisher=Goulburn Waterworks Historic Museum |access-date=12 September 2024 |date=2014}} A 50 hp Inglis and Spencer improved Corliss girder bed engine built in 1873 (No.303), used to power Gamble's lace factory, Nottingham and an 1879, 120 hp non-condensing Corliss engine with Inglis and Spencer patent double clip trip gear are held at Forncett Industrial Steam Museum{{cite web |title=Hick, Hargreaves and Co |url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Im20110717Fcett-Hick3.jpg |website=Grace's Guide |publisher=Grace's Guide |access-date=17 September 2024 |date=29 July 2011}}{{cite web |last1=Dace |first1=Ashley |title=TM1694 : Hick Hargreaves No 303 Steam Engine |url=http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1991678 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417145937/http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1991678 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2016-04-17 |website=Geograph |access-date=12 September 2024 |date=2 August 2010}} and Gurteen's textile manufactorary, Haverhill, Suffolk.{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Chris |title=TL6745 : Chauntry Mills, steam engine |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1876301 |website=Geograph |access-date=17 September 2024 |date=1983}}{{cite web |last1=Dace |first1=Ashley |title=TL6745 : Caroline - Hick, Hargreaves & Co of Bolton (1879) |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3568951 |website=Geograph |access-date=17 September 2024 |date=2013}}

About 1881 Hick, Hargreaves received orders for two Corliss engines of 3000 hp, the largest cotton mill engines in the world.{{cite journal|title=One Thousand Horse-Power Corliss Engine.|journal=Scientific American Supplement|date=25 June 1881|volume=XI|issue=286|url=http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/scientific-american/sup1/One-Thousand-Horse-Power-Corliss-Engine.html|access-date=20 September 2016|quote=and they have an order for a pair of horizontal compound Corliss engines intended to indicate 3,000 horse-power. These engines will be the largest cotton mill engines in the world.|archive-date=11 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011224530/http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/scientific-american/sup1/One-Thousand-Horse-Power-Corliss-Engine.html|url-status=live}} Hargreaves and Inglis trip gear was first applied to a large single cylinder 1800 hp Corliss engine at Eagley Mills near Bolton and the company received a Gold Medal for its products at the 1885 International Inventions Exhibition.{{cite journal|title=Messrs. Hick, Hargreaves and Co.'s Horizontal Engine.|journal=The Engineer|date=22 January 1886|page=61}} An 1886 Hick, Hargreaves and Co. inverted, vertical single cylinder Corliss engine with Inglis and Spencer trip gear, used to run Ford Ayrton and Co.'s spinning mill, Bentham until 1966 is preserved under glass at Bolton Town Centre.{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Chris |title=SD7109 : Preserved steam engine, Bolton |url=http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/990716 |website=Geograph |access-date=4 December 2022|date=2 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025070756/http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/990716 |archive-date=25 October 2012 }}{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Chris |title=Textile Mill Engines |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/gallery/textile_mill_engines_9920 |website=Geograph |access-date=4 December 2022 |date=1 July 2009}}

Lüthy was appointed superintendent of hydraulic apparatus in 1870, about August 1883 he went on business to Australia connected with the shipping of frozen meat and to inspect machinery for a large freezing establishment, but died suddenly on 3 July 1884, the day after he returned home.{{cite book|last1=Spike|first1=Archibald|title=Bibliographia Boltonensis: being a bibliography, with biographical details of Bolton authors, and the books written by them from 1550 to 1912; books about Bolton; and those printed and published in the town from 1785 to date|date=1913|publisher=Manchester: The University Press|pages=82, 101|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924029566019#page/n103/mode/2up|access-date=18 December 2015}}

Mill gearing was a speciality including large flywheels for rope drives, one example of 128 tons being 32 ft in diameter and groved for 56 ropes. Turbines and hydraulic machinery were also manufactured. Many of the tools were to suit the specialist work, with travelling cranes to take 15 to 40 tons in weight, a large lathe, side planer, slotting machine, pit planer and a tool for turning four 32 ft rope flywheels simultaneously. The workshops featured an 80ton hydraulic riveting machine. For the ease of shipping and transportation, Soho Iron Works had its own railway system, traversed by sidings of the London North Western Railway (LNWR). Inglis, who lived in Bolton was a neighbour of LNWR's chief mechanical engineer, Francis Webb.

The company was renamed Hick, Hargreaves and Company in 1867;{{cite book|title=Who's Who in Business|date=1914|publisher=Whitaker's|url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1914_Who's_Who_in_Business:_Company_H|access-date=11 November 2017|archive-date=18 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818221205/http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1914_Who%27s_Who_in_Business%3A_Company_H|url-status=live}} John Hick retired from the business in 1868 when he became a member of parliament (MP),{{sfnp|Marshall|1978|page= 113 }}{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|pages= XI, 118–119, 158, 193, 539–541}} leaving William Hargreaves as the sole proprietor. On the death of John Hick's nephew Benjamin Hick in 1882, a "much respected member of the firm",{{cite book|last=Clegg |first=James |title=Annals of Bolton, History, Chronology, Politics, Parliamentary and Municipal Polls|date=1888| location=Bolton | publisher=The Chronicle Office, Knowlsey Street |page=199|url=https://archive.org/stream/annalsofboltonhi00cleg#page/387/mode/2up/search/hick|access-date=13 November 2015}} active involvement of the Hick family ceased.{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|page= 452 }} William Hargreaves died in 1889 and, under the directorship of his three sons, John Henry, Frances and Percy, the business became a private limited company in 1892.{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|pages= XI, 118–119, 158, 193, 539–541}}

In 1893 the founder's great grandson, also Benjamin Hick{{cite web|last1=Redfern|first1=Diane|title=Benjamin Hick|url=http://www.dianeredfern.ca/pafg05.htm#134|website=Diane Redfern Ancestry & Family History|publisher=© 2009-2013 dianeredfern.ca|access-date=5 October 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044001/http://www.dianeredfern.ca/pafg05.htm#134|archive-date=4 March 2016|df=dmy-all}} started an apprenticeship,{{cite book|title=Membership records|location=Institute of Mechanical Engineers}} followed by his younger brother Geoffrey{{cite web|title=Navy List 1908 Ship M to P|url=http://www.worldnavalships.com/navy_list_1908_ship_m_to_p.htm|website=WORLD NAVAL SHIPS.COM|publisher=Cranston Fine Arts.|access-date=6 December 2017|date=1908|quote=Mars (Home Fleet), 14.900 tons, H.P. 10,000|archive-date=24 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170124170317/http://www.worldnavalships.com/navy_list_1908_ship_m_to_p.htm|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last1=Redfern|first1=Diane|title=Geoffrey Hick|url=http://www.dianeredfern.ca/pafg05.htm#134|website=Diane Redfern Ancestry & Family History|publisher=© 2009-2013 dianeredfern.ca|access-date=5 October 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044001/http://www.dianeredfern.ca/pafg05.htm#134|archive-date=4 March 2016|df=dmy-all}} about 1900.

File:William Hargreaves.jpg, William Hargreaves JP c.1880, from a Photograph by Alex Bassano 25 Old Bond St. W. "Ink-Photo." Sprague & Co. London. Inscribed Mr Hargreaves Moss Bank Halliwell Bolton{{cite book|last1=Walford|first1=Edward|title=The county families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland |date=1876| location=Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center | publisher=R. Hardwicke|page=457|url=https://archive.org/stream/countyfamiliesof16walf#page/456/mode/2up|access-date=15 October 2016}}{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|page=452}}]]

About 1885 Hick Hargreaves & Co became associated with Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti during the reconstruction of the Grosvenor Gallery and began to manufacture steam engines for power generation including those of Ferranti's Deptford Power Station,{{sfnp|Wilson|2001|page=182}} the largest power station in the world at the time.{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=J. F.|title=Ferranti and the British Electrical Industry, 1864-1930|date=1988|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0719023699|page=35|edition=illustrated, reprint|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BR8NAQAAIAAJ&q=hick+hargreaves+10%2C000hp+engines&pg=PA35|access-date=28 September 2016|chapter=The Deptford experience|archive-date=24 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724203821/https://books.google.com/books?id=BR8NAQAAIAAJ&q=hick+hargreaves+10%2C000hp+engines&pg=PA35|url-status=live}}

In 1908, the company was licensed to build uniflow engines. From 1911, the company began the manufacture of large diesel engines; however, these did not prove successful and were eventually discontinued. Boiler production finished in 1912. During World War I the company was involved in war work, producing 9.2 inch then 6 inch shells for the Ministry of Munitions, mines and a contract with Vickers to produce marine oil engines for submarines, under licence for the Admiralty.{{sfnp|Halton|2001|page= 25 }}

In the early hours 26 September 1916, the works were targeted by Zeppelin L 21; a bomb missed, passing instead through the roof of the nearby Holy Trinity Church.{{cite journal|last1=Hamer|first1=Phil|editor1-last=Jackson|editor1-first=Terence|title=Zeppelin Over Bolton|journal=Up the Line|date=November 2011|page=2|url=http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/attachments/article/4049/Lancs_Cheshire_Nov_2011.pdf|access-date=29 September 2016|archive-date=21 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160321003011/http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/attachments/article/4049/Lancs_Cheshire_Nov_2011.pdf|url-status=live}}

The company's recoil gear for the Vickers 18 pounder quick firing gun was so successful that, by war's end, a significant part of the factory was devoted to its production. Civil manufacture was not suspended entirely and in 1916 the firm began making Hick-Bréguet two-stage steam jet air ejectors and high vacuum condensing plant{{cite book|title=La Condensation par Mélange et par Surface et L'éjectair Breguet|date=1915|url=http://www.ultimheat.com/Museum/section3/1915%20ca%20Breguet%20condensation%2020150618.pdf|access-date=6 January 2016|publisher=Maison Breguet |archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112118/http://www.ultimheat.com/Museum/section3/1915%20ca%20Breguet%20condensation%2020150618.pdf|url-status=live |language=French}}{{cite web|title=Hick Hargreaves and Co|url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Hick_Hargreaves_and_Co_1921CP.jpg|website=Grace's Guide|publisher=Grace's Guide Ltd.|access-date=5 January 2016|date=1921|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112917/http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Hick_Hargreaves_and_Co_1921CP.jpg|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|last1=Duvéré |first1=Sébastien |title=Bréguet, un Tournant vers L'avenir|journal=Usine de Déville-lès-Rouen, 160 Ans d'Histoire Industrielle |date=2014 |pages=8–9 |url=http://www.ksb.com/linkableblob/ksb-fr/2149080-568287/data/Brochure_historique-data.pdf |access-date=6 January 2016 }}{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} for power generation, including a contract with Yorkshire Electric Power Company. Hick Hargreaves production greatly expanded as centralised power generation was adopted in Great Britain,{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|page= 20 }} by the formation of the Central Electricity Board (CEB) in 1926.{{sfnp|Halton|2001|page= 25 }}

In the search for new markets after the war the firm invested in machinery to produce petrol engines and other car components, entering a contract with Vulcan Motor & Engineering Co of Southport for 1000 20 hp petrol engines, but work discontinued in 1922 when Vulcan became bankrupt, with only 150 completed.

Following the arrival of electrical engineer Wyndham D'arcy Madden from Stothert & Pitt in 1919, Hick Hargreaves was re-organised to include a sales department responsible for advertising, supervised by Madden who in succession was appointed Managing Director in 1922, serving until 1963.{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|pages= 273, 284}}

Trained at Faraday House Engineering College, from outside the Hargreaves family circle and established conventions of the industrial regions, Madden ensured the business was run economically during the difficult times ahead. The readiness to adapt was crucial to success during the interwar period; he realised that marketing the firm's specialities were as important to the design and manufacture of its products.{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|pages= IX, 273, 275, 403, 456, 459}}

As the steam turbine replaced reciprocating steam engines, the company required a skilled engineer to produce a design of its own; in 1923 former principal assistant to the Chief Turbine Designer of English Electric, George Arrowsmith was appointed as Hick Hargreaves' Chief Turbine Designer; development continued and by 1927 the firm's engine work was principally steam turbines for electricity generating stations, becoming a major supplier to the CEB.{{sfnp|Halton|2001|page= 25}} Three of the nine turbines produced were supplied to Fraser & Chalmers for installation at Ham Halls power station. Arrowsmith was appointed Chief Engineer and a director of Hick Hargreaves in 1928.{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|page= 278}} A 1923 Hick Hargreaves Co. Ltd. condenser, coupled to an English Electric Company turbogenerator built by Dick, Kerr & Co., set No. 6 in operation at the Back o' th' Bank power station, Bolton until 1979, is displayed at the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester.{{cite web|title=Electricity generator|url=http://emu.msim.org.uk/htmlmn/collections/online/display.php?irn=6773&QueryPage=%2Fhtmlmn%2Fcollections%2Fonline%2Fsearch.php§ion=|website=MOSI - Museum of Science & Industry|publisher=Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester.|access-date=21 December 2015|date=2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307124438/http://emu.msim.org.uk/htmlmn/collections/online/display.php?irn=6773&QueryPage=%2Fhtmlmn%2Fcollections%2Fonline%2Fsearch.php§ion=|archive-date=7 March 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}{{cite web |title=15 megawatt AC turbo-alternator with steam turbine |url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8406090/15-megawatt-ac-turbo-alternator-with-steam-turbine-electricity-generator |website=Science Museum Group |access-date=27 January 2023 |date=1923 |quote=...made by the English Electric Co. Ltd and Hick, Hargreaves & Co. Ltd, Bolton, in 1923...}}

During the 1930s, the company acquired the records, drawings, and patterns of four defunct steam engine manufacturers: J & E Wood, John Musgrave & Sons Limited, Galloways Limited and Scott & Hodgson Limited. As a consequence it made a lucrative business out of repairs and the supply of spare parts during the Great Depression.{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|page= 20 }}{{sfnp|Halton|2001|page= 25 }} Large stationary steam engines were still used for the many cotton mills in the Bolton area until the collapse of the industry after World War II.{{cite journal|last1=Collenette|first1=Sam|title=From Bolton to Warwick.|journal=Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter|date=June 2012|issue=45|page=3|url=http://www.warwickshireias.org/newsletterretort|access-date=2016-10-04|archive-date=2016-10-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005130609/http://www.warwickshireias.org/newsletterretort|url-status=live}}

3 and 4-cylinder triple expansion marine steam engines were built during the 1940s,{{cite web|title=Empire Ridley(1941) |url=http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=18282 |website=Clydebuilt Ships Database|publisher=Shipping & Shipbuilding Research Trust |access-date=5 October 2016 |quote=Built: 1941 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050430014435/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=18282 |archive-date=30 April 2005 |df=dmy }}{{cite web|title=Empire Grey|url=http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/E-Ships/empiregrey1944.html|website=Tyne Built Ships|publisher=Shipping & Shipbuilding Research Trust|access-date=4 October 2016|quote=Completed: 05/1944|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234543/http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/E-Ships/empiregrey1944.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=L S T 3001|url=http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/L-Ships/lst30011945.html|website=Tyne Built Ships|publisher=Shipping & Shipbuilding Research Trust|access-date=4 October 2016|quote=Completed: 29/06/1945|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031504/http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/L-Ships/lst30011945.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Zarian|url=http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/Z-Ships/zarian1947.html|website=Tyne Built Ships|publisher=Shipping & Shipbuilding Research Trust|access-date=4 October 2016|quote=Completed: 12/1947|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231642/http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/Z-Ships/zarian1947.html|url-status=live}} post-war the company expanded its work in electricity generation, again becoming a major supplier to the CEB and branched out into food processing, oil refining and offshore oil equipment production,{{sfnp|Halton|2001|page= 40 }} continuing to supply vacuum equipment to the chemical and petrochemical industries. Between 1946 and 1947 it supplied vacuum pumps to Vickers Armstrongs for the Barnes Wallis designed Stratosphere Chamber at Brooklands, built to investigate high-speed flight at very high altitudes.{{cite book|last1=Hick, Hargreaves & Co. Ltd|title=Vacuum pump|location=Brooklands Museum (Stratosphere)|quote=TYPE RV 17, No. 2386, 1700 C.F.M., 25" VACUUM, 485 R.P.M., 82 B.H.P.}}{{cite book|title=Brooklands Museum caption|location=Brooklands Museum (Stratosphere)|quote=THE PLANT ROOM: ...The Plant Room contained a number of vacuum pumps to replicate the low pressure at high altitude by sucking air out of the Chamber,...}}{{cite web|title=The Stratosphere Chamber|url=https://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/indexd4d7.html?/explore/the-stratosphere-chamber/|website=Brooklands Museum|publisher=Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd.|access-date=18 October 2016|date=2021}}

By the early 1960's Hick Hargreaves established itself in the practical application of nuclear energy, supplying de-aerating equipment for the early atomic power stations at Calder Hall, Chapelcross and Dounreay, and the complete feed heating system, condensing plant and steam dump condensers for Hunterston.

The company received orders for the ejectors, de-aerators and dump condensers for the prototype advanced gas cooled reactor at Windscale{{sfnp|Halton|2001|page= 40 }} and a commission to design the condensing plants and feed systems for the first 175.000 KW Japanese Atomic Power Station at Tokai Mura.{{cite book|editor1-last=Ed. J. Burrow & Co. Ltd|title=The Book of Bolton|date=1961|publisher=Ed. J. Burrow & Co. Ltd., Cheltenham and London|pages=104–105}}

About 1969 the firm's 1930s corporate identity{{cite journal |title=Condensing Plant and auxilliaries from Turbine Exhaust to Boiler Check Valves |journal=The Engineer |date=5 February 1937 |page=39}} was brought up to date with a logo, while Madden's established and successful marketing of specialities continued;{{sfnp|Pilling|1985|pages= 273, 275, 284}} during 1974 Hick Hargreaves promoted its achievements and support of industrial archaeology with an exhibition of B. Hick and Son locomotive drawings, emphasising its response to changing industrial developments since the nineteenth century.

In 2000 Hick Hargreaves' products included compressors, blowers, refrigeration equipment, deaerators, vacuum ejectors and liquid ring vacuum pumps.

Between the 1840s and 1870s, the firm had its own Brass Band, "John Hick's Esq, Band," known as the Soho Iron Works Band with a uniform of "... rich full braided coat, black trousers, with two-inch gold lace down the sides and blue cap with gold band," who would play airs through the streets of Bolton.{{cite web|last1=Holman|first1=Gavin|title=Extinct Brass Bands (S-Z)|url=http://www.ibew.org.uk/misc23c.htm|website=ibew (Internet Bandsman's Everything Within)|access-date=12 September 2014|archive-date=14 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140514221246/http://www.ibew.org.uk/misc23c.htm|url-status=live}}

File:International Inventions Exhibition award.jpg|Gold Medal certificate awarded to Hick, Hargreaves and Co. at the International Inventions Exhibition 1885 for their Corliss engine supplementary governor & automatic barring engine. signed by the Prince of Wales and Frederick Bramwell.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.14.jpg|Hick Hargreaves & Co. smiths and strikers with a forman 1888.{{cite web|title=Soho Ironworks 1|url=http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/collections/item/2553?keyword=smiths%20and%20strikers&subjectId=5|website=Bolton Library and Museum Services|publisher=Bolton Library and Museum Service.|access-date=28 September 2016|date=1888|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001175812/http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/collections/item/2553?keyword=smiths%20and%20strikers&subjectId=5|archive-date=1 October 2016|df=dmy-all}} An anvil and crankshaft in the foreground.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.15.jpg|Under assembly c.1890, half of one of the two 10,000 hp engines completed for Deptford Power Station at Hick, Hargreaves and Co.{{cite book|title=Deptford 1889-1912|date=30 July 1912|url=http://carolineld.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html|access-date=28 September 2016|quote=Comparison of 10,000hp Steam Generators -1889 & 1912-|archive-date=9 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909225414/http://carolineld.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=J. F.|title=Ferranti and the British Electrical Industry, 1864-1930|date=1988|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0719023699|pages=35, 41, 45|edition=illustrated, reprint|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BR8NAQAAIAAJ&q=hick+hargreaves+10%2C000hp+engines&pg=PA35|access-date=28 September 2016|chapter=The Deptford experience|archive-date=24 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724203821/https://books.google.com/books?id=BR8NAQAAIAAJ&q=hick+hargreaves+10%2C000hp+engines&pg=PA35|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Ferranti's Deptford Power Station|url=http://emep.worldonline.co.uk/SWEHS/docs/news25su.html|website=Histelec News|publisher=South Western Electricity History Society.|access-date=28 September 2016|date=December 2003|archive-date=3 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003063349/http://emep.worldonline.co.uk/SWEHS/docs/news25su.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Thread: Galloways rolling mill engines|url=http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-and-history/galloways-rolling-mill-engines-146469/index32.html|website=Practical Machineist.Com|publisher=Practicalmachinist.com.|access-date=28 September 2016|date=2 January 2011|archive-date=1 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001211923/http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-and-history/galloways-rolling-mill-engines-146469/index32.html|url-status=live}} A travelling crane and hoist above.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.1.jpg|Finishing the ends of a crankshaft after building;{{cite web|last1=Roscoe|first1=Ian|title=Historic Pictures|url=http://www.geocities.ws/loftybwfc/Historic.html|website=End of an Era 1832–2002|access-date=8 November 2016|archive-date=8 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108195742/http://www.geocities.ws/loftybwfc/Historic.html|url-status=live}} an improvised lathe for machining a large steam engine crankshaft, 1900 with a worm and wheel for turning the shaft in the centre. In the background on the far right is a screw cutting machine.{{cite web|title=Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.|url=http://www.historyworld.co.uk/topic.php?l1=Work&l2=Engineering&sort=1|website=history world|publisher=historyworld.co.uk|access-date=27 September 2016|date=2016|archive-date=1 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001175101/http://www.historyworld.co.uk/topic.php?l1=Work&l2=Engineering&sort=1|url-status=live}}

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.2.jpg

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.12.jpg

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.3.jpg|Lancashire boiler 1900, painted with a protective coating, the mountings such as safety valves, stop valve, feed check valves and water level gauges, have been removed.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.4.jpg|Flywheel for a large textile mill engine 1900, set up to machine grooves for the rope drives simultaneously. The saddle with two tool posts to the front. The wheel is rotated by two pinions driving via the cast-in barring gear teeth in the flywheel rim. Temporary wedges are securing the spokes to the hub of the wheel. A travelling crane behind and above.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.5.jpg|Cross compound Corliss mill engine 1900, shop assembled to ensure that the parts fit together and make any preliminary adjustments, the low-pressure cylinder is on the left, high-pressure cylinder on the right.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.6.jpg|Flywheel for a large rolling mill engine 1900; the heavy rim is cast in four sections bolted together at the rim. Top right, the trunk guide and bedplate of the engine under manufacture, beyond the bedplate is the flywheel and connecting rod of a small horizontal steam engine.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.7.jpg|Rolling mill flywheel. The wheel is rotated by the pinion on the right.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.8.jpg|Flywheel; the hub and spokes cast in two halves, bolted at the hub with the rim assembled from ten castings. These are bolted to the spokes, held together by shrinking rings in the grooves.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.9.jpg|Flatcar loaded with a flywheel 1900.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.10.jpg|Small steam hammer 1900, with line shafting and belt drives to the rear.

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.11.jpg|The top of two hydraulic riveting machines, their frames would have continued below the floor.{{cite web|title=Hick, Hargreaves and Co|url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Hick,_Hargreaves_and_Co|website=Grace's Guide|publisher=Grace's Guide Ltd.|access-date=2 November 2016|date=29 August 2020|archive-date=9 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109145502/http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Hick,_Hargreaves_and_Co|url-status=live}}

File:Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.13.jpg|Superheater of a Lancashire boiler 1900, for the extraction of heat from waste gasses, and transfer of heat to saturated steam passing from the boiler to the steam range or engine. This raised the overall thermal efficiency of the plant, and would also prevent damage from slugs of condensate by ensuring the saturated steam was dry and not wet.

File:The Engineer - 400 hp Diesel Engine, Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.jpg|From The Engineer, a 400 hp 4-cylinder Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd. stationary Diesel engine under test, destined for Guayaquil, South America, 1920.{{cite journal|title=400 Horse-Power Diesel Engine|journal=The Engineer|date=27 August 1920|page=210}}

File:Hick Hargreaves certificate.jpg|Certificate issued by The Ministry of Labour for The National Scheme for the Employment of Disabled Men, recognising the membership of Hick Hargreaves and Co. Ltd. Signed by Thomas James Macnamara, Minister of Labour 1920–1922.

In 1968, the Hargreaves family sold their shares to Electrical & Industrial Securities Ltd which became part of TI Group, and subsequently Smiths Group.

Smiths Group sold Soho Iron works to Sainsbury's and it closed in 2002. Two switchgear panels; the works clock, and a pair of cast iron gateposts with Hick's caduceus logo were preserved by the Northern Mill Engine Society. The 170 year old firm's records were deposited with Bolton library.{{cite web|last1=Roscoe|first1=Ian|title=Hick Hargreaves Present Day|url=http://www.geocities.ws/loftybwfc/Present_Day.html|website=End of an Era 1832–2002|access-date=20 October 2014|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924045056/http://www.geocities.ws/loftybwfc/Present_Day.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Hick Hargreaves demolition, Bolton|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/bury_interchange/albums/72157636589890856|website=flickr|access-date=23 November 2016|date=11 November 2002|archive-date=24 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724203822/https://www.flickr.com/photos/bury_interchange/albums/72157636589890856|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|title=New store opens in a flash |journal=The Bolton News |date=26 March 2003 |url=http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/archive/2003/03/26/5910571.New_store_opens_in_a_flash_/?ref=arc |access-date=18 September 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924045056/http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/archive/2003/03/26/5910571.New_store_opens_in_a_flash_/?ref=arc |archive-date=24 September 2014 |df=dmy }}{{cite journal|last1=Lewis|first1=David|editor1-last=Nevell|editor1-first=Dr. Michael|title=Hick, Hargreaves & Co, Engineers, Soho Foundry, Bolton, 1833–2002|journal=Industrial Archaeology Northwest|date=2003|volume=1|issue=3|pages=18–20|issn=1479-5345}}{{cite journal|last1=Rowe |first1=Joanne |title=Society saves a piece of history |journal=The Bolton News |date=4 September 2002 |url=http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/archive/2002/09/04/5948972.Society_saves_a_piece_of_history/ |access-date=2 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006122918/http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/archive/2002/09/04/5948972.Society_saves_a_piece_of_history/ |archive-date=6 October 2014 |df=dmy }}{{cite journal|last1=Halton |first1=Maurice J. |title=Firm is moving after 170 years |journal=The Bolton News |date=14 November 2002 |url=http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/archive/2002/11/14/5936329.Firm_is_moving_after_170_years/?ref=arc |access-date=18 September 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021045638/http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/archive/2002/11/14/5936329.Firm_is_moving_after_170_years/?ref=arc |archive-date=21 October 2014 |df=dmy }}

In 2001, BOC bought the business from Smiths Group and relocated the offices to Wingates Industrial Estate in Westhoughton, and subsequently to Lynstock Way in Lostock, as part of Edwards. Some of the manufacturing equipment was transferred to their lower cost facility in Czechoslovakia.

• Textile Mill, Chadderton
• Cavendish Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne
• Century Mill, Farnworth
• Pioneer Mill, Radcliffe{{cite web|title=HRS 2945B Pioneer mill engines Radcliffe|website=Heritage Photo Archive & Heritage Image Register|access-date=9 May 2018|url=http://heritagephotoarchive.co.uk/?q=Pioneer%20Mill|archive-date=10 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510115136/http://heritagephotoarchive.co.uk/?q=Pioneer%20Mill|url-status=live}}

• Bradford Colliery
• James Cudworth
• Fred Dibnah
• Helmshore Mills Textile Museum
• House-built engine
• Redevelopment of Mumbai mills
• Thomas Pitfield
• Wadia Group
• Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book|last=Ashmore|first=Owen|title=Industrial Archaeology of Lancashire|location=Newton Abbot|publisher=David and Charles|date=1969}}
• {{cite book

|last1=Christiansen |first1=Rex

|last2=Miller |first2=Robert William

|title=The North Staffordshire Railway

|year=1971

|publisher=David & Charles |location=Newton Abbot, Devon

|isbn=978-0-7153-5121-5

|name-list-style=amp

}}

• {{cite thesis|last=Halton|first=Maurice J.|title=The Impact of Conflict and Political Change on Northern Industrial Towns, 1890 to 1990|type=MA Dissertation|publisher=Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Manchester Metropolitan University|date=September 2001|url=http://englishessaypartners.co.uk/data/documents/The-Impact-of-Conflict-and-Political-Change.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318084559/http://englishessaypartners.co.uk/data/documents/The-Impact-of-Conflict-and-Political-Change.pdf|archive-date=18 March 2017}}
• {{cite book|last=Lowe|first=J.W.|date=1989|title=British Steam Locomotive Builders|publisher=Guild Publishing}}
• {{cite book|last=Mathias|first=Peter|title=The First Industrial Nation, An Economic History of Britain 1700–1914|edition=Third|publisher=Methuen|location=London|date=1983}}
• {{Cite thesis

|last=Pilling |first=P.W.

|year=1985

|title=Hick Hargreaves and Co., The History of an Engineering Firm c. 1833 – 1939, a Study with Special Reference to Technological Change and Markets

|type=Unpublished Doctoral Thesis

|publisher=University of Liverpool

}}

• {{cite book

|last1=Saul |first1=S.B.

|editor1-last=Aldcroft |editor1-first=Derek H.

|title=The Development of British Industry and Foreign Competition, 1875 – 1914

|year=1968

|publisher=George Allen and Unwin |location=London

|pages=186–222

|chapter=The Engineering Industry

}}

• {{Cite book

|last=Saul |first=S. B.

|title=The Mechanical Engineering Industries in Britain, 1860 – 1914

|editor1-last=Supple |editor1-first=Barry

|series=Essays in British Business History

|location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon

|year=1977

}}

• {{cite book

| last=Marshall | first=John

| chapter=John and William Hargreaves, Benjamin and John Hick

| title=A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers

| year=1978

| pages=104, 112–3

| title-link=A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers

}}

• {{cite book|editor-last=Singer|editor-first=Charles|title=A History of Technology|volume= 5|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|date=1958}}
• {{cite book|last=Singleton|first=John|title=Lancashire on the Scrapheap, The Cotton Industry 1945–1970|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|date=1991}}
• {{cite book|last=Timmins|first=Geoffrey|title=Made in Lancashire, A History of Regional Industrialisation|location=Manchester|publisher=Manchester University Press|date=1998}}
• {{cite book|author=University of Manchester|title=An Industrial Survey of the Lancashire Area (Excluding Merseyside)|location=London|publisher=HMSO|date=1932}}
• {{Cite book

|last=Wilson |first=John F.

|title=Ferranti: A History, Building a Family Business, 1882–1975

|location=Lancaster |publisher=Carnegie

|year=2001

}}

{{refend}}

{{Commons category|B. Hick and Sons}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• [http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Lucien_Alphonse_Legros Lucien Alphonse Legros] - eldest son of Alphonse Legros, entered Hick, Hargreaves works in 1887.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050430014435/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=18282 The Clyde Built Ships]: Empire Ridley 1941 (Ministry of War Transport), HMS Latimer 1943 (Petroleum Warfare Department)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234543/http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/E-Ships/empiregrey1944.html Tyne built ships]: Empire Grey 1944 (Ministry of War Transport)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031504/http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/L-Ships/lst30011945.html Tyne built ships]: Landing Ship, Tank (LST) 3001 1945 (Royal Navy)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110106195425/http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/pp3.html Frederick Clover] LST (3): 1946 (War Office), 1952 (Atlantic Steam Navigation Company)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231642/http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/Z-Ships/zarian1947.html Tyne built ships]: Zarian 1947 (United Africa Company)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20161223082358/http://www.edwardsvacuum.com/ Edwards Limited]

{{refend}}

{{Lancashire cotton}}

Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1833

Category:British companies established in 1833

Category:1833 establishments in England

Category:Engineering companies of the United Kingdom

Category:Engineering companies of England

Category:Engine manufacturers of the United Kingdom

Category:Boilermakers

Category:Millwrights

Hick

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