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| Company type | Ltd |
|---|---|
| Industry | Foundry |
| Founded | 1848 |
| Defunct | 1920s |
| Headquarters | Derby |
Key people | Andrew Handyside |
| Products | Ornamentalcast iron, bridges, structural components |
Andrew Handyside and Company was aniron founder inDerby,England, in the nineteenth century.
Born inEdinburgh,Scotland, in 1805, Handyside worked in his uncleCharles Baird's engineering business inSt. Petersburg before taking over the Brittania Foundry in 1848. It had first been opened around 1820 by Weatherhead and Glover to cast ornamental ironwork, and had achieved a high reputation, partly from the skill of the workers, but also because of the quality of the local moulding sand. By the 1840s it was diversifying into railway components. Among the early customers was theMidland Railway'sDerby Works for which it supplied cylinder blocks and other castings.
Although cast iron ornaments were going out of fashion, until the advent ofsteel there was an increasing demand for engineering and for iron framed construction. He concentrated in improving the strength of the material, which, when tested atWoolwich in 1854 proved to have a tensile strength of between 20 and 23 tons per square inch, against a norm of about seventeen. He also retained the artistry that had gone before and improved upon it.
His output ranged from garden ornaments to railway bridges. He produced lamp posts for the new gas street lighting (one of which still exists on Silk Mill Lane in Derby) and was one of the first to produce the new standard Post Office letterboxes.[1] Nearly two thousand different window frames designs were produced. The company even supplied a dome to the steel makerHenry Bessemer for the roof of his conservatory.
When one considers the small area occupied by the works, on the bank of theRiver Derwent, hemmed in by the slope behind, its output seems remarkable. Between 1840 and 1846, for instance, it produced four hundred bridges for theLondon, Brighton and South Coast Railway.
In time, the works also produced rolling mills, hammers, forges and presses, at first for its own use, then for others, including the new steel mills.
It began manufacturing arched structures, such as the train sheds for railway stations, including, in 1854,Bradford Adolphus Street,Middlesbrough, andSt. Enoch in Glasgow. In the 1870s the company's prefabricated market halls, built from standardised components were exported all over the world. In 1870 it builtWilford Toll Bridge, 1871Trent Bridge, both atNottingham and, in 1872, theAlbert Suspension Bridge in London. Other bridges and structures were built inRussia,Japan,Africa,South America,Tasmania (Australia),Canada andIndia. Structural components, such as support columns, were also used by architects in many countries - an example being found in the main square of the city ofTampico, Mexico.
In 1874, Andrew Handyside achieved another first, realising that the depreciation of buildings, plant and machinery should be set against their net profits. Unfortunately, their local inspector of taxes disagreed. The company won its initial appeal but then lost in theCourt of Exchequer Chamber.[2]
In 1877, theGreat Northern Railway came to Derby, with a long viaduct from the east across the Derwent Valley, slicing through the northern part of the city, including Friar Gate – a very well-to-do area. To placate the residents, a graceful bridge was built across the road. This, though initially reviled, is now much prized by the citizens of the city, who have successfully resisted several attempts by the modernisers to replace it with a bypass.[citation needed] Handyside also provided abridge across the River Derwent which was tested by running sixlocomotives across it.[3]
In 1877, theCheshire Lines Committee opened its new line and Handysides provided the structures of theManchester Central and ofLiverpool Central stations. Another Handyside structure that still exists is theOutwood Viaduct on theBury to Clifton Junction line, converted from a timber superstructure in 1881. Although the line closed in 1966 it has since been restored as part of a nature trail. One of his bridges,Koshiji Bridge, in Japan has been shortened and moved to a park so that it can be preserved.[4]
The largest structure built by Handysides, said to be the largest hall in the kingdom covered by one span of iron and glass, was the 1886 National Agricultural Hall inLondon, now known asOlympia.
In 1893 Handysides provided the structures for theManchester Ship Canal, including theBarton Swing Aqueduct and theBarton Road Swing Bridge. Such was his thoroughness, that he assembled and tested it in the yard before shipping it to site.
Handyside died in 1887 and the firm gradually declined until it closed early in the twentieth century. The foundry was demolished to be replaced by a housing estate, the only remaining traces being the Furnace public house[5] and the name of a road: Handyside Street.[6]
William Handyside - Engineer
Forder v. Andrew Handyside and Company, Limited [1876]: The first English depreciation case to reach the High Court...
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