| AdminHistory | This list describes the history of French Walls, the iron and steel works in Smethwick owned by James Watt Jr., and the overall arrangement of its surviving records in the Boulton & Watt collection. Detailed information about the different types of records will be found in the separate lists of each section.
James Watt Jr.’s Purchase of the Site.
French Walls lies in Smethwick, to the south of Soho Foundry. A flour mill and various other buildings originally stood on the site, which was owned by Henry P. Whately.1 Around 1816 a Mr. Whitmore valued the site at £5000, while a Mr. Hepworth valued the buildings alone at £2600. However in May 1816 Whately sold the flour mill, 20 horse power engine and boilers, foreman’s dwelling house, counting house and offices, canal basin and land within the walls to James Watt Jr. for just £2150. A survey carried out by a Mr. Hurt for Watt Jr. confirmed Hepworth’s valuation of the buildings.
Tenancy of Henry Downing, 1820 to 1829.
James Watt Jr. did very little with the site for almost five years beyond making some alterations to the engine. In 1820 he began negotiations to lease the site to Henry Downing as an iron works for 21 years. The flour mill building was converted and the milling machinery sold. John Rennie’s engineer John Walker advertised them in The Times, and on 24 Oct. 1820 wrote to William Murdock saying that he had had several applications, one from a John Bird of Penns near Birmingham and another from a Mr. Smith, a clothier from Stroud. The price for the engine and mill was £1950, but both these enquirers wanted the engine alone. Watt Jr. advanced money to Downing to help pay for the conversion, and Downing’s lease formally began on 30 Sep. 1821. In 1823 more land and some small buildings were added to the yard.
Much of French Walls’ work was for Boulton Watt & Co., who subcontracted parts out when they were particularly busy. French Walls made various wrought iron components such as shafts and cranks.
In January 1826 Henry Downing faced financial difficulties, due to the stoppage of Gibbins & Smith’s bank and ‘other embarassments.’ In the case of Downing going bankrupt, the premises were to be surrendered to Watt Jr., but Watt Jr. was anxious not have to the works stop as this would inconvenience Boulton Watt & Co. Downing staved off bankruptcy until April 1829, when the works reverted to James Watt Jr., and all the machinery remained on the premises.
Tenancy of the Bordesley Steel Co., 1833-1840.
The works lay idle until 1833. On 7 February of that year Boulton Watt & Co. wrote to their London agent James Brown ‘You will be glad to learn that there are now hopes of the French Walls getting to work again.’ Boulton Watt & Co. had been using a firm by the name of Sims for various heavy castings instead of the French Walls works, and on 7 March Watt Jr., signing himself as Boulton Watt & Co., wrote further to Brown:
‘…Sims’s have heard that I am in treaty to let the French Walls; and in consequence instead of bestowing themselves to outdo that work and secure a portion at least of our business, they have given notice that they shall raise their price for all the heavy iron work of the 100s, say cranks, cross bars & shafts, and express doubts whether they can undertake the latter at any price. On the other hand, if the French Walls are let, as it seems most likely they will be, it will require weeks, perhaps months, to collect proper workmen for such large work, and it does not appear the shafts are desirable jobs for any work.’
On 14 March Watt Jr. told Brown ‘I have been exceedingly engaged for the last fortnight, and continue to be so, in getting the French Walls works into a state for action, and in completing the arrangement for letting them to a Joint Stock Co., with my old tenant Mr. Downing, as their manager. The lease is now drawing out and I hope to sign tomorrow.’ The lease was indeed signed, and the members of the joint stock company who signed were Henry van Wart, Edward Bourne Lovell, Samuel Aspinall Goddard, Edwin Verdon Blyth, George Jones and Charles Dean, all of Birmingham, known collectively as the Bordesley Steel Company. The rent was specified as £925 per annum.
Modernising the works and equipping it for steel production began in earnest. On 29 May 1833 Boulton Watt & Co. wrote to Brown:
‘My tenants at French Walls are about to erect one of our ten or 14 horse engines to work tilts for making steel, and I have recommended them to let their millwright Mr. Clift and their hammerman Grayson see those at Woolwich. They will accordingly proceed to London tomorrow or next day and will bring a letter to you to procure them a sight of them at work. There is also some intention of erecting another hammer mill there, to make large shafts & other uses, and I have also recommended their adopting the plan of the large hammers at Woolwich and working by belts. You will recollect that plan was suggested by us and executed by Mr. Rennie, who sent John Walker to Newcastle to procure information as to the large hammers used there by Messrs. Hawks & Co.’
By May 1834 a new forge was working at French Walls, but not without its problems. On 5 and 8 May Frederick Bennett wrote to James Brown:
‘… Mr. Downing has complained to Mr. Thomas of Clift’s tardiness in the work at new forge French Walls. Mr. Thomas wrote to Clift to remonstrate about it, since which he appears to have attended better to it. In consequence of fixing some pulley brackets in the partition wall betwixt tilt house and warehouse to hold some pulleys for Mole’s blast apparatus (I understand by the pull of the belts) they managed to pull a good piece of the wall down, luckily no-one was hurt and it is now nearly up again and I suppose Mr. Mole’s pulleys must now find another destination after this specimen of their working.’
‘… I have been over to the French Walls to see how Mr. Clift is going on, and he says that in about 3 weeks he thinks the new forge hammer etc. will be at work; the state of progress I now send you, in the shape of a copy of a memorandum handed by Clift to me yesterday. ‘The crane with the gibs and laces is put up. The anvil block, cup and framing put in. The cam is fitted on fly wheel shaft, the wheel to work into crank wheel is being put on; and the foundation to carry fly wheel shaft is put in.’ Mr. Buckle says that his crane will be ready in from a fortnight to 3 weeks for the new forge.’
On 4 July Watt Jr. wrote to Brown with details of a new tilt hammer, and by 20 July Boulton Watt & Co. were able to report to Brown that the new large 7 ton forge hammer was being tried, and that the cranes were due to be finished in a few days. By 1834 Henry Downing was also maintaining a warehouse for the products of French Walls at 110, Digbeth.
Leasing of the Works to G. F. Muntz.
The Bordesley Steel Co. appear to have leased the works until around August 1840, when their lease expired. Certainly the firm had relinquished the tilt works by this date, as Watt Jr. wrote to Hollins Hunt on 26 August saying that he would lease it for £350. The entire works was advertised for lease, either in separate parts, or as a whole, in Aris’s Gazette of 8 February 1841 and in the Midland Counties Herald of 11 February. In March 1841 a Mr. Best contacted Watt Jr. with a view to examining the works. The rent for the whole iron and steel works was £1300 per annum, and Watt Jr. estimated that he had laid out £3000 since the Bordesley Steel Co.’s lease expired in increasing the power and altering and repairing the machinery. However, the works was not leased until June 1842, when George Frederick Muntz leased the works.
Houses.
The French Walls estate included several houses, including a row referred to as Hill Row, and a dwelling house and upwards of four acres of land including plantations that was leased first by Henry and then by George Downing. Watt Jr. rented out the houses to workers and employees at French Walls and Soho Foundry, and occasionally to other tenants. Some of the houses were demolished in 1827 to make way for the new line of the Birmingham Canal. The clerks at the Foundry continued to administer the rental of the houses long after James Watt Jr.’s death in 1848.
Administration and Record-Keeping.
French Walls was administered by the Boulton Watt & Co. clerks at Soho Foundry, particularly the head clerk. They were responsible for dealing with correspondence, organising repairs to the houses, collecting rents from the tenants, and other daily business of the works. French Walls thus had a dedicated set of records kept alongside the engine firm’s records in the counting house at the Foundry. Many of the duties fell to the head clerk, who effectively acted as James Watt Jr.’s agent, and who also administered certain aspects of his private account. During the period covered by these records the post of head clerk was held by John Bennett, John Dawn and John Thomas. Watt Jr.’s partner in Boulton Watt & Co., Gilbert Hamilton, also assisted with the leasing of French Walls in the early 1840s. |