Lynne About Loughborough: Packe Street

Showing posts with label Packe Street. Show all posts

Sunday, 23 April 2023

Generating cranes

Last month I was lucky enough to visit a local building called The Generator, which was built in 1936, and used to be a college building. It’s currently being renovated, with a view to offering a space for arts people, arts organisations, and the hosting of events and performances.

It’s a fabulously stunning building on Packe Street, and when I went inside, was pretty much stripped back to bare walls. There were, however, a couple of interesting features still in situ. One of these was a couple of lovely looking valves, one beautifully painted in black, the other showing its age somewhat, being a bit rusty, but both bore an embossed bird, with the number 5 above it.

As the building was constructed in 1936, and because at that time Loughborough was full to bursting with engineering, manufacturing, and related industry, I thought the item in question might have been made locally, however, I wasn’t aware of any Loughborough company which used a crane as its logo. In truth, I only knew it was a crane because I asked around amongst friends and family – so a huge thank you to them for helping me out!

My next port of call, after my internet searching didn’t really bring up anything that immediately seemed right, was to try Facebook! There are so many groups on the social media platform, that I knew of one that could tap into experts, and potentially provide me with the answer I was looking for. And it did …

Putting together all the information I have gleaned, I think the valves are colloquially known as Crane valves, produced by … well … it’s a long story … let’s start in 1897 …

In the late 19th century, Richard Edwin Hattersley, from Halifax, owned a small toolmaking business. Hattersley went on to establish a company called the United Brassfounders and Engineers in 1910, which he formed from a merger of four companies – Newman, Hender and Co, who were based in Woodchester, Glos.; Isaac Storey and Sons of Manchester; Martinau, Beames, and Madeley from Birmingham, and Gaukroger, Sykes and Roberts who were from Halifax.

Hattersley had moved to live in Ormskirk in the early 1900s, and the head office of UB&E was moved from Manchester to Ormskirk in 1923, and Hattersley actually bought much of the company, except for Newman, Hender and Co, which was bought by Charles Percy Newman, and which then became independent from UB&E. The Newman, Hender & Co, manufactured a complete line of valves, stopcocks, and general steam and water fittings.

Around 1936, both companies – Newman Hender, and Hattersley – sold products across the world, and during the second world war, both made products for armaments, munitions factories, and for military purposes.

In 1953, Hattersley took a majority interest in a company called Beck and Co who made meters, and by 1961, the company was manufacturing valves, stopcocks, and related fittings in gun metal, cast iron, and cast steel. These were used to control steam in heating etc.. This is where I get a bit confused, but in 1969, the Newman Hender Group was acquired by Pegler-Hattersley, which had been formed by a merger in 1968 of Peglers with Hattersley Holdings.

Fast forward to 2004, and the valve business of Hattersleys Newman Hender Limited, were bought by Crane Limited, a subsidiary of Tomkins plc.

At first, I thought ooooh, isn’t that amazing that a stop valve that features a crane as its logo was produced by a company that is now owned by Crane. Well, yes, I suppose it is a bit of a coincidence. So, looking at the stop valve in The Generator building, my assumption was that it was produced at the time the building was constructed, but, my research suggests this might not be the case … The only adverts I can find for Hatterlsey are from the 1960s, and there is one particular advert from 1969 that leads me to believe that Hattersleys were the company that provided the stop valve, but whether that was in the 1930s, or the 1960s, I’m not sure. The reason for my believing that Hattersleys were the company I was seeking can be clearly seen below:

You can see this advert on Hattersley's website

If any of you readers know anything more about the fitting out of The Generator, or more about stop vales, or more about the companies that produce them, I’d be pleased to hear from you!

______________________________________________

posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). Generating cranes. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/04/generating-cranes.html [Accessed 23 April 2023]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Wednesday, 29 March 2023

Saving the Generator

On an impromptu visit to the town centre, I happened to walk along Packe Street and noticed that the Generator building was open. Sticking my head around the door, I was welcomed into the open event, and joined a group who were having a bit of a guided tour of the space. And, goodness me, what a space it is!

The history of the actual building goes back to the 1930s, when it was once part of the predecessor institution to the University and to the Art College, but let’s have a quick look at the background, and the educational story.

So, the Loughborough University we know today grew from the Loughborough Technical Institute, which had been created in 1909 by Herbert Schofield. The Institute was a centre for further education, with science, technical subjects, and arts being on the syllabus, the Institute having absorbed the College of Art and Design that had been established in 1891. The first Technical Institute building was on the corner of Ashby Road and Green Close Lane, which was demolished in the early 1980s and is now a Sainsbury supermarket.

In 1952, Loughborough College was created, and this comprised: Loughborough Training College; Loughborough College of Art; Loughborough College of Further Education, and Loughborough College of Technology. The latter became the College of Advanced Technology in 1957, and was granted its royal charter, becoming the Loughborough University of Technology in 1966. The Loughborough College of Further Education became part of the university in 1977, and the Loughborough College of Art and Design joined in 1998. Loughborough University of Technology became Loughborough University in 1996.

So, back to the Generator building which is along Packe Street and is joined to the building that spans the corner of Frederick Street and Packe Street, the latter now housing a café downstairs. The Generator was built in 1937, the official opening being in January 1937, when the institution was known as the Loughborough College. When the building was constructed, it was built around a wooden hut that actually housed an electricity generator, and it was intended that the new building would continue to provide electricity for the college buildings. The building it was joined to were, the Garage Workshops, and the 4-storey building comprised: Ground level, car repair bays; 1st floor, housed a hosiery laboratory; 2nd floor had a dyeing lab, conditioning house, and drawing office, and the top floor was a handicraft shop. The adjoining lower building which we now call the Generator, was the generating station itself. At some point, the generating station building was converted for use by the School of Art, as a gallery space (at the very least).

Work has been going on at the Generator building for many years, and certainly since 2016. The last time I properly set foot in the building was back in late 2016, when public consultations were underway in an attempt to save the building and secure its future.

Things have moved on since then, and funds have become available to do at least some work on the building, but more is needed, hence the owners of the building have now started a Crowdfund appeal. This appeal is running until the end of March, and all monies donated will be doubled until 31st March. You can find more information about this here, and if you’re quick, you still have a few days in which to contribute to saving this amazing space.

Here are some photos of my recent visit, which might give you an idea of the size and condition of the building.