Melksham Times Past

A column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis

From farm equipment to bicycles to condensed milk

By all accounts, William Andrews was a promising engineer/inventor.

He had several patents for farm equipment, including a stacking machine. When William Eyres retired from business and sold his Union Iron Works foundry in 1859, two young entrepreneurs went into business together and formed the partnership of Rowland and Andrews and bought the foundry. John Rowland was 25 and William Andrews was 20.

Six years later their partnership would be dissolved, with Andrews remaining at the helm.

In 1868, Andrews then went about investing quite a bit of money into the business and built a new structure of stone and tile, comprising a large two-storey warehouse and stores, turning and fitting shop, a foundry, a trimming and smiths’ shop, a shed and carpenters’ shop.

His business grew and he continued to patent new items he invented, such as an improved chaff-cutter, which could be made to cut two lengths without removing the knife.

But then in 1873, it all went wrong. John Blake, a clerk in the Wilts and Dorset Bank, who had previous transactions with Andrews, was accused of fraudulently converting an assurance policy to his own benefit.

Andrews had signed a note authorising Blake to borrow £300 from a widow, Mrs Cox. Blake instead used Andrews’ signature to make out a promissory note for £500 and without Andrews’ consent, deposited a policy of life assurance of Andrews with Mrs Cox as security. The money was then obtained and kept by Blake, who then fled and used an alias “Andrew Silocks” while on the run.

After Blake was apprehended, he was brought up on additional charges, such as obtaining £50 from William Carpenter under false pretences, inducing Carpenter to sign a bond for £300 and forging George Tompkins’ name to a deed, as well as other similar charges.

The actions of bank clerk Blake must have affected Andrews’ business severely because the entire business, property and contents were put up for auction nine months later. He also sold his patents and left Melksham.

Another inventor took up the Union Iron Works premises in 1876. Pre-teen John Fournier had moved from his France birthplace to live with his second cousin, Caroline (Lefeuvre) Bluett, in her Coburg Place residence. Whether or not he was actually related to the famous French velocipede/bicycle manufacturers, he certainly capitalised upon the name by becoming a bicycle agent and patenting parts, such as a brake system.

Unsuccessful, he went bankrupt two years later. Printer William Bolwell recalls Fournier in his memories of Melksham, “I believe he rode the first penny-farthing bicycle in Melksham. I believe I am correct in saying he made it himself.”

The entire contents of the Union Iron Works were sold in 1884 following the dissolution of the partnership of Thomas Burbidge and Co. This company advertised an interesting collection of useful goods, including a “cleverly constructed beer-tap” and an ingenious pig-ringer, “which every humane pig-breeder should have and use.”

The site later amalgamated into United Dairies, which opened its condensory at the location in 1900.

Lisa Ellis, local historian