Robert Banks was a photographer who worked in Manchester from around 1873.
Born in Saddleworth in 1847, the son of a journeyman carpenter, Banks worked as a woollen piecer in a mill in Uppermill from the age of 15. Aged 20, he started work as an illustrator at the Oldham Chronicle newspaper, and opened his first photographic business in Uppermill, Saddleworth, in around 1867.
He moved to Manchester in 1873, living in Moss Side and renting his first city centre studio on Market Street. He occupied a number of other studios in the city over a thirty year period, before returning to Market Street in 1903. He also opened a studio in Blackpool.
His main business was as a studio portrait photographer, but he was commissioned by Manchester Corporation in 1878 to take photographs of the new Town Hall, and went on to cover the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal, the John Rylands Library, and the visit of King Edward VII in 1909. He also regularly photographed street scenes and sporting occasions.
He is known to have moved to Colwyn Bay, where he died in 1927.
Air-Co Aerial Photography is known to have been active as a commercial aerial photography service based in Hendon, London, between 1900 and 1930. The company specialised in aerial photographs of industrial sites.
Elsam, Mann and Cooper (Manchester) Ltd was a commercial photographic studio established in Liverpool by Frank Holding Elsam, R.W. Mann and Leslie Cooper in 1945. The company operated their studio on Dale Street, before moving to Princes Road in 1958. In 1952 they opened a Manchester branch at 52 Faulkner Street with 'improved facilities'. The business is known to have been active until 1979. The studio specialised in location photography and at times operated as official photographer to the Tate & Lyle sugar manufacturers. In 1966 their customers reportedly included shipping companies, advertising agencies, local authorities, builders and architects. By this time Elsam had died, but Mann and Cooper continued to act as company directors alongside W.T. Clark and A. Neville Kuypers. The company employed three photographers, including Cooper, alongside fifteen printers and assistants.
Simpson and Godlee Limited, cotton manufacturers and calico printers, was founded in 1881, when Francis Godlee joined his relative William Simpson in business at Dean’s Mill, Swinton. Dean’s Mill operated 440 looms, producing its own cloth for printed furnishing and dress fabrics, including damasks. By 1891, the company had offices and warehouses in central Manchester, including at 8 Minshull Street. By 1900, the company employed around 1,500 people. In 1905, Simpson and Godlee acquired the Know Mill Printing Company Limited which had mills at Know Mill Works in Entwistle, Bolton and at Bevis Green Works in Walmersley, Bury. William Simpson died in 1914 and Francis Godlee became the chairman of the company. Francis Godlee expanded the business and maintained its output during the First World War. On his retirement in 1924, he handed the chairmanship to his nephew Philip Godlee. Under Philip Godlee’s management, the company marketed their textiles under the trademarks Bevis, Gazelle, Rockfast and Judy.
Simpson and Godlee Limited was bought by Alliance Brothers Limited in 1962, known as David Alliance & Sons Limited from 1969. Simpson and Godlee initially continued to trade under their own name, but their sites were closed soon after the takeover by Alliance Brothers Limited.
The company was recognised as being a well-managed manufacturer and an employer that showed consideration to the needs of its workforce.
Date
c 1890 - c 1950
Scope and ContentA "Simpson & Godlee Limited" branded folder containing photographic prints and one photographic transparency showing the three manufacturing sites of Simpson & Godlee at Dean’s Mill Printing Company, Swinton, Know Mill Printing Company, Entwistle, and Bevis Green Works, Walmersley, and the office and warehouse at 8 Minshull Street, Manchester. The images include exterior and aerial photographs of the sites and photographs of employees outside the sites, as well as interior photographs of employees at work and finished textile products. c 1890-c 1950.
Extent1 folder
Physical descriptionAll photographic prints have the expected signs of wear and tear, present in surface dirt, minor surface damage, and small losses and tears to print edges. Any prints mounted on card have the expected signs of chemical deterioration of the card mounts, with small losses to corners. The colour transparency is in fair condition apart from the slight fusing of one edge of the transparency to the release paper envelope it is stored inside.
Archival historyThe images were commissioned by Simpson & Godlee from various commercial and industrial photographers between c 1890 and c 1950. They were retained by Philip Godlee as chairman of Simpson and Godlee Limited until his death, and thereafter were passed down to his descendants who donated the archive to the Science and Industry Museum.
Mather & Platt Ltd (M&P), Newton Heath was established when Colin Mather entered into a partnership with William Platt in 1852.
Prior to this, in 1836, Colin Mather had entered into a partnership with his brother William, trading as William & Colin Mather, Brown Street, Salford. The brothers later leased part of the Salford Iron Works from John Platt in 1845 and entered into partnership with him. John Platt died in 1847, and his son William continued in the partnership with William and Colin Mather. In 1851, the partnership between William and Colin Mather was dissolved and the following year Colin Mather formed the partnership with William Platt that created M&P.
Colin Mather's brother William died in 1858, and his son, also called William, became assistant manager of the company in the same year. In 1863, William Mather became a partner with his uncle Colin Mather and William Platt. Colin Mather and William Platt retired around 1868, and William Platt's son John joined the company. He became a partner with William Mather in 1878.
William Mather travelled around the world promoting the company. During a trip to the United States in 1883 he obtained rights to manufacture Thomas Edison’s electric dynamo. Dr John Hopkinson and his brother Edward, who became head of the company’s new Electrical Department, modified the design to produce the famous Edison-Hopkinson dynamo, also known as the Manchester dynamo.
M&P became highly regarded as manufacturers of centrifugal pumps. In 1873 Osborne Reynolds, Professor of Engineering at Owen’s College, designed an innovative turbine pump. M&P went on to manufacture this pump for use in water works, collieries, mills and power stations.
In 1883 M&P obtained the exclusive rights to manufacture a new automatic sprinkler system, patented by Frederick Grinnell. The rights to manufacture this sprinkler system, outside North America, would prove to be a crucial turning point in the company’s fortunes. There was an enormous market for the Grinnell system in the textile industry where mills were at considerable risk from fire. A Bolton based firm, Dowson Taylor and Company, manufactured the sprinkler heads under licence, until it formally joined M&P in 1896. John Taylor’s expertise formed the basis of M&P’s hugely successful Fire Engineering Department.
As the company’s business expanded in the last quarter of the nineteenth century the Salford Iron Works was enlarged. In 1873 the company acquired Drinkwater’s Mill in Deal Street and absorbed the whole of Foundry Street. Mather and Platt became a private limited company in 1892.
In 1900 the company purchased a larger site at Newton Heath in Manchester. The company gradually moved its operations over to a purpose-built factory called Park Works, which had better access to the railways and waterways.
Park Works expanded, eventually incorporating a canteen, a research laboratory, a school and a sports ground. The iron foundry was the last part of the Salford Iron Works to be moved before the old factory was finally sold in 1938.
During the First World War part of the Park Works factory was leased to aircraft manufacturers A V Roe & Co Ltd. In 1915 the entire works came under the control of the Ministry of Munitions, as a result of the Munitions of War Act, 1915 in order to increase munitions production. The Russian Revolution in 1917 had a profound effect on the company’s export of textile machinery to textile mills in St Petersburg and Moscow. The company had created a Russian company to deal with the large numbers of orders and expand its business however, it lost control of the company and did not receive compensation until the 1980s.
Sir William Mather died in 1920. Aside from his business career he had played an active role in politics and civic life. He began his parliamentary career as Liberal MP for Salford in 1885. He went on to represent the constituencies of Gorton and Rossendale in the House of Commons before retiring from politics in 1904. He was knighted in 1902 and served as a Privy Councillor from 1910. His son Loris took over the business and guided it through the turbulent years of the Great Depression.
During the Second World War, Park Works was once again brought under Government control with M&P not only producing munitions, but also pumps for the war effort. Some of the equipment manufactured at the Park Works was shipped to the Soviet Union for use on the Eastern Front. After the war ended M&P relocated its Food Machinery Department to the former Royal Ordnance factory at Radcliffe in order to make more space at the Park Works. After the initial economic austerity of the immediate post-war period, this side of the business expanded with increased consumer demand for foodstuffs in the 1950s.
As M&P held the exclusive licence for manufacturing the Grinnell sprinkler system the company enjoyed a dominant position in this lucrative market. However, when these rights expired in the 1970s the firm entered terminal decline in a climate of increased competition from abroad. In 1978, the company was taken over by the Australian-based company Wormald International. Wormald International was originally founded by Joseph and Harry Wormald whose brother John worked for Dowson Taylor and Company.
Today an Indian company continues to manufacture pumps under the M&P name as a subsidiary of the German multinational Wilo A.G.
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