Merryweathers

 Continuing these articles and working down Deptford Creek. Last week we did the Greenwich pumping station – and the next wharf after that was the one used by Merryweathers.  It had been previously called Greenwich Road Wharf, but by 1895 it is shown on maps as ‘Fire Engine Works’.

This area has been subject to massive change over the past few years. If, instead of looking at the Creek we go down Greenwich High Road towards Deptford Bridge from Norman Road we go past the pumping station wall and then past the little LESCO building –and I ought to come back and write about that soon.  After that it’s all new buildings – a gym, hotel, and so on. It is all so new that if you look on Google Street View you can go back to 2008 when some of the older buildings are still there, shops and two pubs.  One of those pubs was ‘Millers’ and despite the pub sign showing a windmill – which was still there in 2012 – I guess it was called that from the Millers Hospital which used to stand opposite.  But high up above the gable was a plaque with what looks like a swan – and yes, it was originally called ‘The Swan’.  The other pub, further along, was known as the Greenwich Inn, but originally been called “The Red Lion”.  It was adjacent to Merryweather’s great art deco frontage.  All of it now gone.

Back to the Creek bank. This stretch is quite difficult to relate to old maps and to work out what was where exactly. This is because the line of the Docklands Light Railway has superimposed itself and changed the way we look at what is there.  The DLR is something I must write about here too.  As we near Deptford Bridge keeping these articles in the right order is going to be increasingly difficult. There are many sites with interesting histories and they are all interwoven with each other and with the past.  Bear with me, hopefully we will get there.

So – Merryweathers  - looking on the net for information about them and you are almost overwhelmed.  When I am looking for information on these wharves I am usually lucky if I get two or three mentions in trade directories or sometimes a police court case – but with Merriweather’s there are 100s of dedicated web sites.  There is a whole Google Heritage page about them, the London Metropolitan Archive has a whole page on them – and there are many many more. At one time I used to be amazed that the web site for the local authority in Saskatoon in Canada had four pages taken up with Merryweathers – including pictures of Greenwich High Road.  But they have now been joined by many more from all over the world.    There are advertisements for exhibitions and rallies, and more than numerous pages for all the enthusiasts who polish up their old fire engines. It is the world of “Old Glory” and similar magazines dedicated to old cars, buses and anything mechanical.  The restorers are proud of their work, and they want us all to see them.

In some ways this is very strange. If on the other hand you look up Greenwich  (Greenwich in the UK of course or you will be lost in Connecticut) you will find lots of stuff about the Cutty Sark, sailors, sailing ships and the assumed maritime world -  but not a word about Merryweathers.  They seem to exist in a parallel universe.  But look up ‘fire engine heritage’ or something similar and you will find a very lively American – US and Canada – industry in the history and preservation of fire service vehicles.

If I go into a museum – a small local town museum - with all the stuff about the people who lived there and where they worked and what they did.  I always try when I go round to see if I can spot something made in Greenwich. And of course, it is only too likely to be there, right in front, all right red and shiny – the old town fire engine. Made in Greenwich, by Merryweathers

Greenwich Industrial History Society has had speakers on Merryweathers over the years as well as articles for our Facebook page and blog.  I would particularly like to thank Neil Bennet who is always up to informing us on Merryweathers subjects – recently identifying two flagons, marked with the company name, (https://greenwichindustrialhistory.blogspot.com/2020/03/merryweather-bottell-and-wrcrow.html) and also an article about a young actress involved with the company -  Midgie Dolphin. (https://greenwichindustrialhistory.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-merryweather.html). We have also had contributions to make us realise that there was a lot more to Merryweathers than just fire engines.

Very briefly – and this is based on information from Neil Bennet.  The business which became Merryweathers started at the end of the 17th century in Long Acre, Central London . They made fire squirts, leather buckets and pumps. Moses Merryweather was taken on as an apprentice in 1807 and in 1836 he married the owner’s daughter. They had three sons, Richard Merryweather, James Compton Merryweather and Henry Merryweather. Also working for them was an Edward Field who designed the boiler used in most Merryweather pumps and tram engines.  In 1836 their Sutherland large steam-powered horse-drawn fire engine won first prize at an international fire engine competition at Crystal Palace in 1836. It is now in the Science Museum in their store at Wroughton.   At the Brooklands Museum is the UK's oldest known aerodrome fire/crash tender, a 1937 Merryweather with a Commer engine.  Like  the fire float Massey Shaw it is still in running order 

By 1871 James Compton Merryweather was head of the firm and they moved to Greenwich High road in 1876 . They made water supply equipment, ice boats, safety rafts, tanks for camel transport, dye extractors, steam dredging apparatus, compressors, an electric clock and a petrol-cycle (more about this petrol cycle, said to be the first car in the world, in a future article) 

Their catalogue was amazing. On each page is a different fire engine for a different application. They were often named after the city or place which it was first  designed for and with a list of those which had bought the model. Some were local to London, or England, like the Enfield range but named from further afield for example were the Montreal and the Ganges.  There are many many pages, each engine is different, they .  Appliances were available from small sizes suitable for country houses which could pump 100 gallons per minute, through to large dockyard models pumping 2000 gallons per minute. A common size used by local fire brigades, could pump between 250 and 450 gallons per minute. 

They also provided hydrants and mains water supplies for highly sites like theatres. Just along the road from me, in Vanbrugh Hill, are the flats which were built in the 1920s by the old Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich as the nurses’ home for St.Alfege’s hospital. In the pavement outside is a Merriweather iron plate. I guess it is a hydrant but no one has ever explained it to me, or even seemed to notice it.

Merryweathers reckoned that their boilers designed for a horse drawn engine could get up enough pressure to pump water on a fire within ten minutes of a call out.  They this  process when they left the fire station so as to be ready to pump onto the blaze when they got there. 

Dock fires were a problem, needing more power to reach a blaze on a boat or at large riverside warehouses. Thus Merryweather built specialist fireboats, and locally we still have the preserved Massey Shaw, the London fire float which led the little ships up the River after Dunkirk.  Her volunteer crew now seem to need very little encouragement to get out into the middle of the River and set her Merryweather pumps off to send vast plumes of water up into the air.

In 1899, Merryweather produced the world's first successful self-propelled steam fire engine, the 'Fire King' - the first went to Port Louis on Mauritius. The first motorised fire engine in London was a Merryweather appliance delivered to the Finchley Fire Brigade in 1904 – and this was commemorated in 1974 by the issue of a special Royal Mail postage stamp. 

Merryweathers also made engines for trams. And there are some displayed in a Dutch Museum and I think also in Belgium.  In 1897 the City of Wellington in New Zealand set up a tramway service with eight Merryweathers trams and, nearer home, we understand that there was a Merryweather tram at Bisley Camp in 1907.  

Greenwich Industrial History has been sent so much stuff about Merryweathers over the years  - looking through I had forgotten, for instance, an article we published about their cess pool emptying equipment. There was also a letter about an electric clock which even Neil with all his resources was unable to identify. Another letter was about a two piece ladder.  There is so much stuff preserved which originated from the Greenwich factory and it is all round the world

So – let’s take an engine from the catalogue at random.  On page 18 is illustrated ‘The Conqueror’ ‘Admiralty Pattern Patent Double C2ylinder Steam Fire Engine.  The first of this class of engine won first prize at Crystal Palace in 1863.  One such engine was “the largest Steam Fire Engine in the world ‘La Belle France’ . This was purchased by ‘the Austro Hungarian Government in 1878 along with another.  Conquerors were also bought by the Dockyards at Portsmouth (3), Gosport, Woolwich, Deptford, Devonport (4), Keyham, Chatham (2), Kiel,  Wilmershaven, Don Pedro, Rio de Janiero and Dantzig.  Wigan Corporation bought ‘Le Empereur’ in 1868, and others went to ‘”Dacca Twist Mills, Tomsk, Valparaiso, and a Russian Mill”. 

And what did these magnificent engines cost?  The smallest which pumped 900 gallons per minute, to a height of 200 feet would set you back £990.50 but should you want 2,000 gallons a minute to 300 feet you would have to find £2,000.  Plus, of course, in both cases numerous extras.  What was thrown in for the price included the feed pumps, lamps, water bags, engine hose, oil cans and – oh yes – sway bars for the horses.  You pumped your water by steam power, but you took the equipment to the fire by more traditional methods!

It seems to be very unclear when Merryweathers actually left Greenwich. At some point in the late 1970s they went to Ebbw Vale and the company seemed to stop trading in the early 1980s. In 1984 did what the London Metropolitan Archive web site describe as a ‘moonlight flit’.  They may have been in Plymouth or in Croydon. At Bethersden in Kent a firm called Merryweather and Sons claims to be the successor to the original Merryweathers and supplies and maintains fire extinguishers, 

I am sure many people will remember the art deco factory frontage on Greenwich High road.  Greenwich historians and many other locals tried to get some parts of the site listed but It had been rebuilt following Second World War bombing so this couldn’t happen..  From 2005 developers had plans which as ever were pushed through regardless.  Not even the cement plaque from the frontage with the company name could be saved.

So here we have a Greenwich company internationally famous – not only famous but revered and remembered throughout the world, despite their rather mysterious end – or indeed continuing existence.  Their products are a central feature in many  local museums..   Thousands of enthusiasts treasure and maintain their products , display them at exhibitions and take them to rallies where along with many others they are paraded for the crowds to see.  There is one place that I am aware of where you will see no mention of them in the local heritage centre and no interest from the local tourist organisation.   … And  I wonder where that  is.