Bolton’s Superheater & Pipe Works Ltd.

The Richard Roberts Archive occupies part of the former premises of Bolton’s Superheater & Pipe Works Ltd. – a fact commemorated in the name we have placed above our entrance: The Pipeworks.

Origins
Andrew Bolton (ca. 1859-?) was a pioneer in the development of steam heating. He is first heard of in this connection in 1901 when he was living in Pendleton and working as a consulting mechanical engineer. He was married to Elizabeth and had a son, Edgar, born in 1898.

Andrew Bolton founded his own company, A. Bolton & Co., to manufacture superheaters, sometime before 1905; the company name appears in Engineering in its directory of advertisers for that year. The company’s first address was in the centre of Manchester at 49 Deansgate.

Bolton traded under this company name until at least 1913; an advertisement from that year promoted his patent steam superheater. This was uniquely designed for stationary industrial steam boilers rather than for locomotives.

The illustration in this advertisement clearly showed the arrangement, which took advantage of the fact that in a stationary horizontal boiler the dissipated heat that had flowed through the boiler from the far end (where the fire grate was located) would pass into the brick surround before rising to the chimney. The Bolton superheater placed a top manifold above a series of vertical down-and-return pipes. The ‘saturated’ (unsuperheated) side of the manifold was fed from the top centre of the boiler, and the superheated side fed the pipe to where the steam would be used – mostly to power stationary steam engines that ran line shafts for such equipment as power looms. The claim of the patented superheated was to save 10 to 15% of coal and 30% of water – a perfectly believable advantage of superheating.

A change of name and address
It is not certain when the company changed its name, but by 1922 the company was known as Bolton’s Superheater and Pipe Works Limited and was exhibiting at the Textile Machinery Exhibition held at the City Hall, Manchester – further confirming Bolton’s target market of textile mills that needed to make efficient use of steam to generate heat and power. The company also moved: a 1923 advertisement showed its address at Adswood, Stockport, where it was to stay until its demise.

A new managing director
Tom Frederick Gray was an engineer, born in 1888 in the London area. By 1919 he had been appointed managing director of Bolton’s and in 1922, while still in that role, designed, patented, and started to manufacture Victory valves at the Adswood works. These valves had the advantage of ease of inspection (‘Internal survey within ten minutes’) and were advertised in 1932 as having been fitted to the P & O company’s new liners S.S. Carthage and Corfu. Gray and Andrew Bolton’s son Edgar were jointly awarded UK Patent GB373376A and US Patent US1868059A for the Victory valve. A Gray was still managing director in 1954, according to a promotional booklet carrying a signature which looks like T F Gray – but by 1980 Edward Gray was managing director, as will be seen later.

A promotional booklet
We have gained access to the promotional booklet thanks to the staff of Stockport Library. This lengthy 25-page booklet uses clear explanation in layman’s language of the science behind superheating and its consequent benefit to efficient use of coal, amply supported by illustrations.

The front cover of the 1954 booklet. The vertical tubes of the superheater are clearly shown, in front of the two large flues that characterise a Lancashire boiler, the most popular type of boiler for stationary steam generation at the time.

Side and front elevations of the Bolton-Gary sectional superheater as applied to Lancashire boilers

Although the booklet mainly dealt with superheaters, it made good use of a double-page illustration to show ancillary equipment that provided a comprehensive solution for those wanting the best possible efficiency and reliability from their boilers – including steam purifiers, properly sized pipework, expansion joints and ash blowing equipment.

The additional equipment promoted in the booklet

Later years
There is little detailed history of Bolton’s after World War II. The company appears to have sold off part of its buildings to C. H. Johnson & Sons Limited in 1941. We understand that this company manufactured materials handling equipment, but we know little else as yet. However, Cheadle Skips, our neighbours, have more information on this company which we shall share in a further article when we know more.

 A sad demise
At 2.15 am on Wednesday 23 July 1980 Tom McNally, the Labour MP for Stockport South, stood up in the House of Commons to express his anger and indignation at a certain matter. In summary, McNally reported the following appalling story.

Until a few weeks before, Bolton’s, employing about 150 men, still existed. Stockport was at the time a high-skill, high technology industrial town. But the local district secretary of the AUEW, Bernard Regan, had the day before told McNally of his estimate in the past year in Stockport about 2,200 redundancies had been declared in the engineering industry alone. Many of the companies involved were well known; they included Mirlees Blackstone Ltd., Simon Container Machinery Ltd., Ferodo Ltd., Fairey Engineering, Abbey Electronics and Mauldeth Engineering. After bewailing the political situation that had led to this dire state of industry in Stockport, McNally reported certain facts about Bolton’s. About two and a half years before it had become part of the Fairbairn Lawson Group; Bolton’s was still profitable with a firm order book, but Fairbairn Lawson fell into severe financial difficulties on 1 May 1980 the receivers were called in. McNally made the point that the receiver’s representative, Mr Yeardsley, arrived at Bolton’s the first time in an Alfa Romeo and the second in a yellow ‘V’ registration Rolls-Royce (‘V’ was current from 1 August 1979 to 31 July 1980, so this was a new Rolls-Royce). McNally stated that “Perhaps the Minister thinks that that is of no consequence. To the men facing job losses, it was clear that, although this Government may not need skilled engineers, receivers are doing very nicely indeed.”

McNally reported that “extremely reliable and honourable sources” had told him that the receiver's representative acted in an extremely highhanded, not to say dictatorial, way. A number of workers, including the works convener were dismissed immediately and reinstated only after intervention by the engineering union district secretary and a representative of the Engineering Employers Federation. It was made clear that, although the convener would be reinstated, the redundancies stood and that more would be required.

The receiver had then stopped the cheques paid by the pension fund to the pension fund members covering periods of service of between four and 35 years. When the cheques bounced, the fund members were told—in the words of one long-standing member of the pension fund—to take their place in the queue. Bouncing pension-fund cheques, instant dismissals, and a mood of general high-handedness caused a deputation from the work force to see McNally and to present a petition that McNally was now showing to the Minister.
The petition said that the workers were "worried and disturbed about the recent happenings in our factory".

The petition asked him to "investigate and rectify any abuses that may have occurred."

As a result of the petition McNally wrote to the Secretary of State for Employment on 14 May. The key part of his letter stated: "I would be grateful if you could look at the present situation at Boltons Superheater and let me have your comments as to how the Receiver is carrying out his responsibilities."

In his reply the Under-Secretary of State made a statement which caused McNally anxiety. He said: "The conduct of a receivership is not under the control of any Government Department."

However, he gave McNally an assurance which he accepted. He said: "I understand that the Receiver is aiming to dispose of the Company as a going concern and that although some redundancies have been necessary, it is hoped to be able to save the rest of the jobs."

Sadly, by the night before this session of the House of Commons only four workers at Boltons were "keeping the place tidy" for the asset strippers to move in. Goodwill, order books and machinery had been sold. The work force had been dismissed and told in the most blatant way that they were the responsibility of the Government.

The managing director, Edward Gray, was dismissed at a moment's notice. He was asked to hand in the keys of his company car. As one worker graphically put it, he was "sent home on a bus". As a result his farewell was by letter to the local Stockport Express. A few quotes will give the flavour. He said:

"During the past few years it has been considered unethical and socially unacceptable for companies to be purchased for asset stripping. Admittedly, a bank has the right to recover its debts but when it is making embarrassingly huge profits, is it right when the cost is to throw 150 people out of work? For myself, being given officially one hour's notice of termination, I had little opportunity to thank my colleagues and wish them every success in their efforts to find new jobs. I would like to do so through your columns."

And so died Bolton’s Superheater & Pipe Works. McNally asked the Minister whether this was a suitable way to treat a company, using language which referred to murder and offers, Mafia-style, that the workers could not refuse. The Minister gave a lengthy reply, but the upshot was that what was done was done – and only a few of the redundant employees of Bolton’s were taken on by the purchaser of the valve division. The superheater works did not survive.

The search continues
We shall continue to research the history of Bolton’s and the site in Adswood where it initially prospered and then died. Watch this space.