AKA Wellhouse Foundry.

      Founded in 1842 to make metalworking machinery. Incorporated as a limited company in 1882.

      There are not many machine tool making in the country that can lay claim to an earlier beginning than that of Joshua Buckton and Co., Limited, the works of which, known as the Well House Foundry, in Meadow-lane, Leeds, data back in 1838. There, on the site of the present extensive works. the late Joshua Buckton first commenced to construct machine tools in buildings which were originally erected for a wool warehouse. Buckton virtually lived on the site in in a house that was already in existence when he started business. The early order books which are still in the possession of the firm clearly indicate the class of work which was undertaken. It consisted of machine tools of all kinds, shearing machines and steel works plant, much of which was supplied to engine building firms and railway companies.

      Amongst the latter are to be found the names of undertakings which have now only historical interest, such, for instance, as the York Railway Company, the Edinburgh and Northern Railway Company, the West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway Company, the Leeds and Thirsk, York, Newcastle and Berwick, the Newcastle and Carlisle, the West Cornwall, the Leipzig and Dresden, and the Brunswick Ducal Railway Companies.

      The firm was registered as a limited liability company in 1883 under its present title, the first. Managing directors being Mr. Joseph Hartley Wicksteed, Mr. W. W. Lupton, and Mr. T. A. Carpenter. Mr. Buckton died in 1895 and Mr. Wicksseed became chairman of the company, over which he continued to preside until his retirement in 1918, when he was succeeded by Mr. Christopher James, who had been managing director for many years. The other present directors are Messrs. H. E. Carter, Basil T. Courtney, M.I. Mech. E. and Major F. L. Watson, M. Inst. C.E., M.I. Mech. E. Thus, including Mr. N. D. Lupton, who recently retired from business, there have been only nine directors in thirty-eight years. Although originally it made almost every variety and size of machine tool, the firm has of late years turned its activities especially to machines of the heavier and more powerful classes. Prior to the war, it had built many heavy tools, such as gun lathes, for the arsenals. During the war period the company's resources were entirely devoted to the construction of machine tools for war purposes, the products being special gun and shell machinery. Since the Armistice, the works have reverted to their regular products, namely, heavy machine tools and testing machines, the latter of which are a specialty of world-wide reputation associated with the name of Wicksteed.

Information Sources

• The Engineer, 12 Aug 1921, pg.166
• More history and machine information can be found at Grace’s Guide.