Gimson and Company were founded in 1840 by Josiah and Benjamin Gimson on Welford Road in Leicester. The company were listed as Engineers, Ironfounders, Boiler Makers & General Machinists. They later moved to Vulcan Works, Vulcan Road, Humberstone Road, Leicester.

The beam engine at Snibston
Gimson & Co builder's plaque on the cylinder casing of 'C' engine at Claymills Pumping Station

Expansion

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Between 1876 and 1878 a new works, Vulcan Foundry, was developed beside the Midland Railway mainline. The site covered three and a half acres, the foundry shop was 180 ft by 62 ft. It had a workforce of 350 men and all lifting was done with steam hoists and travelling cranes.

Boot and shoe machinery

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Gimson became a major manufacturer of machinery for the footwear industry. The company sold its subsidiary the Gimson Shoe Machinery Company to the British United Shoe Machinery Company in 1930.[1]

Products

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Stationary steam engines, passenger and goods lifts, boot and shoe machinery, agricultural machinery.

Preserved steam engines

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Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engines;

Single-cylinder condensing rotative beam pumping engines of 1879;

Horizontal single cylinder;

Wall-mounted vertical single cylinder lift engine;

  • One at Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester

References

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  1. ^ Leicester Evening Mail - 10 May 1930
  2. ^ Claymills.org, Claymills Pumping Station trust site