Description

Admin History:

Priestman Brothers, an engineering company, was founded in Hull in 1870 by William Dent Priestman with Robert Sizer. The partnership ended in 1872 and the company became William Dent Priestman and Company. Shortly afterwards, William's brother Samuel joined the firm, and the company became known as Priestman Brothers.

The firm started its trade manufacturing replacement parts for Hull's mills, as well as printing machinery, fire bars, dampers and paddle steamers. In 1875 the company was asked to construct equipment to recover lost gold from the West Coast of Spain. No gold was found but this marked its entry into the construction of grab dredging equipment. The first dredging crane was supplied to the Hull Docks Company in 1878. In the mid-1870's the firm specialised in grab dredgers, for use in water, later expanding into grab excavators for use on land.

As trade expanded, offices were soon opened in London. Foreign exports increased, leading to a factory being opened in Philadelphia in 1892. There is also early evidence of trade with Australia and William Dent Priestman visited Australia in 1879.

In 1888, a limited company was formed to take on the business of engineers, ironfounders, and engine builders in Hull and London. The original shareholders were W. D. Priestman, S. Priestman, J, Priestman, Thomas Priestman, Edmund Priestman, A Priestman and Edgar Priestman. Development continued but bad debts and a decline in sales led to insolvency in 1895. The company was reformed as a public company in 1900, but William and Samuel lost their seats on the board. Most of the records in this collection relate to the new company.

Priestman Brothers continued to develop new machinery for dredging, ditching and cargo handling. They were involved in rebuilding French villages after the First World War and also received investment from the Ministry of Agriculture in 1921 for field drainage machinery. In the 1920s a line of universal excavators were marketed and production of excavators named after animals began with the introduction of the 'Cub', followed later by the 'Caribou' and 'Panther'. From the 1960s onwards the firm also developed a range of hydraulic excavators.

After many years of developing the original premises at the 'Holderness Foundry' on Williamson Street in Hull, a new larger site was developed at Marfleet outside of Hull in 1950. Additional parts and sales depots were established in London, Birmingham and Glasgow.

As well as exporting its machinery all over the world, several subsidiary companies were formed in Australia (1961), United States of America (1960's), and most notably for this collection, a wholly owned subsidiary in Canada (1956), Sweden (1965), and a British subsidiary Taperex Bearings Ltd.

In December 1965 Priestman Brothers purchased AB Industridiesel, who had been its distributor in Sweden since 1945. Priestmans' hoped to boost exports to their already strong Swedish market, but AB Industridiesel remained a loss-making concern and was sold off in early 1969.

Taperex Bearings Ltd was created as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1962. It operated from Marfleet, Hull alongside Priestman Bros. It enabled them to extend the use of the successful Taperex bearing they had developed in 1956 and to make it commercially available. It also marketed a wide range of cross roll slewing rings used not only in Priestmans' products but by other makers of construction equipment.

Priestman Brothers was taken over by the Steel Group in September 1969. Only a small number of the record series in this collection continue after the takeover. However, Priestman Brothers retained its identity as a business and was able to expand its Marfleet plant. Steel Group had already taken over a similar business, Coles Cranes of Sunderland some time before. The Steel Group was later acquired by Acrow Group in 1971-2, but Priestman Brothers continued to operate under its own name. In 1984 Acrow Group was put into receivership and the Priestman division was sold off to Sandersons of Skegness. It has since been resold a number of times, but no longer manufactures cranes or excavators. As of February 2013, what is left of the company trades in Bradford under its new owner, Gardner Denver.

Description:

The collection consists of material produced by Priestman Brothers Limited, the bulk of which dates from 1900-1970 (between becoming a public company in 1900 and being taken over by Steel Group in 1969). There are small amounts of material which predate 1900 or which postdate 1969 which were retained by the company and these have been preserved in their original series.

The company's corporate records [C DBSP/1/1] include complete series of Directors' Minute Books (1900-1978), Annual Reports (1901-1980). Also includes files regarding the issue of share capital (1951-1961), arranged here because they form part of the Directors' records, and minutes of the technical committee (1922-1925).

Records for the share holding of the company [C DBSP/1/2] include registers of shareholders (1901-1981). Of particular interest here is a file relating to the acquisition of shares by Steel Group (1970-1981). Also included are records of share transfers (1901-1970), registers of debenture holders (1901-1950), files relating to the issue of debenture stock (1957-1966), dividend books (1913-1961), probate registers (1938-1961) and annual returns (1925-1940).

Financial records [C DBSP/1/3] comprise accounting records, including some 19th century accounting records (1873-1900) in addition to an impersonal ledger (1913-1937), as well as summaries of profit (1916-1933), correspondence relating to loans (1956-1966), financial reports (1956-1961) and a costing notebook (1914-1935).

The legal records of the company [C DBSP/1/4] include a large number of letters patent (1899-1980s) relating to machines and component parts, alongside summary lists of patents (1881-1953). There is correspondence regarding agreements for tin mining (1940-1954), litigation and potentially litigious cases (1955-1978), and the manufacture of American machines under license (1960-1961).

The operations of the company [C DBSP/1/5] are documented by an order book (1891-1931) and summaries of stock and contracts (1904-1943). There are lists of technical drawings for cranes (1892-1940s) but the drawings themselves have not survived. Also includes correspondence (1879-1961); of particular interest is William Dent Priestman's outgoing letterbook from a trip to Australia (1879-1880).

Within Marketing and Public Relations [C DBSP/1/6] a large number of brochures and catalogues have survived (1885-1960s), including brochures for specific models of grab. Also includes press cuttings (1955-1957).

Personnel records [C DBSP/1/7] contain a substantial though incomplete series of wage books (1893-1977) which in most cases contain very brief details of employment, pension registers and related correspondence (1946-1974) and minutes of the Priestman' Recreation Club (1925-1932).

Records relating to Property and Premises [C DBSP/1/8] include plans for the Holderness Foundry (1870-1937) in addition to correspondence (and some plans) regarding the new works site built at Marfleet (1945-1958). There is correspondence and plans for offices and works in London, Glasgow and Grantham (1943-1956); files for residential property let to staff in Hull, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Sutton Coldfield, Bridgend and Solihull (1941-1971) and for tenancies held by Priestmans Brothers (1937-1949).

There are a large number of photograph albums [C DBSP/1/9] depicting Priestman Brothers machines (1928-1969); fairs and exhibitions where the company exhibited (1948-1970s); UK and overseas branches (c.1947-c.1972) and a small number of publications [C DBSP/1/10] on Priestmans' machinery (1881-1946).

There is a series of correspondence and financial material relating to AB Industridiesel [C DBSP/1/11], Priestmans' Swedish distributor (1950-1968). The files relating to the period that AB Industridiesel was a subsidiary company form an ongoing series so they too can be found here.

There are two small sub-collections for the subsidiaries; Taperex Bearings Ltd [C DBSP/2] which contains minutes, patents and articles of association (1962-1972), and Priestman Canada Limited [C DBSP/3] which contains a single visitors' book (1959-1963).

English, with some sales material in various European languages