Catalogue description CAMPBELL GAS ENGINE COMPANY LTD., HALIFAX

Campbell Gas Engine Company Ltd, Halifax

Open

Deposited: Clwyd CRO

Accessioned: 1982 Sep 1

Hugh Campbell was born in Glasgow in 1860 and after deciding not to go into the Church he became an apprenticeship in the joinery trade before changing to a career in engineering. He served with several Scottish engineering firms and through the Glasgow Mechanics' Institute he qualified in engineering and came to spend much of his time in designing a gas engine. This was a stationary engine using coal gas as a combustible fuel, a reasonably cheap commodity. The engine was designed for generating electricity and powering machinery in workshops. The acceptance of his design by a Leeds firm brought him to Yorkshire where he was employed for 3 years by Greenwood and Batley Ltd of Armley, experimenting and testing gas engines built to his designs.

In 1889 his father was appointed as chief carpet designer for J W and C Ward at Range Bank Mills, Halifax, and Hugh Campbell moved to Halifax to start his own business manufacturing gas engines. He set up a workshop in Stone Dam Works, Well Lane, Halifax, financed by local people who admired his workmanship. A new company was formed - The Campbell Gas Engine Company Ltd and premises were built in Gibraltar Rd, Halifax. Gradually these works were extended from Hopwood Lane to Parkinson Lane.

The business expanded with exports to many parts of the world, employing a work force which varied between 600 and 800. During the First World War, when the Company was employed on munitions, up to 1500 men and women were employed. After the war in 1919 there was a serious dispute when Campbell refused to dismiss those men he had employed out of the services, and when resistance was prolonged he recruited considerable numbers who were not trade unionists. The prolonged strike was said to have cost the Company some £150,000. Campbell tried to establish a new business in the grounds of his home, Newstead, but without success. The main works were sold in 1928. After standing empty for 5 years, the works were sold to George Cohen and Company Ltd, machinery merchants who dismantled most of the heavy machinery still remaining. The Halifax firm of machinery merchants, Lewis J Ackroyd Ltd then purchased the buildings and demolished the whole site of some 5 acres. The housing estate, Gibraltar Avenue, was built on the site.

Campbell went to work in Blackburn and died aged 90 in 1950