Catalogue description WILLIAM ASQUITH LTD (HIGHROAD WELL WORKS), HALIFAX, MACHINE TOOL MANUFACTURERS

Files compiled by Mr. Alfred Johnson, Director, Chief Engineer and Designer for Wm. Asquith Ltd., Highroad Well Works, Halifax

William Asquith Ltd, Halifax, machine tool manufacturers

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Deposited: via E Webster, Halifax

Accessioned: 1985 Aug 1

An entry on the Halifax Parish register dated 5 September 1865 records the marriage of William Asquith, aged 25, a machine maker to Ann Bower of Bradford. He had recently returned from working in the gold fields in the far west of Canada and America and had taken possession of an old stone weaving shed at Sandhall, Highroad Well. He employed about 20 workmen to begin with and started out doing jobbing work. He then began to concentrate on the production of machine tools, becoming famous for the radial drilling machine, which was to be the mainstay of their business for the next century. During the period of the Franco-Prussian War, the Company had a particularly busy few years, followed by a recession with stocks of machines on hand. Asquith took the unusual step of chartering a vessel to take a consignment of products to Russian where he successfully disposed of all of them. Machine tool sales also went well in North America at the time when the railways were being pushed across the country.

William Asquith was also interested in training up engineers and was a Governor of the Mechanics' Institute when this constituted the only way in which young men could further their elementary education. When the Municipal Technical College opened in 1896, Asquith was a member of the engineering committee, strongly in favour of combining instruction with practical experience on the shop floor. Asquith died in 1901 and his son John Henry Asquith became Managing Director. The Company produced munitions during World War 1 and in 1924 they supplied 40 drilling machines used in the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In 1955, they took over Swifts, and in 1992 they merged with J Butler and Company

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