THE MELLINGS OF RAINHILL, 1830-70 BY FLORENCE DICKINSON, M.SC. Read 15 February 1968 AINHILL, a township about half-way between Liverpool Rand Warrington, bounded by Cronton, Prescot, St Helens, Whiston and Widnes, was in 1801 a small village of 402 inhabi­ tants with its agricultural workers, watch-toolmakers, file cutters, broach makers and quarrymen settled chiefly at the Stoops and the Holt. There were neither churches nor schools and no industrial buildings in the township, and the lack of water power and the absence of coal workings had left it, unlike some of its neighbours, unspoilt with its wooded areas and new red sand­ stone deposits. The continued tenure of the Lancasters of the Old Hall from feudal times to the end of the eighteenth century and of the Chorleys of Manor Farm from the 1630s to the beginning of the nineteenth century made for little change in village life. The greatest event perhaps was the coming of the turnpike road from Liverpool to Warrington in 1753, which promoted the coaching service and affected Rainhill when it became the first stage out of Liverpool and stabled some two hundred horses. The entry of Bartholomew Bretherton, the Liverpool coach proprietor, and of the Owen family, yeomen of Childwall, in the early 1800s (who were later to hold the greater part of the township between them) and the building of the Liverpool- Manchester railway, which passed through Rainhill, were events which marked the beginning of a change in the village. The installation of a railway station at Kendrick's Cross, Rainhill, brought about the development of that area as the centre of village life. Churches, schools and sizeable houses were built, the latter for merchants and manufacturers who could commute with the new transport facilities from their places of work to more pleasant surroundings. By 1841 the population had risen to 1,164, by 1851 to 1,642 and by 1861 to 2,130. The corresponding number of separate households or inhabited houses was 217 in 59 60 THE MELLINGS OF RAINHILL 1841, 263 in 1851 and 384 in 1861. The time was ripe for Rainhill to move with the times and to be in a position to offer such amenities as a piped gas and water supply. These services were brought to Rainhill by the private enterprise of Thomas Melling and to find out how this was accomplished in the middle of the nineteenth century, a study has been made of the Melling family, which came to Rainhill in 1840 to start up an iron foundry. MELLING S IRON FOUNDRY The Mellings came originally from Wigan. John Melling (1781-1856) was born at Haigh and in 1806 was described as an engineer of Woodhouses, Wigan. Little is known of his early movements but his elder son Thomas was born at Smithills Hall, Bolton in 1817. In 1833 John was 'superintendent of the repairs of the locomotive engines' in the engine sheds of the Liverpool- Manchester Railway Company at Brickfield Station, Liverpool and 'in consideration of the long hours and zealous attention ...' his wages were raised from three guineas to four pounds a week. 1 While there he patented two devices for the improvement of locomotive engines; 2 one permitted 'one wheel to travel further than the other on going around corners' and was fitted to the Firefly and tested on the Sutton incline; the other, concerned with valve gearing, was fitted to eleven engines and Melling was awarded one hundred guineas with a promise of fifty pounds per engine for subsequent use of his patent. His wages were increased to six guineas a week and in 1838 he was given salary status with four hundred a year, paid monthly. His request to build a loco­ motive engine in the Company's sheds was met with a promise that he should do so when the Swift sure, the Atlas, the Ajax and the Pluto were completed. He had a house provided by the Company, a garden planted with trees and shrubs and a rockery which he made from the stones taken from the tunnel and cutting at Edge Hill coach station; he appeared in fact to have settled in. John Melling's elder son Thomas (1817-96) worked at first with his father but later left to join the Grand Junction Railway Company. In 1839 members of the Liverpool-Manchester and Grand Junction Railway Companies formed a joint committee to consider the re-organisation of the whole of the locomotive power departments, and one of the results of their deliberations was that John Melling became redundant and was given three 1 Minutes of the Board of Directors of the Liverpool-Manchester Railway Company. 2 Patent Nos 7254, 15 Dec. 1836; 7410, 26 July 1837. THE MELLINGS OF RAINHILL 61 months' notice as from 31 December 1839. The news can hardly have been unexpected because early in January 1840 John Melling was able to inform the Liverpool-Manchester Company that he had purchased land and premises in Rainhill to erect an iron foundry. 3 He also requested that a siding communicating with the Liverpool-Manchester railway should be built at his expense. The site referred to in Rainhill (Fig. 11) occupied 4,072 square yards and prior to 1824 was a part of the 'Great Meadow'; in A MELLINGS' IRON FOUNDRY AND GAS AND WATER WORKS B HOME OF THE LANCASTERS C HOME OF THE.CHORLEYS Figure 11 MELLING'S IRON FOUNDRY AND GAS AND WATER WORKS RAINHILL " Minutes of the Board of Directors of the Liverpool-Manchester Railway Company. 62 THE MELLINGS OF RAINHILL 1824 it was bought by Messrs Bournes & Robinson, coal pro­ prietors of Sutton and sold by them in 1828 to William Neale Clay, a partner of Thomas Moore, glass bottle manufacturer. A glass works was erected and later it passed into the ownership of John Kirkwood of Kirkwood & Stephen, Flint Glass Manu­ facturers, Rainhill. 4 In 1840 the site with the glass works still standing was conveyed to John Melling the elder and to his two sons. Thomas and John, from John Kirkwood and others for £1,700. 5 John the younger later emigrated to Canada and in 1842 the partnership between him and his father and brother was dissolved.6 John senior and Thomas carried on the business under the name of 'Melling & Son, engineers, millwrights, iron & brass founders, boiler makers, Rainhill Iron Works'. Whether the Mellings carried out repairs for the Liverpool- Manchester railway is not known; but there is little doubt that when they started on their venture they were hoping to share the repair work with the Vulcan foundry at St Helens and the Viaduct foundry at Earlestown for, in 1840, John Melling wrote to the Railway Company requesting that the two locomotive engines 'now in the Crown Street yard' be sent to him to have new engines installed. This particular request was not granted. The foundry (Fig. 12) was quite a sizeable one as shown by an inventory taken in 1847: 7 1. A Bright condensing steam engine, 8 H.P. with governor adapted to work as a high pressure engine, with a stone bed, pumps and piping to wells. 2. A 40 ft. iron windbore pipe in the well. 3. A tubular steam boiler, 10 ft. long, 5 ft. dia. with single and compound safety valves, alarm whistle, stop valves, furnace door, bearers, bars, damper and cock, pipe etc. 4. Four iron bevil wheels. 5. Upright shafting. 10 ft. long with wall boxes, brackets, pedestals etc. 6. Horizontal shafting, 94 ft. long with couplings, hangers, wall boxes, pedestals and 21 pulleys. 7. A pair of mitre wheels, for driving fanner, pitched and trimmed shaft for driving fanner, 15i ft. long with hanger pedestals and one 6 ft. pulley. 8. Three cast iron columns. 9. A blowing fanner with stone soughing and wood troughs to cupolas and smithy. 10. A weighing machine with stone work etc. 4 4 Nov. 1828. Conveyance of land in Rainhill from Messrs. Bournes & Robinson to William Neale Clay, Liverpool, merchant; 16 Sept. 1836. Convey­ ance of above land and premises to John Kirkwood Esq. 5 15 Feb. 1840. Conveyance of above land and premises from John Kirkwood and others to John Melling and his sons, Thomas and John, all engineers, Edge Hill, Liverpool. 6 14 May 1842. Deed of dissolution of co-partnership between Messrs John Melling senior, John Melling junior and Thomas Melling. 7 18 May 1847. Conveyance of site and iron foundry from Messrs John and Thomas Melling to Reece Bevan Esq., Wigan. mid- cone, glass­ a railway foundry. the the of of Rainhill shows left Melling's is It it the Houghton, of To Prescot. front comprised Derek of in House. by right, and 12 France FOUNDRY the Mr on Foundry station. a Figure foundry, by Photograph, brass buildings MELLING'S Melling's the Roby. painting is Roby's oil with John cone John of the is which, century of cone back, courtesy front the By nineteenth at works In 64 THE MELLINGS OF RAINHILL 11. A large wrought iron cupola for iron foundry with an air pipe, doors etc. 12. An iron platform for charging the same. 13. A wrought iron cupola with air pipes, doors etc. 14. A small cast iron cupola. 15. An iron blast pipe to the stove furnace. 16. Two plates, two doors and grids for brass furnaces. 17. A hooping furnace with plates, weights, chains, furnace doors, bearers, bars, dampers, pulleys, pedestals etc. 18. A large crane and three smaller cranes in smithy. 19. A railway and turn table into yard and workshop communicating with the railway leading from Liverpool to Manchester.