Cocker Grayson and Co.

Hello all,

HSMOB has Cocker, Grayson and Co as being from 1833 to 1847.

But I think that I can see the shadow of a dot (or a flaw in the metal) in between cast and steel. If their dates are right, then it should not really be there. I have looked in the 1825 directory and cannot find them (but then again I have looked in the 1833 directory and cannot find them either so where that leaves their proper (in the context of earlier) dates I haven't the faintest idea).

If it is a dot then the saw should be at the earlier end of their existence, if it isn't then there isn't much to date the saw except to say that the handle looks a lot later than 1833 (and to me a fair bit later than 1847 - but perhaps I shall have to amend my handle dating ideas.)

Anyone any ideas?

Fred

 

Hey Fred
Interesting, when I looked out of curiosity at Ken Roberts "Some 19th Century Tools', he suggests that the years were between _1865-1884. I wonder if there was a mistake? I guess we need to got to the primary sources.

That does suspiciously look like a dot between the two cast and steel but it is not as distinct. The handle does look later than 1847 but the more I see, amending some of my notions as you are seeing probably are more in order.

great stuff Fred
Joe S.

 

Hi Joe,

I don't know if the following expression is widespread throughout the English speaking world, but when something is not quite right in the UK we sometimes say "there's a rabbit away".

Well, in this case there appears to be a whole field of bunnies hopping around.

I have looked (sometimes cursorily, sometimes not) through all the historical directories online. I can find lots of Cockers, lots of Graysons but none of them connected within a company. There is a Cocker Bros who went from at least 1862 to 1911 but they are only recorded as sawmakers in 1862.

And Cocker and Grayson aren't in "Trademarks".

(Quite by chance I also found in the 1862 directory p 97 "Grayson Henry, builder of Slack and Grayson - not in HSMOB. Anything perchance to do with Slack Sellars and Grayson - 1833 to 1856. A successor company ?)


I really am struggling on this.

Fred

 

Hi Ray,

(Edit. Sorry for all the hassle, they are in the 1833 directory p.173. I have just looked again. I don't know how I missed it.)

Thanks for the post. I must make the London Gazette one of my ports of call when in such a state of extremis.

The terminology is interesting as "retired from" nowadays would almost certainly mean retirement from employment as opposed to what I take to be a more formal meaning at the time of merely "leaving" the company.

Because if this is the John Wheatman of (subsequently) Wheatman and Smith, he left Cocker and Grayson in 1836 to go to the US to be foreman for R Hoe and Co (saws) USA (source HSMOB) before returning to Sheffield in 1840 to set up firstly on his own in Russell Street 1841 to 1847 and then forming Wheatman and Smith 1849 to1911 (again HSMOB).

Which of course is now the premises of the Kelham Island Museum. You can still see a furnace room where the row of hearths (sadly blocked up) are in the floor and the flues run within the wall behind them. This should really be a site of pilgrimage for all those interested in industrial history. The working steam engine which I believed powered a rolling mill ( Simon will correct me if I am wrong) is little less than spectacular.

Fred