Greenwood & Batley

Thomas Greenwood and John Batley first set up their business in 1856, both having previously worked at Fairburn's Wellington Foundry in Leeds.

In 1885 the company branched out into Flour and Oil Milling Machinery as a result of the acquisition of the business of Joseph Whitham, Perseverance Iron Works, Kirkstall Road, Leeds.

A rail connection with the Great Northern Railway was installed in 1890 to bring in raw materials and to deliver finished products.

Their primary business was military equipment both in terms of machinery to make armaments and the production of components such as bullets and shell cases.

This development was to prove profitable in other ways, as the company was able to provide similar generator stations for both public supplies and industrial applications e.g. tramways, as one of its range of products.

A further acquisition in 1896 saw Greenwood & Batley take over Smith, Beacock & Tannett, Victoria Foundry, Water Lane, Leeds.

The company became part of the Fairbairn-Lawson Group in the late 1960s; however, trading conditions were not favourable, and in April 1980 the receivers were called in and 480 employees made redundant.

At the start of the twentieth century Greenwood & Batley offered the following products:- Every description of General and Special machine [tools] for Railway, Marine and General Engineers, including Hydraulic and other Forging and Stamping Machinery, Lathes, Punching, Shearing, Planing, Milling, Shaping, Drilling and Boring Machines.

This YouTube video shows old Greenwood and Batley screw machines still in use in Pakistan: [1] For making Armour Plates, Ordnance, Gun Mountings and Ammunition: also for Small Arms Cartridges, Gunpowder, &c., and every description of War Material.

Improved Patented Machines for Preparing and Spinning Waste Silk, China Grass, Rhea, Ramie, and other fibres.

Cloth Cutting Machines for Wholesale Clothiers, &c. Greenbat was the trade name for the railway locomotives built by Greenwood & Batley.

Similarly, in 1878 a Loftus Perkins tramway locomotive was built, fed by a water-tube boiler nominally rated at 500psi.

In their short period of production, Greenwood & Batley built 1367 electric locomotives which were exported around the world.

[4] Today there is no tangible evidence of this once-great establishment except occasional surviving artifacts such as machinery made at the Albion Works that can be found on the secondhand market—an indication of the quality of the products.