Tupper and Co, Galvanised Iron Makers, Berkley Street

[A Sparks]

I have just found out about this company with a connection to Birmingham by chance when I was looking for some information about a tin church in the London Borough of Hackney where I live.
The church was constructed in 1858 from corrugated iron and is still standing! The company, Tupper and Co had factories in Berkley Street Birmingham and Limehouse in East London.

This is the church..


There is more information on this lady's interesting blog..

Hackney's tin tabernacle

Unusual London history and places of interest to visit, Deptford, Brittany, Postman's Park

carolineld.blogspot.com

I can find a few mentions of Berkley Street on the Forum but not of Tupper and Co, however I have found reference to them in Graces Guide...

Tupper and Co - Graces Guide

www.gracesguide.co.uk

I thought it might be of interest to share on the Forum - had anyone heard of the company before?

 

[Astoness]

i have this photo of berkley st 1955 with i presume holiday st running across..for all we know one of those buildings on the right could at one time have been occupied by tuppers

lyn

 

[Pedrocut]

Looks like the company failed in 1911 due to financial difficulties. In 1902 they had works in a few places and were involved in a fatal boiler explosion in Bradley.

 

[A Sparks]

Looks like the company failed in 1911 due to financial difficulties. In 1902 they had works in a few places and were involved in a fatal boiler explosion in Bradley.

Yes, did you see the bit about the branch in Bilston being fined £1 for not having a steam pressure gauge on a boiler?!

 

[Pedrocut]

Yes I noticed that, have taken the bit from Grace‘s Guide...

1858 Mention of 'an iron corrugated church, designed by Mr. Digby Wyatt, and built by Messrs. Tupper and Co. by order of the East India Company, for exportation to Rangoon...

....1903 Explosion. 'At Wolverhampton yesterday Messrs Tupper and Co., iron and steel merchants, of Bilston, were fined £1 and costs for not complying with the term of the Workshops and Factories Act in that they omitted to have steam pressure gauge fixed on a boiler, which exploded on January and caused the death of four men and injuries twenty other workpeople. The solicitor for the company asked for adjournment so that proceedings could taken against James Higgs their head engineer, but the Stipendiary ruled that the company had already been allowed sufficient time.

Have looked into a few boiler explosions in the Black Country, should be interesting to read the inquests. I think it was adjourned several times.

 

[Pedrocut]

First mention in Grace's-Guide for Tupper and Carr is 1854, involved in the Manufacturer of the Mediterranean telegraph cable.

But there is an advert from 1851 showing the works at Millwall, Poplar, London, and Broad St. and Berkley St. Birmingham.

 

[mw0njm.]

Yes I noticed that, have taken the bit from Grace‘s Guide...

1858 Mention of 'an iron corrugated church, designed by Mr. Digby Wyatt, and built by Messrs. Tupper and Co. by order of the East India Company, for exportation to Rangoon...

....1903 Explosion. 'At Wolverhampton yesterday Messrs Tupper and Co., iron and steel merchants, of Bilston, were fined £1 and costs for not complying with the term of the Workshops and Factories Act in that they omitted to have steam pressure gauge fixed on a boiler, which exploded on January and caused the death of four men and injuries twenty other workpeople. The solicitor for the company asked for adjournment so that proceedings could taken against James Higgs their head engineer, but the Stipendiary ruled that the company had already been allowed sufficient time.

Have looked into a few boiler explosions in the Black Country, should be interesting to read the inquests. I think it was adjourned several times.

makes you wander if the boiler had ever been presure tested