Westwood, Baillie

Westwood, Baillie and Co was a Victorian engineering and shipbuilding company based at London Yard in Cubitt Town, London.

Westwood, Baillie and Company
IndustryShipbuilding, Engineering
Founded1856
HeadquartersLondon Yard, Cubitt Town, London, UK
Key people
Joseph Westwood
Robert Baillie
ProductsNaval ships
Tugs
Bridges

The company was set up in 1856 by Robert Baillie and Joseph Westwood, previously managers of Ditchburn and Mares shipyard.[1]

Partly as a result of a fall in demand due to the financial crisis of 1866, a period of financial stress and reorganisation resulted in Westwood and Baillie acting as managers for the London Engineering & Iron Shipbuilding Company Ltd, until they regained control in 1872.[2]

For much of its life the company produced iron and steel work for bridges. In 1887 the company made the girders for the Lansdowne Bridge over the Indus River, then the longest rigid girder bridge in the world. Work on a more modest scale included a railway footbridge that can still be seen at Romford railway station,[3] and the 1879 swing bridges over the Royal Albert Dock. The company also contributed towards the Attock Khurd Bridge, built in 1880, between what's now called Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa province and Pakistani Punjab. It's still in a great ship and is a major attraction for tourists and history lovers.

The company was wound up in 1893 and in 1895 Baillie was declared bankrupt.[4] Joseph Westwood continued in business at Napier Yard as Joseph Westwood and Co.[5] There is a large monument to him in Tower Hamlets Cemetery.[6] The Railway footbridge at Wymondham, Norfolk was also built by the company.

London Yard was subsequently taken over by Yarrows.

Notable products


References
  1. "Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives Miscellaneous Business Records". The National Archives. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  2. "Cubitt Town: Riverside area: from Cubitt Town Pier to the Graving Docks". Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs. 1994. pp. 532–539. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  3. "GLIAS rail tour". GLIAS news. Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society. December 1995. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  4. "No. 26593". The London Gazette. 29 January 1895. p. 615.
  5. "Joseph Westwood and Co". Grace's Guide. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  6. "Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park Gallery". Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  7. "Thames Tugs". Thames Tugs. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  8. "History of London Yard". Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  9. Ballard, G. A., Admiral (1980). The Black Battlefleet. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-924-3.
  10. "Ships launched 1863-64". Illustrated London News.
  11. "William Watkins Limited Fleet List". Thames Tugs. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  12. "A history of tugs on the River Tyne". Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  13. "Jervois Swing Bridge". Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  14. "INDIA—THE ATTOCK BRIDGE". Hansard. 21 June 1880. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  15. "Westwood Baillie Co". Structurae. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  16. "Lansdowne Bridge, Sukkur". Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  17. "London Lighterage Tugs".

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