John Shepherd (1816-1902)
Mechanical Engineer, Machine & Tool Maker
Born 29th April 1816 at Burley in Wharfedale, to Francis Shepherd (1767-1821) and Ellen Myers (1779-1854)
1831 Apprenticed from around the age of 15 to Greenwood & Whitaker at Greenholme Mills, Burley in Wharfedale.
1831 Apprenticed from around the age of 15 to Greenwood & Whitaker at Greenholme Mills, Burley in Wharfedale.
1837 Aged twenty-one he left and went to Leeds, where he worked for a short time at Messrs. Fairbairn's (maker of the first flax-spinning machine), and afterwards at Messrs. Ardill and Pickard's works of Britannia Foundry, Leeds (machine makers and ironfounders).
1841 Sept 4th married at Otley All Saints, Ann Lupton (1820-1893)(b Burley in Wharfedale). They had 4 daughters & 2 sons & lived at Headingley, Leeds.
1844 Went into partnership with William Wilkinson, James Spink and George Hill. The title of the firm was Shepherd, Wilkinson & Co., Machine Tool Makers at the Union Foundry, Hunslet Lane, Hunslet, Leeds.
1846 William Wilkinson left the partnership & it was re-styled Shepherd, Hill and Spink.
1851 Messrs Shepherd, Hill and Spink made their first machine for cutting "wheels".
"The photograph is one of their earliest machines. The bed is long and narrow. The cutter bracket can be swivelled at its base for cutting bevel-wheels, and it is set to zero for cutting spur-wheels. The drive is by an endless rope and a pair of spur-wheels to the cutter-mandrel, and there is a self-acting feed. When one tooth is finished, the blank must be turned round by hand to the next, and the correct division is obtained by means of change-wheels. The dividing head and work mandrel are moved along the bed by a horizontal screw to suit the diameter of the wheel being cut."
- Engineering Review 1908-09 |
Award at the 1851 Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, for self-acting lathes.
1855 Shepherd Hill and Spink, represented on the Leeds Committee for the Paris Exhibition with their machine tools.
1862 The International Exhibition, London.
1867 Gold Medal Prize - Paris Exhibition
"Photograph above from an old drawing of the first gear-shaping machine, designed by Mr. Potts, a member of the celebrated clock-making firm. This machine appears to be the first attempt at planing or shaping bevel and spur gear-wheels from a large former-plate. A gold medal was awarded to Shepherd Hill & Co., for this machine at the Paris Exhibition of 1867." - Engineering Review 1908-09
c1870 John Lupton Shepherd (1855-1901) joins his father's firm as an apprentice.
1874 Workshop Appliances by C.P.B. Shelley (Charles Percy Bysshe), (1827-1890). Courtesy of archive.org
"This figure (left) represents a rear view of the headstock end of a rack-traversing and surfacing lathe, made by Messrs. Shepherd, Hill & Co., and in it the back shaft worm and worm-wheel can be plainly seen."
c1876 John Lupton Shepherd becomes part of the management team. Shepherd Hill & Co., are employing over 300 skilled craftsmen at the Union Foundry, Hunslet Road, Hunslet.
1886 Clyde Locomotive Works, Glasgow - supplied drilling machines with three sliding overhanging headstocks with balanced spindles.
c1891 Universal Horizontal Boring Machine
1892 Advert in Macdonald's Scottish Directory & Gazeteer.
"Machine Tools - Shepherd, Hill, & Co., Leeds, Yorkshire
Manufacturers of all kinds of slide lathes, planing, shaping, slotting, boring, drilling, punching, shearing, bending, and screwing machines, suitable for every class of engineers and shipbuilders."
"Machine Tools - Shepherd, Hill, & Co., Leeds, Yorkshire
Manufacturers of all kinds of slide lathes, planing, shaping, slotting, boring, drilling, punching, shearing, bending, and screwing machines, suitable for every class of engineers and shipbuilders."
1901 John Lupton Shepherd died at the age of 46. The business of Shepherd Hill & Co ceased trading or was taken over by another company. Research has yet to show what happened. Contact us if you know.
1902 John Shepherd one of the founders of Shepherd Hill and Co., died. He was buried at Lawnswood Cemetery, Leeds.
The Union Foundry site in Hunslet is now TF & JH Braime Limited.
Historic England: The firm was founded by two brothers, Thomas. and Harry Braime, in 1888, initially to manufacture oil cans. They purchased the site from the Union Foundry Estate and took over some of the existing buildings while building the offices and initial machine shops that now form the core of the site. |
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