Title:
DAVEY, PAXMAN AND COMPANY, STEAM AND DIESEL ENGINE MANUFACTURERS, OF COLCHESTER
Level: Category
Business records
Level: Fonds
DAVEY, PAXMAN AND COMPANY, STEAM AND DIESEL ENGINE MANUFACTURERS, OF COLCHESTER
Scope and Content:
Contents

1. Administration
D/F 23/1/1-20 Administrative Records
D/F 23/1/21-24 As Davey Paxman and Company (and earlier)
D/F 23/1/25-28 As part of AGE
D/F 23/1/29 As Davey Paxman and Company (Colchester) Ltd
D/F 23/1/30-32 In association with Ruston and Hornsby
D/F 23/1/33-41 Britannia Works

2. Publicity
D/F 23/2/1-6 Advertisements by the company
D/F 23/2/7-25 Reprints, offprints, extracts and newscuttings
D/F 23/2/26-98 Photographs:

D/F 23/2/26-36 Stock albums
D/F 23/2/37-51 General premises
D/F 23/2/52-55 Boilers
D/F 23/2/56-59 Portable steam and traction engines
D/F 23/2/60-64 Fixed steam engines
D/F 23/2/65-67 Gas engines
D/F 23/2/68-73 Oil and diesel engines
D/F 23/2/74 Refrigeration equipment
D/F 23/2/75-78 Asphalt drying and mixing plant
D/F 23/2/79-85 Railway engines
D/F 23/2/86-88 Filters
D/F 23/2/89-92 Generating Equipment
D/F 23/2/93, 94 Maritime
D/F 23/2/95-98 Others

D/F 23/2/99-173 Booklets, brochures, etc.
D/F 23/2/174-186 Historical notes etc

3. Personal and social
D/F 23/3/1-19 General
D/F 23/3/20-25 Sports
D/F 23/3/26-29 Official (fire, sick bay etc.)
D/F 23/3/30-40 Directorate
D/F 23/3/41-46 Careers and obituaries
D/F 23/3/47-50 Staff magazine and public relations

4. General
D/F 23/4-1-6 Details of other firms
D/F 23/4/7-19 General historical material

The following medals were formerly (1971) in the custody of the firm:
Silver Medal - Exposicion Internacional de Barcelona 1929
Bronze Medal - The Nation's Food Exhibition, Olympia 1925
Bronze Medal - Exposition Universelle Internationale, Paris 1878
Silver Medal - Annual International Exhibition of All Fine Arts 1873
Bronze Medal - Industries and Inventions, London 1874
Silver Medal - Royal Agricultural Society of England, 1874
Silver Medal - Preston Agricultural Society, 1875 (for portable engine)
Bronze Medal - Exposition et Congress D'Hygiene et de Sauvetage à Bruxelles, 1876
Bronze Medal - International Exhibition, Sydney NSW 1879
Silver Medal - Royal Agricultural Society of England 1869 (corn drying machine)
Silver Medal - Royal Agricultural Society of England 1873
Silver Medal - Preston Agricultural Society 1875 (corn drying machine)
Silver Medal - Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association 1909 (suction gas engine)
Silver Medal - First Manchester Laundry and Allied Trade Exhibition 1913
Silver Medal - In commemoration of reign of Queen Victoria 1837-97
Silver Medal - Tasmanian International Exhibition 1891, 2
Bronze Medal - Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association 1911
Bronze Medal - Iron Hardware and Metal Trades Pension Society Jubilee 1893
Gold Medal - London International Exhibition of Mining and Metallurgy 1890
Gold Medal - Crystal Palace Electrical Exhibition 1892
Gold Medal - International Health Exhibition, London 1884
Gold Medal - Crystal Palace International Exhibition 1882
Gold Medal - Preston Agricultural Society, 1875 (portable and vertical engines)
Gold Medal - Preston Agricultural Society, 1875 (water heater).
Admin History:
Paxman and Company of Colchester were a firm whose importance in engineering transcended county and even national boundaries. They pioneered many new developments and were foremost in the important and successive changes in the principle of motive power from steam or gas to oil and diesel.

The firm was founded in 1865 by James Paxman (1832-1922), who had learnt the techniques of casting as an apprentice to Stanford and Company, ironfounders, of Colchester High Street. Paxman, in association with Henry and Charles Davey, established the Standard Ironworks in Culver Street on a site later developed by Arthur G. Munford who flourished until 1933 as a builder of steam engines and `donkey' pumps. In 1872 the Davey brothers retired and Paxman built new premises, also called the Standard Ironworks, on Hythe Hill. These premises, with accretions and alterations, remained the nucleus of the firm's site.

The firm - originally Davey, Paxman and Davey - was converted in 1871 into Davey, Paxman and Company. This became a limited liability company in 1898, by which time the Patent Steam Corn Dryer had been in production for 20 years, and portable steam engines for about 16 years. The big period of expansion was in the 1880s and 1890s when the provision of Paxman plant for international exhibitions, and for the motive power in Paris streets (D/F 23/2/99) enhanced the firm's reputation. Agreements to make steam engines coupled to ammonia compressors for a refrigeration company in 1890, and the production of the so-called 'Peache' vertical steam engines a little later, followed by the Paxman steam engines with Lentz Patent Value Gear after 1900, meant a big expansion in the work force, already over 1,000 strong by 1903 [D/F 23/2/174]. The labour force gradually increased as the firm diversified into the manufacture of specialised equipment for the mining and metallurgical industry while the production of boilers, for which the firm is most widely known, continued as the basic unit of sale. Production of steam engines finally ended in 1927 with what are probably the most attractive testimonies to Paxman engineering - the scaled-down Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway locomotives which are still in regular use.

Production of heavy oil engines, with compression ignition, was started in 1914; in 1925 the firm made their first spring injection vertical heavy oil engine, and the diesel engines which followed from this, built from 1934 from designs by Messrs Ricardo Ltd, assured the company's success. In the same decade they built the diesel engines for MV Lochfyne, the first diesel-electric vessel to be put into service in home waters, and the first diesel engines for rail traction in England. In the Second World War, after the then derelict Britannia Works were taken over (see below) for the production of Paxman engines, the company played an outstanding role in the war effort. Paxman engines powered over half the British submarines built in the war, all the British diesel-engined tank landing craft, all the British diesel-engined motor gun boats and the 'Gay Viking' class of blockade runners. After the war the revolutionary diesel electric locomotive number 10800 had a Paxman engine.

In 1920 Davey, Paxman and Company Ltd had joined Agricultural and General Engineers Ltd (AGE), a consortium of 14 firms of national importance (including E.H. Bentall and Company, Blackstone and Company of Stamford and E.R.and F. Turner of Ipswich). Despite the individual importance of the member companies, the consortium collectively went into liquidation in 1932, and Paxman and Company were reformed as Davey, Paxman and Company (Colchester) Ltd. In 1940 the firm was acquired by Ruston and Hornsby of Lincoln, reverting in 1941 to the name Davey, Paxman and Company Ltd.

The division of the Colchester factory between the Standard and Britannia Works dated from 1940. The Britannia Works had been originally (at least as early as 1823) the foundry of W. Dearn, a nail maker who also did general castings. The property was acquired and extended by Blomfield and Bear and called the Britannia Sewing Machine Company. The firm later diversified and the Britannia Lathe and Oil Engine Company Ltd built up the machine tool and general engineering side. By the early 20th century bicycles, engines and motor cars were among products made there. The factory closed in 1937/8. By 1940 the works were derelict, but they were reconstructed for the production of diesel engines as part of the emergency war programme. Following severe bomb damage in 1944 they were rebuilt and re-equipped within six months.

In 1966, Ruston Paxman was taken over by the English Electric Group, and thence in 1968 became part of the General Electric Company (GEC). In 1989 the Paxman business entered the joint venture GEC Alsthom. It was sold in 2000 to MAN B&W Diesel AG. The Colchester site was closed progressively during 2020-2022.
System Arrangement:
The disposition of these records raises problems in the interpretation and dating of many of the uncaptioned photographs and booklets and, secondly, in the need to integrate records of varied archival status (for instance originals, copies and photocopies) which are nevertheless in total a reflection of the activities of a department. Even the basic classification of a collection formed largely of photographic material is difficult, but a broad division has been made between administrative, publicity, and social or ancillary functions.
Related Unit of Description:
For the history of the firm see Andrew Phillips, Steam and the road to glory: the Paxman story (2002) and its continuation Paxman of Colchester: the rise and fall of a British industry, 1918-2022. An illustrated history (2023), together with Richard Carr's site https://paxmanhistory.org.uk/ (accessed 21 January 2026).