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CJR FYSON & SON LIMITED
Paddock Street, Soham, Cambridgeshire, CB7 5 Soham Community
History Museum - Fyson Window Windmills CJR Fyson & Son Ltd, known locally as Fyson’s, was founded in October 1848 at a site in Paddock Street in the fen edge market town of Soham, Cambridgeshire. The proprietor, Richard Fyson set out to produce windmills from what was then a waterside industrial site. His business was to make windmills and later to build steam engines, both of which were required in considerable quantities for agricultural purposes and, in the fens in particular, drainage. There is clearly work other that just mills indicated in Fysons early records. They were heavily involved in threshing work by the 1860’s.
Hundreds of small windmills were made at the Paddock Street firm. They were used to pump ground water from ditches all over the fens, up into the rivers, which would eventually take the water, via the main river channels out to sea. Owing to the high local demand for replacement and renewals of mills, and repairs to existing mills, Fyson’s soon became a steady and profitable business and functioned alongside the other millwrights business in Soham known as ‘Hunt Bros.’, which was situated across town from Fysons at Mill Corner, in those days a waterside industrial area called after its’ situation ‘Waterside’. Hunt Bros. sold their land to the millers Clarke and Butcher c.1876 and eventually old Thomas Hunt retired leaving Fyson’s with the lion’s share of the millwrights business in the local area.
The manufacture of
windmills from early times had been a craft passed down to apprentices, and was
so well practised, that the mills were made to specifications without drawings
or blueprint. The Fyson family still have several drawings of the mills made by
the family firm in the early days, which were kept as a pictorial record of
their work.
During the time of CJR
Fyson and RW Fyson, there was a strong tendency, typical of engineering firms in
East Anglia, to carry on jobbing work of a varied nature. Manufacturers such as
Fyson’s produced thousands of small agricultural implements and tools as a
sideline to their main business. Fysons were producing elevators by 1916 for use
with threshing drums - the Hayes patent elevators were technologically advanced
for the time. By 1921, Fysons were looking at the use of farm tractors. The Age of Steam It must have been a
shrewd mind and an eye for business, which lead Richard Fyson to make the
transition from a millwright and blacksmith to an agricultural engineer in the
1890’s. With the introduction of steam pumps across the fens and factory milled
flour, the windmill was becoming a thing of the past. Fyson’s needed a new
product to keep them in business. Richard Fyson deliberated to make a steam
engine, which would perfectly suit the unique conditions of the fenland farmer.
It is recorded that Fyson’s were working with portables since at least the
1870’s and began working with traction engines in the early 1880’s.
Many of the parts of the engines were brought in from other companies, to produce what would nowadays be termed as a custom engine. Some of the boilers were brought in from Dodmans at Kings Lynn. Other parts were brought in from various suppliers including Burrells at Thetford. Dodmans records of transactions with Fyson, and Fyson’s own employment costs suggest that each engine took 2 years to build. During only 30 years of manufacture, between 1894 and 1924, Fyson’s produced 17 traction engines of which 15 were their own design. These 15 were all 8HP, single cylinder engines, produced for use with threshing machinery. Most of these were hired out to local farmers during the harvest season, although T3 and T6 were sold new.
The other 2 engines
produced by Fyson’s were both rebuilds of other makes. The first ‘T11’ was based
around the boiler and top works of a ‘Fowler Road Loco’ destined for South
Africa and shipwrecked off the Scillies, and the other was a rebuild using parts
of a Robey traction engine. Neither was successful. The latter being a poor
steamer and generally underpowered, and the former, having been salvaged, seemed
to need regular repairs, including possibly a new crankshaft and brake drum.
FOWELL 85: WAS BUILT FOR S MORBEY OF SOHAM AND DELIVERED IN 1898 — ROAD TAX NO. EB2833. IT WAS SOLD IN 1921 TO JF ALDERMAN OF THORNEY AND IN 1926 TO JH OGDEN OF MARCH. IN 1937 IT WAS BOUGHT BY SA FLACK OF OUTWELL WHERE IT SAW OUT THE LAST OF ITS WORKING DAYS. TE7HP WAS SCRAPPED IN 1941/1942 FOWELL 43: WAS BUILT FOR CJR FYSON AND SONS OF SOHAM AND DELIVERED IN SEPTEMBER 1889. IT WAS LATER OWNED BY JOHN MAY OF OUTWELL THEN BY MATTHEW PALMER OF CHATTERIS. IT WAS BOUGHT IN 1923 BY EA FOLEY OF BOURNE. The Fyson Six-Sailed Windmill
The Fyson factory was
famous in the town for its own unique landmark. A six-sailed mill built by
Fyson’s in their yard from scraps of timber and engine parts stood above the
surrounding landscape, and acted as a permanent advertisement for the business.
The windmill was used for many years to power the workshop machinery. It is
still remembered by several Soham residents. Sunday School Treat
For regular attendances
at Sunday schools the annual treat was eagerly awaited. For those who attended
the Baptist Church in Clay Street, a tour around the town in open top waggons,
drawn by a Fyson engine was especially rewarding. The Superintendent of the
Sunday school was Mr Richard Fyson, owner of the engine pictured here in about
1923. Believed to be a Fyson T10, the engine is being driven through Soham High
Street by John Robert Fletcher and steered by Frank Fletcher. Fyson - Conveying Technology to Industry
The following text was taken from a Fyson’s marketing brochure of the 1980’s:-
Fyson Shiploading Conveyors
During the last few years trading, Fyson built a variety of Shiploading Conveyors, usually custom built and made to order, which were designed to load materials on board ships up to 12,500 tons. The shiploading conveyors were diesel driven with the power used to help raise and lower the main boom and were also supplied complete with a low level lorry tipping hopper which allowed road vehicles to tip directly on to the tail of the conveyor. The head section of the conveyors were usually fitted with a twin spout chute which would allow the flow of material to be directed in manageable streams to assist trimming of vehicles. The main shiploader conveyors used a 900mm wide U-form belt at a maximum operating angle of 25° and the GB feeder conveyors each had 800mm wide belts and a fixed angle of elevation. The Fyson Family
1850 - Slater’s Directory: Richard Fyson, Millwright, Paydock Street, Soham [sic] 1853 - Kelly’s Directory: Richard Fyson, Millwright and Blacksmith, Paddock Street, Soham 1879 - Soham Post Office Directory: Charles John (Richard) Fyson, Millwright and Engineer, Paddock Street, Soham 1908 - Kelly’s Directory: CJR Fyson & Son, Agricultural Engineers, Millwrights, Iron & Brass Founders, Agricultural Implement Agents & Repairers & Threshing Machine & Traction Engine Proprietors. Trading as ‘Fyson Engineer’ 1916 - Kelly’s Directory: CJR Fyson & Son, Agricultural Engineer 1929 - Kelly’s
Directory: CJR Fyson & Son, Agricultural Engineers, Millwrights, Iron & Brass
Founders, Agricultural Implement Agents & Repairers, Threshing Machine &
Traction Engine Proprietors & Electric 1933 - Kelly’s Directory: CJR Fyson & Son, Motor Engineers, Agricultural Implement Agents & Repairers, Threshing Machine Proprietors & Electric & Oxy-Acetylene Welders. Trading as ‘Fyson Engineer'. The Dangers of Living in an Agricultural Town
The following excerpts from the local news of the time extracted from the ‘Soham Chronicle 1787-1899’ compiled by May Turner give a real insight into the dangers of living in an agricultural town in the 19th century. Directly linked with the Fyson family, these events paint a graphic picture of real life in Soham during the mid to late Victorian period. 1866 - Accident: On
Saturday last, a horse attached to a light cart belonging to Mrs W Fyson took
fright whilst tied to a gate at Mr Richard Fyson’s residence in Paddock Street
and started at full gallop up Maltings Lane to Pratt Street, where it came in
contact with a lamp post, opposite Mr Sheldrakes and turned the horse into Mr
Markhams shop window and carried the window completely in, the animal was then
secured. No one received injury. June 1892 - Tuesday morning about 5 o’clock or 6 o’clock am, a fire at Mr R Fyson, Millwright and Engineer at Paddock Street, Soham broke out. Prompt assistance rendered by workmen and others prevented a serious conflagration to the large amount of buildings, machinery, timber and other stick in trade, the flames were confined to a stable and shed containing oils, paints etc., where it seems to have originated. The Soham Fire Brigade were soon at work.
The End of an Era
In recent years Fyson became internationally known as a manufacturer of conveyor belts with many still in use to this day. The company, one of the oldest in Soham, finally closed in 1991. The old Fyson yard in Paddock Street was demolished and cleared soon after to make way for a new housing development and marked the end of an era for the town of Soham. Soham Community History
Museum Project wishes to thank the following people from the community of Soham,
who kindly loaned items for the Fyson window display:- Oliver Fyson, Reg &
Anita Brown, Geraldine Castle, Bernard Cocksedge, Helen Fordham, Peggy Gibbon,
Roger Lane, Soham Library, Tony Brown and the Road Locomotive Society. |
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