A history of Joseph Evans and Sons

Joseph Evans & Sons (Wolverhampton) Ltd. made pumps.  They made pumps of all sorts, from the smallest to the largest.  Pumping was one of the most important activities in industry. One of the earliest applications of steam power was pumping water from mines and it was this which enabled mines of all sorts to go deeper, for the coal and other minerals which fuelled the industrial revolution. But industry needed pumps for many other uses as well, from pumping materials around factories to pumping gas and water to consumers.  And pumps were needed on farms and for domestic purposes.  Evans tried to meet all of these pumping needs.  Their range of pumps gives some indication of the importance of pumps.

The company was founded by Joseph Evans, a charcoal merchant, in, perhaps, 1810, though John Mackay thinks that it is much older than that and may go back to the 1760s.  In 1910 it was an iron foundry, making cast iron drainage ware.  At some point they moved in to the manufacture of pumps. Why they did so is not known but there would have been a large number of steam pumping engines in use throughout the Black Country and the growing need for pumps of all sorts would have been obvious.  It may be that Joseph Evans' connection with charcoal (widely used as a filter) and drainage works, gave him a lead.   But it must have been a difficult market to break into, as it was dominated by some of the industrial giants.

It is thought that the original foundry would have been somewhere in the industrial parts of Wolverhampton itself.  The company's rapid expansion in the pump making business lead to a need for bigger premises.  They may have made two moves but the second and final move was to Culwell Works at Heath Town.   These works (which are some way further out of town than the site of the Cull Well near Culwell Street) are shown in the 1902 Ordnance Survey map, occupying a very large site on Woden Road and backing directly on to the railway goods station of the London and North Western Railway. Almost certainly these works would have been built from scratch by Evans.

This letter head shown below dates from 1893 and says that they have works at Wolverhampton and Heath Town. Presumably they kept the first (or second) works whilst the new works were expanding at Heath Town.  The move to Heath Town must have started sometime between 1810 and 1893 and a date sometime in the third quarter of the century seems likely for the start of the move.

The letterhead refers to many awards at international exhibitions, starting with Paris in 1867.  They must have been pretty well established by that date.  The other awards show that they were certainly seeking a wide export trade.

Rupert Evans tells us that the company used the Lion trade mark from about 1890.  Before then they used a monogram of JE&S.  They also seem to have used "E CULWELL" in a kind of lifebelt shape with the words "Evans Brand England" on it (as shown in the letterhead above).  Some of the pumps they made were not marked because they made them for other companies, including Lister and Climax.  

The company also had other lines.  They were the manufacturers of "Pickering" governors, as fitted to steam engines.  They also did the cylinder casting for AJS motorcycles, A. J. Stephens himself having been an apprentice at Joseph Evans.

In this advertisement, which seems to come from the 1920s, they claim to be the largest makers (of pumps) in the world. They make pumps powered by almost any means, from hand powered pumps to large steam powered pumps, and even horse powered, wind powered and electric powered pumps.  And they make them for all purposes, from very large pumps for industry to smaller pumps for "house, yard, garden".

This photograph, of unknown date, is said to be of the interior of a small part of their Culwell Works.  It may well be the building which ran alongside Woden Road.   It shows a large machine shop, apparently run entirely from overhead line shafts.  The machined items down the central aisle seem to be parts of pumps.

A catalogue of 1897, showing their smaller pumps, and another of 1930, showing their heavier pumps, has come into the curator's hands, and shows them making a wide range of traditional pumps.  (Illustrations and details of some of these pumps may be found by following the links to the catalogues)

During the first world war, Rupert Evans tells us, the company supplied pumps (typically for pumping trenches) to the War Department.  They never sent a bill for them.  It may have been this which encouraged Lloyd George to arrange for one of the owner/directors to be knighted.  The Baronetcy was given to Walter Harry Evans, rather than to his older brother Osmond, who was not married and so had no children.  (The second baronet is Sir Anthony Evans). 

During the second world war the company produced large pumps which pumped the oil through PLUTO - Pipe Line Under The Ocean - which supplied the invasion forces after the Normandy landings.   

This advertisement comes from a local directory for 1950 and in it they have chosen to concentrate on their rural pumps, presumably for raising water for farms and perhaps for pumping slurry. The advert also mentions a London office at 32 Victoria Street, London, SW1.  Victoria Street was the traditional location for engineers to have their offices.

In this advertisement from 1953 they describe themselves as "in association with Pulsometer Engineering Co. Ltd." and they show not only their Victoria Street offices but also branches at Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Derby - jus about all the major manufacturing centres.  But whether these are their own branches and whether they came with the association with Pulsometer is not known. Pulsometer Engineering presumably made pulsometers.  "Pulsometer" is a word which can be applied to a number of different things but in this context it refers to pumps which operated without pistons.  It seems likely that all or most of Evans pumps used pistons and this association enabled the two companies to cover the entire range.

In the Wolverhampton Official Handbook for 1953 their entry says that they have hundreds of different types of pumps in regular production.  "Small pumps associated with domestic duties, cellar drainage, etc., are manufactured in the light engineering departments and in the heavy engineering shops the large capacity pumps are produced  for oil refineries, water works, gas works, the collieries, irrigation schemes and numerous other special requirements".

They also says that their association with Pulsometer Engineering Co Ltd. started in 1951, though the exact nature of this association is not made clear.  They say that Pulsometer were established in 1875 and make centrifugal, turbine and vacuum pumps and water purification plants.  "The combined Evans-Pulsometer organisation is thus able to provide a very comprehensive range of pumps suitable for most duties and purposes".  

Tony Gratton's Lion Leo Pump, restored by him.  Despite the fact that Evans used a lion trade mark, Leo pumps were made by Matterson, Huxley & Watson Ltd., Lion Foundry, Coventry.  What the relationship between the two firms was, if any, is not known.

In the 1957 Official Handbook they have an advert which describes them as making "all types of reciprocating pumps  including those for water infusion of coal, high pressure cleaning, oil refinery duties and domestic purposes"; and, in addition, they are "famous for centrifugal pumps, high vacuum pumps and filtration plant".  Their entry in the directory is by far the most extensive they ever had.  It seems to indicate that in the 1950s the firm had been busily trying to widen its range beyond the pumps themselves to include complete application systems; and to meet specific new needs.  After reciting their usual range, they say:

"During the past year, notable progress has been made with the development and sale of Hydraulic Pressure Cleaning Units, utilising aerated water at high pressure for difficult cleaning operations. Whilst foreign units are also on the market, the British product made at the Wolverhampton factory of Joseph Evans & Sons is superior in design and performance." The high pressure cleaning unit is shown in the photo to the left.

They continue:

"Highly efficient equipment for the water infusion of coal has also been developed from the original idea of forcing water under high pressure into coal at the working face. Experiments have shown that when water has been infused into the coal, the dust arising during the coal extraction is very considerably reduced and infused coal tends to break up more easily into sizes more suitable for handling by the mechanised plant frequently used at collieries.

"Experiments have been carried out to ascertain he most suitable pressure for infusion of the coal and the amount of shot firing which has to be done can be considerably reduced by the use of Evans' Water Infusion Pumps. At the present time considerable thought is being given to the possibility of a more extensive application of the principle of breaking coal by the infusion of water, particularly by means of high pressure hydraulic pulsations."

"In conjunction with the parent company, Joseph Evans have also been active in the design and manufacture of a new standard range of centrifugal pumps described as the Unistream Pumps. These pumps have many interchangeable parts and are suitable for manufacture on a mass production basis, thus lowering costs and easing spares supply problems. A comprehensive range of duties is covered by the various sizes and pumps within the Unistream range can be provided with special parts for dealing with corrosive liquids."

All of this seems to suggest a change in the company's direction.  It may be that the traditional pumps were not selling as well as they might and cheaper (and less long-lasting) general purpose pumps, with more readily interchangeable spare parts, were seen as a way forward.  But the emphasis on the cleaning equipment is something new and and development of coal infusion pumps takes the company into final applications, which it had not done much before. 

In the 1959 Handbook and the 1962 handbook the entry is back to the basic outline, with no mention of cleaning equipment or coal infusion.  The company is listed in the 1964 Red Book (Kelly's Directory) but not in the 1965 edition.  One concludes that the company closed during this time or perhaps removed what remained of their organisation to Pulsometer at Reading.  The product modernisation of the late 1950s seems not to have worked.  Whatever might have been the potential for cleaning equipment, hitching your wagon to the domestic coal mining industry's falling star may well have proved fatal.

The Culwell Works is now an industrial estate.  Some of the old buildings, which must date from Evans' times, still exist.  Some are shown here (left) in a view from the centre looking towards Woden Road.

The old buildings (shown right) front Woden Road. (The Heath Town Flats are just visible on the left edge of the photo).  The rest of the site has been cleared and is now occupied by newly built premises, of the tin shed style.

There are no Evans pumps being made today.  But several are preserved in museums and in private hands.  You can see some of them by following the link, below, to "Evans Pumps Today".  The other links below lead to extracts from two Evans' catalogues, giving an idea of the great range of pumps Evans produced.

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