Calders & Grandidge is a specialist timber manufacturing and treatment company in Boston, Lincolnshire that is the UK's largest (and main) manufacturer of wooden telegraph and (electricity) transmission posts. The company holds a Royal Warrant for the supply of Pressure Treated Timber products to HM the Queen.
Calders Ltd was incorporated by Sir James Charles Calder CBE (28 December 1869- 22 August 1962) [1] of Milnathort, who was knighted in the 1921 Birthday Honours; he died in 1962 aged 92; he was Timber Controller at the Timber Supply Department of the Board of Trade from 1919–20; he was a friend of the American ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and his son; from 1940-41 he was Director of Home Timber Production.
A site in Boston was established in 1896 alongside Boston Dock, and moved to the 46-acre London Road site in the 1930s. Calders Ltd was incorporated on 3 February 1919 at Dunkeld in Scotland; the company was formed to acquire the business of Sir James Calder's grandfather, which was formed in 1820, and another company George Wood & Sons of Brandon, Suffolk.
It made railway sleepers for the Railway Executive (British Rail) and pit props for the Coal Mining business, by 1919 the company had also opened depots at Middlesbrough, Rotherhithe, Newcastle and Port Talbot, allowing expansion into what were the new markets, such as railway sleepers, pit props and fencing.
John MacKenzie Calder was a director in Calders Ltd but resigned in 1957 when it was taken over by Great Universal Stores. So the Calder family connection with the timber trade ended after some 140 years.
A booklet published circa 1947 lists an impressive range of products obtainable from the Calders Group: turnery, barrel staves, scaffold boards, factory paving blocks, sleepers and crossings, pit props and mining timber, constructional and building timbers: telegraph poles and telegraph arms, beer and mineral water cases and crates, imported and home grown softwoods and hardwoods, boxes for export, horticulture and agriculture, floorings – parquet, strip and block, wagon bottoms and sheeting’s, railway keys and ferrules, fencing and gates.
In 1945 the company took over James Grandidge Ltd, forming Calders & Grandidge on 24 March 1959. [2] In this same year Calders and all its subsidiaries were acquired by Montague L Meyer Ltd. In 1986, the company was awarded a Royal Warrant for Preserved Timber Fencing. [3]
In the 1980s it was a main supplier of wooden joists and rafters for house builders, known as the Calders system.
On 3 May 1948, Calders Ltd was floated on the London Stock Exchange. [4] In 1957 Calders Ltd was purchased by Great Universal Stores and then by Montague L Meyer Ltd in 1959. In 2000 it became part of the multi-national French construction products company Saint-Gobain as part of its purchase of Meyer International PLC
Wagonways, also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways. The terms plateway, tramway, dramway, were used. The advantage of wagonways was that far bigger loads could be transported with the same power.
A railroad tie, crosstie, railway tie or railway sleeper is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer loads to the track ballast and subgrade, hold the rails upright and keep them spaced to the correct gauge.
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A utility pole is a column or post typically made out of wood used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as electrical cable, fiber optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. It can be referred to as a transmission pole, telephone pole, telecommunication pole, power pole, hydro pole, telegraph pole, or telegraph post, depending on its application. A Stobie pole is a multi-purpose pole made of two steel joists held apart by a slab of concrete in the middle, generally found in South Australia.
The Lake Margaret Power Stations comprise two hydroelectric power stations located in Western Tasmania, Australia. The power stations are part of the King – Yolande Power Scheme and are owned and operated by Hydro Tasmania. Officially the Upper Lake Margaret Power Station, a conventional hydroelectric power station, and the Lower Lake Margaret Power Station, a mini-hydroelectric power station, the stations are generally collectively referred to in the singular format as the Lake Margaret Power Station. The stations are located approximately 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) apart.
The Monkland Canal was a 12+1⁄4-mile-long (19.7 km) canal designed to bring coal from the mining areas of Monklands to Glasgow in Scotland. In the course of a long and difficult construction process, it was opened progressively as short sections were completed, from 1771. It reached Gartcraig in 1782, and in 1794 it reached its full originally planned extent, from pits at Calderbank to a basin at Townhead in Glasgow; at first this was in two sections with a 96-foot (29 m) vertical interval between them at Blackhill; coal was unloaded and carted to the lower section and loaded onto a fresh barge. Locks were later constructed linking the two sections, and the canal was also connected to the Forth and Clyde Canal, giving additional business potential.
Netherton is a village in the City of Wakefield metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It lies about 4 miles south-west of Wakefield, 3 miles south of Ossett, 1 mile south of Horbury. The village is in the Wakefield Rural ward of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. The village name is shown on map "Dvcatvs Eboracensis pars occidentalis" from 1646.
Edwin James Houston was an American electrical engineer, academic, businessman, inventor and writer.
The Hendre-Ddu Tramway was a 1 ft 11 in narrow gauge industrial railway built in 1874 in Mid-Wales to connect the Hendre-Ddu slate quarry to Aberangell station on the Mawddwy Railway. It consisted of a main line 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) long and several branch lines and spurs serving other quarries, local farms and the timber industry.
Robert Hudson Ltd was a major international supplier of light railway materials, based in Gildersome, near Leeds, England. The name was later changed to Robert Hudson (Raletrux) Ltd.
The Polloc and Govan Railway was an early mineral railway near Glasgow in Scotland, constructed to bring coal and iron from William Dixon's collieries and ironworks to the River Clyde for onward transportation.
Jewson is one of the largest chains of British general builders' merchants, selling to small and medium building contractors. The chain comprises around 600 branches located all across Great Britain. Jewson is part of Denmark's STARK Group.
The Slamannan Railway was an early mineral railway between the north-eastern margin of Airdrie and Causewayend on the Union Canal, near Linlithgow, Scotland.
The Rutherglen and Coatbridge Railway was a railway line in Scotland built by the Caledonian Railway to shorten the route from the Coatbridge area to Glasgow. It opened in 1865. It was later extended to Airdrie in 1886, competing with the rival North British Railway. Soon after a further extension was built from Airdrie to Calderbank and Newhouse.
A forest railway, forest tram, timber line, logging railway or logging railroad is a mode of railway transport which is used for forestry tasks, primarily the transportation of felled logs to sawmills or railway stations.
Several mineral railways were constructed around Dunfermline in western Fife, Scotland, in the eighteenth century and later. Their purpose was to convey minerals to market from the outcropping coal deposits that had encouraged industrial activity in the area from an early date.
The WH Paxton & Co. Buildings are a heritage-listed group of offices and warehousing at 10 River Street, Mackay, Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia. The 1899 sections were designed by Mackay architect Arthur Rigby and constructed by Charles Porter and Joseph Vidulich (warehouse). The 1912 warehouse extension was designed by Brisbane architect Montague Talbot Stanley. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 14 August 2008.
Kuridala Township site is a heritage-listed mining camp in the locality of Kuridala, Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1880s to 1920s. It is also known as Hampden Township, Hampden Smelter, Kuridala Smelter, and Friezeland Township. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 12 June 2009.
The Makatote Tramway was from the late 1920s to 1940 a 2.6 kilometres (1.6 mi) long bush tramway network near Makatote in the central North island of New Zealand with a gauge of 4 feet 1 inch (1,245 mm) using metal and wooden rails. It was operated by Dinwoodie's Timber Company with probably less than 10 employees.
Passburg is a ghost town in the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta, Canada that was formerly a coal mining community. It is on Highway 3 approximately 130 km (81 mi) west of Lethbridge and 4 km (2.5 mi) southeast of Bellevue.
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