Prentice Brothers Limited

Last updated

Prentice Brothers Limited
Type Limited company
Industry Chemicals
Foundedc.1856;167 years ago (1856) in Stowmarket, England [1]
FounderThomas Prentice
Defunct1929 (1929)
FateMerged with Packard and James Fison (Thetford) Limited
Successor Fisons
Products Fertilisers
Number of employees
40 (1874 [2] )

Prentice Brothers Limited was an English fertiliser manufacturer founded in Stowmarket, Suffolk during the mid-1850s. The company produced a number of "chemical manure" products that used coprolites and rock phosphates among other ingredients. [1]

Contents

History

The Prentice family was prominent in Stowmarket at the time and operated a number of other businesses including a gasworks, corn and coal merchants, maltsters and a Guncotton Company. [3]

The fertiliser business was founded by Thomas Prentice and by 1866 was being run by his brothers, Eustace and Edward. [1] Manning Prentice joined the business in 1871 after Edward was killed in the nearby Guncotton explosion. [4] Manning Prentice developed patented techniques and processes around acids. [5] [6]

In 1922 a fire destroyed part of the works and needed to be rebuilt, and the 1920s was a problematic period for the industry partly due to falling demand. [4] In 1929 the company merged with Packard and James Fison (Thetford) Limited whose company was subsequently renamed to Fison, Packard & Prentice, Limited. [7] The Prentice and Fison families had previously been joined by the marriage. [3] That company then formally changed its name to the shorter Fisons Ltd in 1942. [8]

The Food Museum has a number of items from the company including a coprolite grinding stone apparently used by the company.

Location

The Prentice Chemical Works was located on the eastern side of the railway line approaching to Stowmarket railway station. The business made use of the railway to transport its goods. [9] Today, the area is occupied by the Tomo Industrial Estate.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Gipping</span> River in Suffolk, England

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thetford</span> Human settlement in England

Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of 29.55 km2 (11.41 sq mi), in 2011 had a population of 24,340.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coprolite</span> Fossilized feces

A coprolite is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour rather than morphology. The name is derived from the Greek words κόπρος and λίθος. They were first described by William Buckland in 1829. Before this, they were known as "fossil fir cones" and "bezoar stones". They serve a valuable purpose in paleontology because they provide direct evidence of the predation and diet of extinct organisms. Coprolites may range in size from a few millimetres to over 60 centimetres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stowmarket</span> Human settlement in England

Stowmarket is a market town in Suffolk, England, on the busy A14 trunk road between Bury St Edmunds to the west and Ipswich to the southeast. The town is on the main railway line between London and Norwich, and lies on the River Gipping, which is joined by its tributary, the River Rat, to the south of the town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ipswich railway station</span> Railway station in Suffolk, England

Ipswich railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Ipswich, Suffolk. It is 68 miles 59 chains (110.6 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and, on the main line, it is situated between Manningtree to the south and Needham Market to the north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stowmarket railway station</span> Grade II listed railway station in Suffolk, England

Stowmarket railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) in the East of England, serving the market town of Stowmarket, Suffolk. It is 80 miles 9 chains (128.9 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Needham Market to the south and Diss to the north. It is also the junction where the Ipswich to Ely Line joins the GEML. Its three-letter station code is SMK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snape, Suffolk</span> Human settlement in England

Snape is a small village in the English county of Suffolk, on the River Alde close to Aldeburgh. At the 2011 census the population was 611. In Anglo-Saxon England, Snape was the site of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial. Snape is now best known for Snape Maltings, no longer in commercial use, but converted into a tourist centre together with a concert hall that hosts the major part of the annual Aldeburgh Festival.

Trimley St. Martin is a parish and village that lies between the rivers Orwell and the Deben, on the long narrow tongue of land from Ipswich to Felixstowe referred to as the Colneis Hundred.

Fisons plc was a British multinational pharmaceutical, scientific instruments and horticultural chemicals company headquartered in Ipswich, United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was acquired by Rhone-Poulenc in 1995.

Ingham railway station was a railway station in Ingham, Suffolk which was located was on the route between Thetford and Bury St Edmunds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Thetford</span> Village in Cambridgeshire, England

Little Thetford is a small village in the civil parish of Thetford, 3 miles (5 km) south of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England, about 76 miles (122 km) by road from London. The village is built on a boulder clay island surrounded by flat fenland countryside, typical of settlements in this part of the East of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bramford railway station</span> Disused railway station in England

Bramford railway station refers to the two stations located in Bramford, Suffolk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Packard (businessman, born 1843)</span>

Sir Edward Packard, junior, was an English businessman who developed a major artificial fertilizer industry near Ipswich, Suffolk. He also was active in the formation and development of the Ipswich Art Club, also contributing a number of his paintings to various exhibitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of fertilizer</span>

The history of fertilizer has largely shaped political, economic, and social circumstances in their traditional uses. Subsequently, there has been a radical reshaping of environmental conditions following the development of chemically synthesized fertilizers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirton, Suffolk</span> Human settlement in England

Kirton is a village and a civil parish in the shire county of Suffolk, England, situated off the A14 road, about 4.5 km (2.8 mi) from Felixstowe and around 10 km (6.2 mi) from Ipswich. The closest train station to Kirton is Trimley. According to the 2011 census, Kirton had a population of 1,146. It is located between the River Deben and the River Orwell. The village of Kirton covers a total area of 8.3 km2 (3.2 sq mi). As the county of Suffolk lacks quarries, many of the buildings are made from flint, clay and timber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stowmarket Guncotton Explosion</span> 1871 industrial disaster in Stowmarket, Suffolk, England

The Stowmarket Guncotton Explosion happened on 11 August 1871 at the Prentices Guncotton Factory in Stowmarket, Suffolk. It was blown up by two massive explosions, that occurred within the factory, killing 28 people and injuring approximately 70 others.

Edward Packard, senior, was an English chemist and businessperson who founded and developed a major artificial fertilizer industry near Ipswich, Suffolk in the mid-nineteenth century, and became a wealthy and prominent figure in the life of the Borough. His son, Sir Edward Packard, junior developed Packard and James Fison (Thetford) Limited ('Fisons') into one of the largest fertiliser manufacturing businesses in the United Kingdom.

The chemical industry in the United Kingdom is one of the UK's main manufacturing industries. At one time, the UK's chemical industry was a world leader. The industry has also been environmentally damaging, and includes radioactive nuclear industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levington Research Station</span> Horticultural Research Centre in Levington, Suffolk

The Levington Research Station is a fertiliser research institute in Suffolk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stowmarket Guncotton Company</span> Defunct English explosives manufacturing company (1863–1907)

The Stowmarket Guncotton Company was an explosives company established in the 19th century by Messrs Prentice that operated a gun-cotton factory in Stowmarket, Suffolk, England. The factory was the scene of an explosion in 1871 that claimed the lives of 28 people.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "STOWMARKET, SUFFOLK". www.bernardoconnor.org.uk. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  2. "PrenticeNet :: Prentices of Palgrave, England". prenticenet.com. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  3. 1 2 "The Prentice Family". Stowmarket History and Heritage. Archived from the original on 12 August 2007.
  4. 1 2 Malster, Robert (2000). Stowmarket. Budding. p. 52. ISBN   978-1-84015-153-4 . Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  5. McDonald, Donald; Hunt, Leslie B. (1 January 1982). A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals. Johnson Matthey Plc. ISBN   978-0-905118-83-3.
  6. The Early Fertiliser Industry. Fisons Journal. December 1963.
  7. "Certificate of Change of Name - Packards, and James Fison (Thetford) Limited, Fison, Parkard and Prentice, Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  8. Early history of the company to 1960 Archived 20 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine at UK Competition Commission, 1960. (PDF) Accessed September 2007
  9. "Prentice Bros (Stowmarket) 14T tank wagon No.10, ex-Works. Chemical Works, Stowmarket. Wooden underframe". hmrs.org.uk. Retrieved 4 July 2021.

52°11′12″N1°00′18″E / 52.186590°N 1.004999°E / 52.186590; 1.004999