Joseph Jackson and the Lincoln Steel Castings and Vacuum Brake Company
Sara Eade, a family and local historian, carried out the following research on behalf of her niece and her husband, who moved into 'Riversdale' on Bridge Street in 2013.
Riversdale, 14 Bridge Street in Saxilby was built in 1905 and by 1911 was the home of Joseph Richard Jackson and his family. Joseph was born in the summer of 1874 in a small village called Talke in Staffordshire.
Joseph had trained as a Mechanical Engineer and the 1891 census shows that at that time he was an Apprentice Fitter.
Sometime after 1901, when Joseph and his family were living in Hammersmith, they moved to Lincolnshire, as by 1906 Joseph was living at Stafford House in Church Lane and the manager of a newly formed company, The Lincoln Steel Castings and Vacuum Brake Company Limited. In November 1906 the Company were advertising in the Lincolnshire Chronicle that shares were available to purchase.
An eight acre site, the former brickworks on Sykes Lane (now the site of the Health Centre) had been secured and Joseph Richard Jackson had been appointed the Works Manager.
The Directors were August Percy Gerald Ament, a Gentleman; Charles Cousins, a Director of an Iron and Steel Works in Lincoln; Charles Duckering, an Engineer and Iron Founder; George Lister Haslehurst, a Solicitor and Henry Johnson, an Iron Founder.
On the site at Saxilby there were suitable buildings (including a chimney stack and a large quantity of building material), boiler, and other machinery, sufficient with a small outlay, to enable the Company to start manufacturing whilst the erection of additional buildings was taking place.
Saxilby was chosen by the Company because the site was available and the village had good rail links served by the Great Northern, Great Eastern and Great Central Railways.
However, the Company didn’t really get off the ground, as by 1910 the London Gazette was announcing that a meeting had been arranged at the works in Saxilby on the 24th April to receive the report from the Liquidator, Robert W Fall. The 1911 census sees the family living at Riversdale in Saxilby with Joseph aged 36 and a Manager of an Iron and Steel Works, Mary aged 38, Florence 13, Evelina 11, Annie 10, Dorothy 6, Elsie 4 and Ethel, who had been born in Saxilby aged five months. The Census also tells us that the couple had been married for 17 years and had had nine children altogether and that three had died.
The family did not stay at Riversdale for very long as by 1913, they had moved to The Sun Inn, a few doors down from Riversdale in Bridge Street, where Joseph had become the landlord.
By 1919 Joseph was living at The Mill House on Broadholme Lane and he was listed by Kelly’s Directory as the Miller (Wind and Steam) at Saxilby Mill. He is still living in the Mill House in 1922 but the Miller is listed as the Pocklington Brothers.
Joseph died on the 4th June 1954 in Bakewell, Derbyshire. He was aged 80 and left a will amounting to the sum of £2,985 3s 5d. Probate was granted to Florence Jackson, Spinster, Ethel Jackson, Spinster and Walter Sergeant, Farmer.
Walter Sergeant was the husband of Eveline and the couple had been married in the winter of 1920. The marriage was registered in Lincoln, so it is possible the family were still in Saxilby at that time.
There is no mention of Mary Ellen in the Will reference so it is possible that she pre-deceased Joseph.
Possible marriages for the other daughters are Dorothy in the autumn of 1924 to Frank L Brader and Ethel in the autumn of 1933 to Herbert F Baines. There are a number of possibilities for marriages for an Annie Jackson.
