Bodley & Co. - Commercial Road

There are two Bodley's associated with the city of Exeter; the first, Sir Thomas Bodley went on to found the world famous Bodlein Library in Oxford, while second was a family, rather than a single individual, who for 177 years ran one of the city's most successful and innovative iron foundries in the city.

In 1786 a grocer by the name George Bodley died, passing on his entitlement as a freeman of the city, and his profession to his son, also named George (II). Not much is known about George Bodley (II), other than that his son, also confusingly named George (III) started an iron foundry in 1790, initially in the Westgate Quarter and soon after at Quay Place in what was then named City Road and later named Commercial Road. The young George meant business because he soon installed an independent melting unit for cast iron.

In 1801 he took out a patent for a bark mill, a piece of machinery that would grind bark for use in the tanning industry. There was plenty of water power in Exeter for such a device and the city had a healthy leather industry, although Bodleys would have sold such a device further afield. The next year, George (III) patented the famous Bodley stove, a product that would sustain the foundry for many years, and then in 1816, a patent for a metalline engine was granted. George Bodley was into his stride and the business went from strength to strength.

George's father George (II) became involved in his son's foundry and not only purchased castings from his son's business, but he also signed receipts for the foundry which appear in the original day book.  Unfortunately George (II) suffered ill health from 1812 and he died in 1819. George (III) had a son Alfred (I) who was probably born around 1780. By the time of his grandfather's death, he would have been about 39 years old. It was Alfred who would provide the next generation to run Bodley and Co. William Canute, initially the most influential of Alfred's children, was the youngest son, born in 1802. In addition he had two brothers, Alfred (II) and Owen Arthur and a sister Rhoda Stapledon. As soon as they were old enough, Alfred and William Canute joined their father and grandfather in the business, while Owen Arthur was apprenticed as an engineer.

Father and Son

By 1835 the company was named A & WC Bodley, indicating William Canute's leading role in running the business. Just three years after what appeared to be a healthy father and son partnership, there was an amicable split when William Canute set up the West of England Foundry which was situated opposite the cattle market on land that is now occupied by Renslade House. Not only did the new foundry manufacture waterwheels and undertake other general foundry work, but William Canute took with him the right to manufacture the famous Bodley stove.

Meanwhile, back in Commercial Road, his brother, Alfred (II) became the works manager and Owen Arthur had also joined the firm. They took on Frederick Henry Brook an experienced engineer.

Bodley and Co. went from strength to strength manufacturing machine-tools, traction and steam engines, making general castings and the Bodley stove. They also became specialists in manufacturing cast iron, machine moulded gear wheels, building up an impressive collection of finely carved, wooden moulds. They used machinery and techniques developed in Lancashire for the textile industry, adapting them for their own use.

Much specialist machinery was either purchased or designed and manufactured for their own use - mechanical cupola-charging machines, blast mains, fans, loam mills, cranes and drying ovens were installed in the mid 19th century. The largest machine tool, a lathe with extension chucking-pieces bearing the name on a plate of Alfred Bodley 1858 testifies to their own ingenuity.

In 1856, William Canute sold the West of England Foundry along with rights to the Bodley stove to Thomas Kerslake of the High Street, and returned to work in the family business in Commercial Road.

A family split

Maybe as a result of William Canute's return, plus his late marriage in 1855 and the production of ten children during the next 16 years, strains appeared in the family. Alfred (II) who was works manager, quarrelled with his father and brothers and as a result he was removed from his father's will. In 1865, his father died at the age of 85 and some months later, Alfred (II) left the firm and went into partnership with Christopher Marden Taylor to form the other well known iron foundry Taylor and Bodley, at Northam's Foundry, Commercial Road. Within a stone's throw of each other, the two foundries would compete for business, trying to outdo their rival. However, the new partnership was also stormy, leading at times to an uneasy three way relationship between Christopher Taylor, Alfred Bodley and Bodley and Co.

To try and maintain their prior legitimacy, the letterhead of Bodley's was worded Bodley Bros. Sole Successors to the late Alfred Bodley.

Time rolled on and the generation born at the turn of the 19th century were growing old. William Canute sold his shares in the business to his brother Owen Arthur in 1876 and was dead within months. His much younger wife, no doubt worn out by childbirth, died in 1879.

His brother Owen Arthur, William Henry Brook and Charles Ashford an accountant were charged with keeping William Canute's estate in trust until the youngest child was 21.

Of the ten children produced by William Canute and his wife Mary, only Owen Henry served his apprenticeship at Bodley's and stayed with them all his working life until his death sometime after the Second World War.

Into the 20th Century

Meanwhile, the foundry continued to service the local mills, with new equipment and spare parts, and in 1891, a new and improved high breast undershot wheel was installed at Tracey Mill using Bodley castings installed by Michelburg Foundry at Honiton. The wheels for Cricklepit Mill were also cast at Bodley and Co; many gear wheels for the mills had cogs made of apple wood fixed into the cast iron wheel, as the wood did not require lubrication.

Calculations for gear cutting by the machine operator were made by chalking on the floor; chalk was provided as large lumps the size of a loaf of bread, and the operative would knock off convenient pieces. Chalk was also rubbed onto the metal of the job which was then rubbed off with the hand. A scriber, often a sharpened knitting needle, was then used to mark out the job to an accuracy of a 100th of an inch. Another product at this time, for export, were the large, steam heated, pans that were used for sugar production in the West Indies.

Of Owen Arthur's four children only Colin Bodley joined the firm in 1905, but he was not a success and left in 1911. Owen Arthur had himself retired, ending his days in the family seat of Dunscombe, home of Sir Thomas Bodley, and closing the circle with his illustrious Elizabethan ancestor. His other children, Elsie E, Alice Margaret and Rhoda took no active part in the affairs of the foundry and the business was administered by the trustees, Campion the solicitors, for the children.

In the 1960's, machine tools that were well over 100 years old, all driven by a labyrinth of overhead belts and pulleys were still working hard. One lathe, which was driven by its own steam engine, had a base that was 25ft long with a big pit beneath to allow the turning of 8 metre or greater diameter wheels. Other machines were powered by a large, vertical steam-engine, which also ran the foundry cranes and coke fed cupola-charging mechanism. The works hooter on the roof was powered by the steam engine - it would sound at 7.55am for the start of the day and again at 8am when production commenced. If a worker was late he had to enter the works via the office gate to be checked in. Each worker carried a 40mm diameter brass disc with their works number stamped on the front; it was hung on a numbered hook on a board to indicate their presence, and registered by the Timey who kept the time book.

The two coke fed cupolas would take a day to melt down the scrap cast and pig iron; large fans would blast air into the furnace causing, on a cold winters day, bright red sparks to fly up like a firework display, from the chimneys that could be seen from all around Shilhay and St Thomas. When melted, the molten metal was tapped off and run into ladles to be poured into the greensand moulds on the floor. After the Second War, electricity replaced the steam engine to power the cranes and other equipment.

Before the advent of reliable petrol driven lorries, large castings were transported on a sort of low horse drawn, two wheeled chariot. They would be hauled over the Exe Bridge to the railway sidings at Haven Banks before transporting by train to the customer.

The last casting

The last gearwheel castings were poured in March 1967 - the casting of a 140 tooth, 15ft diameter, 10 inch thick gear wheel for Russia was filmed by a TV crew. Two ladles of iron had to be poured - one of two-tons and one of three-tons.

Thousands of nineteenth-century wooden patterns made from mahogany and teak were stored over the office in the iron founder's town-house. Natural oils in the wood allowed them to be removed easily from the greensand that made the moulds.

Campions continued to administer the foundry until 1966 when Elsie Bodley, the last of the children died - the foundry was closed down the next year, 177 years after it was founded.

Much of the machinery was sent to the Science Museum in Kensington. Bodley and Co's collection of plans, photographs, working drawings, and other papers, from the founding in 1790 to 1959, were rescued from the Commercial Road premises and are stored in the Devon Records Office. Now, the place on Commercial Road that saw 177 years of industrial activity is given over to the Shilhay housing estate.

Sources: Memories of Cyril Brown collated in 1977 by the Exeter Industrial Archeaology Group, the Foundry Trade Journal March 30th 1967, Trewmans Exeter Flying Post and research undertaken by Mr C Coombe 1969

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