In 1829. directors ot the newly formed Liverpool and Manchester Railway offered a £500 prize to build a locomotive capable of pulling a specified weight along a quarter mile of railway track.
The trials took place at Rainhill, near Liverpool and Robert Stephenson's four and a quarter ton, yellow and black engine, the Rocket, prevailed over the competitors. Novelty; Sans Pareil; and Perseverence. The Rocket now became aprototype for the engines subsequently ordered by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, ushering in the new age of steam.
Earlier, in 1813, a son had been born to a pair of impoverished hand-loom weavers, who lived in Plauen, a town in the Vogtland district of Saxony, in Germany. The child was christened Karl Friedrich. Due to financial circumstances, he recerved minimal education, being expected to follow the trade of his parents. Karl became bound apprentice to a master weaver though his mother wished he might one day become an architect. He had often amused himself by making models of buildings. It happened that, when Karl was twelve, a young architect settled in the town. The boy's talent became known to him and it was arranged that, for a quarterly fee of four shillings (about 20p). Karl's free hours would be used to take lessons in drawing; arithmetic; and geometry. Karl made rapid progress. His framed drawing of a person's head so impressed a local doctor, that he recommended Kari to the new Polytechnic, in Dresden. Karl's father worried about finding the means to support his son, in the City, but the Doctor had influence and a sum of thirty thalers (about £4.50) was granted by the State, towards his education. He left his apprenticeship and went to Dresden for four long. penny-pinching years. Money for his dinner was often limited to three pfennigs (less than one fifth of the new penny) and Karl had to eke out his meagre resources by preparing papers for the work shops and keeping some of the time-books. These efforts earned him just three farthings per hour, equal to a rate of ten new pence for thirtytwo hours. Pittance pay, even in those days.
But Karl completed his studies in engineering draughtsmanship and gained a position in a machine shop, in nearby Chemnitz. He did so well that, in the summer of 1834.the Saxony government granted him 300 thalers (that is about £45), to visit England and report on developments in cotton-spinriing machinery. This bought him into contact with one of England's foremost mechanical inventors, a man named Richard Roberts. of the Manchester firm, Sharp, Roberts & Co. Karl returned home and made his report, which led to him being offered management of a company in Cheminitz, or of another in Dresden. He was just twenty-one, but he boldly declined both Instead, he returned to Manchester later that year ,to join Sharp, Roberts and Co as a lowly improver draughtsman'.
After three years of progression in the frm, he was transf erred to the design of locomotives, under the personal supervision of Richard Roberts. After Richard's retirement in 1843, Karl succeeded his mentor as chief engineer. His Saxon names had, by now, been anglicised to Charles Frederick, but he retained his surname, which you will surely have guessed, was Beyer.
In a life somewhat parallel to Beyer's, but without the financial problems, Richard Peacock, aged only twenty, was General Manager of the newly constructed locomotive and carriage depot at Openshaw. which would later become known as ‘Gorton Tank'. Richard had joined the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoinshire Railway Company, three years previously and had made such an impression that, when the directors decided to build the massive new depot at Openshaw, Peacock was invited to become the consultant and principle designer. In 1854, Peacock resigned this position to join Beyer, who had left his employment the year previously.
The two entered into partnership, opening a Market Street office and there formulated plans for a new Gorton Foundry. The source of most of their finance was a banker, Henry Robertson, who became a 'sleeping' partner. Twelve acres of land were purchased, contiguous to the railway at Gorton and the first brick of the new workshop was laid on March 14th., 1854. The first recorded meeting of Beyer. Peacock and Company was convened on January 12th.. 1855, in Gorton. The following month, the far from sleeping partner, Robertson, lauched the first sales campaign and obtained an order from the South Staffordshire Railway for four engines, each to weigh twenty five tons and cost £2750. Only sixteen months after construction of the factory was commenced, the first Beyer-Peacock Locomotive was completed, delivery being effected on July twenty-first, 1885. Orders followed quickly, from the East Indian Railway; the Royal Swedish Railway; the Lombardo and Venetian Railway; and many others, throughout Europe and globally, from Peru to Burma. As orders increased, so did the size of the factory. It is a testament to the far-sightedness of Beyer and Peacock that, for at least the next fifty years. development of the factory proceeded precisely on the lines set out by the two engineers in 1854.
Despite a strong attachment to Miss Sharp, daughter of his former employer Beyer never married. His love focussed on his work and on the house and estate he bought, in Denbighshire known as Llantysilio Hall. He became a magistrate and in many ways, a benefactor, to his adopted land. He met the costs of over £6,421. to build the new St James Church and Rectory. Beyer also rebuilt the old church on his Welsh estate and gave large sums of money to vatiow science and engineering scholarship funds in Manchester. He died at Llarvtysilio Hall on June 2nd. 1876 and is buried there.
Richard Peacock's wife, Hannah. bore him two sons. He entered politics and for a time, he was Gorton's MP. In 1865 he bought Gorton Hall - his initials are still to be seen, on the gable of the lodge, which remains, at the junction of Far Lane and Hengist Street. It was an idiosyncrasy of his, that all his footmen should wear peacock feathers in their hats. He died, at Gorton Hall, on March 13th., 1889 and is interred in the churchyard of Brookfield Church, the building of which, he financed.
An extract from the 'Bayer Peacock Quarterly Revue' of July 1929, is reminiscent of the attitudes and forethought of Charles Bayer and Richard Peacock. Itreads, ‘Progress is not an accident but a necessity. It is part of Nature. Some confuse progress with motion and are entirely content with a merry-go-round. To progress. one must first look forward. Nothing, in progression, can rest on its original plan. We might as well think of rocking a grown man in a cradle.