1764 AD - Soho Works started

Soho Works was the first large factory in the world. The works had been started near the Hockley Brook in 1764 and was fully complete with a foundry in 1790. A vast range of buildings were put up and the main source of power was water from the Brook.

Though Matthew Boulton was the major owner the factory or 'manufactory' was actually a group of workshops rented out to smaller companies (some of which he owned in partnership with other men) and these turned out a broad range of goods. Buttons, buckles, solid and plated silver items, coins, medals and various types of engine were made or assembled and sent all over Britain as well as abroad.

Matthew Boulton said "I wish to know the taste, the fashions, the toys (trinkets) both useful and ornamental, the implements, vessels etc. etc. in all the different parts of Europe, as I should be glad to work for all Europe. If you see any new ideas or inventions on your travels please write instantly giving full details" - adapted from a letter to his Agent.

Over 1000 men and women had to work long hours in the Works but because of the relatively high wages and good working conditions there was always a queue of people at the gate asking for work All he workers were over 12 years of age at a time when most employers were using children as young as 7 for some tasks. He even had a sick-benefit system related to wages earned - 150 years before any government introduced the idea. In the works the carefully planned use of water power cut down on many of the back-breaking laborious tasks and speeded up the production of goods.

One of the most famous men to work with Boulton was James Watt. As a young man in Glasgow Watt had greatly improved a water pumping engine powered by steam, which had been invented by Thomas Newcomen and was used by all the tin and coal mines to remove water which always caused problems when deep holes were dug. These engines were vital to the mines but below a relatively shallow depth they were very inefficient, needed a lot of fuel to make the steam and frequently broke down.

In 1774 Boulton and Watt entered a partnership and at Soho they started to assemble the pumping engines from parts made by John Wilkinson in Shropshire. These Watt steam engines used less fuel and worked faster than the original Newcomen machines. Boulton realised that if he and Watt could make rotary motion rather than just up and down movement it could be adapted to many more uses - turning all sorts of machinery in the different workshops.

Boulton said "I sell here what all the world desires - Power" to James Boswell on a visit that Boswell made to Soho Works.

It was William Murdoch, the foreman at Soho, who solved the problem and they patented the new idea of Rotary Motion in 1782. The whole engine could be made in Birmingham and the three men made a fortune. Steam engines with Rotary power were quickly fitted to machines in the great textile and brewing industries.

"The people of London, Manchester and Birmingham are steam mill mad. The most likely line for the use of our engines is in mill - a vast field of business" written by Bolton to Watt in 1781.

At Soho coin presses were set up in the Soho Mint to make the money everyone used.

Boulton died in 1809 a very wealthy man (he had the equivalent of many ££ millions). Neither Boulton nor Watt were interested in developing the steam engine for transport but Murdoch was younger and looked ahead and worked to improve the Watt engine. He made a stationary engine to turn a drum and capable of pulling a train of trucks. Only later were engines put ONTO trucks and became the self-propelling steam engines which led to the steam railways and which we can all see in the old films.

The three men were later commemorated as Founding Fathers of Birmingham with a lovely statue which today sits on Broad Street.

1765 Lloyd & Taylor's Bank - later Lloyd's Bank

1766 General Hospital begun. Pickering's Stamp Engine. The Lunar Society - Samuel Galton, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley, John Baskerville, Boulton, later Watt & Murdoch, and other: a club for the exchange of scientific and other information.

1769 First Improvement Act. Street Commissioners appointed - to be in effect the Town Council of Birmingham for the next 69 years.