Soho Works

In 1759 Matthew Boulton inherited his father's manufacturing business on Snow Hill. He had a grand project, original in metal-working, to go into industry on a large scale, bringing into one factory craftsmen from every branch of the trade. His search for a site where waterpower was available and material, fuel, and labour resources were not too far distant, led him to Soho Heath having : leased Ruston's pool and mill, he planned and built the famous Soho Works, 1762-5. There were to be large extensions in later years. For the range and quality of its wares, buttons, steel jewellery and 'toys' of all kinds, for silver plate and copper coinage, Soho was to become as famous as for its size, organisation, and fostering of invention.

As the Works expanded, so did its need for power. Boulton was sometimes for-ced to supplement the inadequately fed Soho Pool by using horses to turn his machinery. He experimented with a Newcomen engine, using it to pump water from below the waterwheels to the pool above, but it was wasteful of expensively transported coal. In 1768 one of his many visitors was James Watt, who described his experiments with steam. Five years later the two men became partners, and Watt's engine with its separate condenser was re-assembled at Soho. 'Beelzebub' fulfilled Boulton's hopes, serving admirably as a pump. He soon saw the possibi-lity of supplying engines 'for the whole world'. Among the first half-dozen to be made was the one erected at Smethwick locks : it continued working until 1895, and is now in the Science Museum. When Watt had perfected his rotative en-gine, which could power machinery directly, and the canal network had solved the transport of land-locked Birmingham, both modern industry and the modern city were made possible if not inevitable,

The steam engine made the partners' fortune. In 1795 their able sons began to build Soho Foundry for the production of engines : the site was just across the border in Smethwick, beside the canal which was to be fully used. William Murdock was the manager, and his modest house may still be seen inside the entrance of what are now the premises of the Avery Scale Mfg. Co. It was at the Foundry that he installed gas lighting, of which he was the inventor : the ori-ginal gasholder did not survive the last war. By 1809 when Boulton died, the Foundry had produced 1164 engines. With the death in 1848 of James Watt II the family connections ended, and the Works were demolished 13 years later.

The famous frontage lay back from Factory Road's east side, facing north, on the Handsworth bank of the now-culverted Hockley Brook. The Mint of 1788 lay east of the double hollow square of buildings. The Foundry continued to make engines, including those for the 'Great Eastern', until 1896. Of all the buildings associ-ated with the great triumvirate only Murdoch's terrace house and Boulton's Soho Hall (1764-89) still stand. Their tombs are in Handsworth Church, and the City has rightly honoured them with statues in Broad Street - not far from the Brasshouse which Boulton founded and the Navigation he helped to promote, and the site in Gas Street where Birmingham's first gasholder was built beside the canal.