Johnson & Sharp Manhole

Image: © Sean Davis Taken: 24 Aug 2012

Old locally made Johnson & Sharp Manhole in New Street at Staines upon Thames. This tiny street has many old examples of street furniture made locally. Johnson Iron Foundry It’s unlikely for a town such as Staines to have its own ironworks as there is no locally sourced iron ore to smelt or coal to power the furnaces. However, Staines had more than one foundry over the years. The local foundries did not use iron ore, they made their products from pig and scrap iron. It seems likely they used smaller “Cupola furnaces” fuelled by coke which was readily available from the Staines and Egham Gas & Coke Company, on The Causeway, just over the River Thames. On the High Street just east of the Blue Anchor was the site of Johnson & Sharp’s Iron Foundry. This started here in a small ironmongers founded by the Ashby Family in 1790. In 1800 the premises were owned by Edward Ashby. His tenant was Thomas LeFevre who at the time was the only listed ironmonger in Staines. By 1835 the business was run by Ashby in his own name. After he died in 1869, it was bought by the Right Honourable Jesse Collins who had a number of managers and business partners over the years. One manager was a Mr Johnson and he named the business Johnson & Company (1889 – 1894). When managers and partners changed he would also change the name, first to Johnson & Smith, then back to Johnson & Company, later Johnson & Sharp (1905 – c1910) and finally Johnson & Clark. The products produced were mainly street furniture, such as man-hole & metal drain covers, seats and lamp posts.

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