Lincoln Companies - James Dawson & Son Ltd.

James Dawson was born in Welton near Lincoln in 1836. He moved to Sheffield in the mid-1850s and was making boots and shoes, employing 4 men. James married Mary Skelton at St George's, Sheffield in 1858. By 1868 he was back in Lincoln selling boots and shoes at 15 Sincil Street. 

1880 he recognised the need for leather belts for all the machinery that was being manufactured in Lincoln and other places in the UK. He formed a company with Walter, his son, and William Posnett, the belting works opened at Unity Square in the same year. The company grew rapidly.  In 1881 a Dawson belt was shown at the Lincolnshire Show 2ft 4in (0.71 metres) by 60 ft (18.3 metres), weighing 3 cwt (152 Kg)

Dawsons gained a "First Order of Merit" in 1887 at the Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition for Leather machine belting, over the years there were many other awards for their belting. The Belting works moved from Unity Square to New Boultham about 1890.

Posnett left the company in 1892 and the company was incorporated as a private limited company on 10th March 1896 with a capital of £70,000 in £10 shares, becoming James Dawson & Son Ltd.

The Lincona V belt for motorcycles was introduced in 1902 and in 1908 Balata belting was introduced using the sap from the South American Balata tree.  James, the son of the founder, invented the Balata rubber process.

Walter left the company and became a farmer, and another son, George, became managing director.  James Dawson senior retire in 1902 and died on 24th April 1912, Sadly George died in March 1912. Following the deaths of his father and brother, James became managing director, he was chairman of the company from 1922.  James, his son and a grandson of the founder, became managing director.

Dawsons had large contracts during World War One for infantry equipment and other war material.

The Lincona laminated V belt was introduced in 1920 for use with industrial machinery. V Rubber ropes were made available from 1931 as a modern version of the Balata belt.  The Speedona V transmission rope was added to the range of products in 1934 for use with centre drives.

Dawsons expanded the size of their factory with the purchase of the Poppleton's sweet factory from the company's receivers in July 1936  

James Dawson (born 1872) died at Sutton on Sea on 13th October 1936, his home was Welbourn Manor.  He left £81,852.

In 1978 Dawson's became part of Fenner plc and are at the forefront of hose and ducting manufacture with manufacturing facilities in the UK and China. On 31st May 2018 the Fenner Group became part of Compagnie Generale Des Etablissements Michelin Sca the owners of the Michelin Tyre Company.

Dawsons have always been a major employer in Lincoln and today are Lincoln's second-largest employer. Of all the manufacturing companies established in Lincoln in the 19th century, Dawson's is the only one that retains its original name.

Click here to read about Poppleton's confectionery factory.

More Lincoln Companies:

Lincoln Companies - Lincoln Gas, Light and Coke Co.
Lincoln Companies - Clayton & Shuttleworth
Lincoln Companies - H Newsum & Sons Ltd
Lincoln Companies - W Rainforth & Sons
Lincoln Companies - James Dawson & Son Ltd.
Lincoln Companies - Penney & Porter Ltd

Lincoln Companies - Henry Poppleton & Sons Ltd

Henry Poppleton was born in Hull in 1829.  Within a few months of his birth the family moved to Lincoln, living in Sincil Street. William Poppleton, Henry’s father, was a shoemaker and Henry followed him, as an apprentice, into the trade, but realising it was not for him he worked for Thomas Hibbert at 36 Sincil Street as a baker at a wage of 4/- (20p) per week.

Henry worked for Hibbert for a number of years, eventually running the shop in his own name from about 1850, as a baker and flour dealer, when Hibbert moved to Canwick windmill as a miller. Henry married Thomas Hibbert’s daughter, Elizabeth Sarah, on Christmas Day 1851 at St Swithin’s church.

Henry was appointed secretary of a local bakers organisation in 1855 with the aim “that some uniform understanding should be come to respecting the retail price of flour, in order that something like unity should prevail in our charges to the public”. By 1859 Thomas Hibbert was back running the shop in his name, as a baker and biscuit maker, and Henry moved to 9 Guildhall Street, the Yorkshire Bank now stands here at numbers 8 to 10. He set himself up as a baker at Guildhall Street but soon saw confectionery as a more profitable business.

He was a Victorian entrepreneur, seeing the advantages of expanding the range and breadth of products offered in his shop, but this involved another move, this time to 198 High Street; confectionery included cakes and biscuits, bride (wedding?) cakes; pound, sponge and tea cakes; pastry; Rich Mixed Biscuits; Keiller’s marmalade; jams, jellies, Little John’s Rusks. Poppleton’s Butterscotch and Penny Cough packets. Number 198 was in a prominent position opposite the Cornhill and next to the Black Bull Hotel, it was demolished for the building of the British Home Stores department store

His ambitions soon outgrew the High Street shop, and in 1885 he bought premises, behind the shop, at Brayford Head to expand production of his range of sweets, the shop continued as a retail and trade outlet until it came into the possession of Samuel Patton, another confectioner, in the early 1890s. (There is an interesting and tragic post about Samuel Patton on the It's About Lincoln group page, click this link to view http://bit.ly/s-patton

At about the same time a John Chynoweth and Giles Jory Lockwood Lang (brother-in-law of George Poppleton) became partners with Henry Poppleton and his sons, George and Henry William, and company became: Chynoweth, Poppleton & Co. The partners needed land to build a factory and the Ellison family were selling land at the northern part of their estate for industrial development. Their new factory was built on the north side of Beevor Street, New Boultham in the early 1890s, there was a railway line on the south-side of the factory connected to the Midland Railway, giving the factory access to the rest of the UK. The architect was James Whitton and the builder, Crosby and Sons.

The partnership was dissolved in 1901 and the name of the business returned to H Poppleton & Sons. The business was turned into a limited liability company in 1910, becoming Lindum Confectionery Ltd; Henry Poppleton was Chairman, Henry William Poppleton was manager of the works and George and Frederick Lister Poppleton were commercial travellers selling to retail shops.

Henry Poppleton died on 21st September 1912. He was a Free Methodist preacher for over 60 years only retiring a year before his death. Henry and Elizabeth had eight children, four sons and four daughters, of the sons George (1855-1921), Henry William (1861-1932) and Frederick Lister (1869-1927) joined their father in the business, Charles Herbert (1857-1940) was a Methodist minister.
In the 1920s the address of the works became Rich Pasture Works, New Boultham, Lincoln.

Edward Ernest Tweed, solicitor, was chairman of the company from 1917 to 1933, he was succeeded by George Thomas Lawrence.

The business continued until 1936, when the company was voluntarily liquidated. Poppleton’s buildings stood until the 1970s and the site is now occupied by James Dawson's offices, car park and the west side of Tritton Road.

Why was such a successful company wound up? I speculate that after the death of Henry's three sons who worked in the business there were no family members interested in managing it, or it may be that Dawson's made an offer for the factory that was too good to pass up. Who knows, do you?

The research of the Poppleton's has been very interesting, do you have any photos of the factory, interior and exterior, of the people who worked there? Did you have relations who worked there? I have built a family tree from William Poppleton (1796-1867), Henry's father, are you researching the family? Please contact me via comments at the bottom of the page.