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Robert Renton Gibbs
The search continues for information about
the firm of Renton Gibbs & Co. The webmaster
of this website would welcome contact from any
family member, friends or ex-employees of the
firm who could provide additional information or
photographs pertaining to either the family or the firm.
This is a story about an important Liverpool
firm, with 100 years of history in the heating
& ventilating industry.
F J Ferris for the Heritage Group of the
CIBSE October 2006
with acknowledgements to,
Derek Roberts
The British Library
Liverpool Daily Post Newspaper
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In 1861 at the age of 14 he was working as a tailors apprentice and still living with his widowed mother in Sheffield, but his keeness to become an engineer soon led him into the new industry of heating and ventilating. When Renton considered himself suitably competent as an engineer he moved to London and worked there for a firm of heating engineers. Renton was a very inventive employee, creating improvements and inventions to heating systems but although he enjoyed working for this firm, he was not entirely satisfied with the manner in which they treated his inventions. So it was inevitable that on one of his business trips, and this one happened to be to Liverpool, that he saw the opportunity to set up his own company there. So in 1868 at the young age of 21 years, he purchased an office in Lord Street, rented a workshop in St James Street from a Mr Minton and called his new firm Renton Gibbs & Co. This decision now gave him the opportunity to attract business on his own account and put into practice his inventions and improvements. Renton married his first wife Sarah Ann Dawson in 1865 in London. They had two sons, the first William, born whilst they lived in London and the second son Robert, born in 1870 after the family had moved back north to settle in Liverpool. In the census of 1871 at the comparatively young age of 24, Renton is recorded as having already started his own firm manufacturing heating apparatus and employing 4 men and 2 boys. The Mill Street
works, the
address that became synonymous with the firm of Renton Gibbs, was
bought in
1876. He considered these works to be the best of the buildings in that
area of
Liverpool that was otherwise full of empty corn sheds. Looking towards
the
future success of his firm he invested hundreds of pounds in buying and
installing machinery, and also erecting new offices at the Mill Street
premises.
Sadly
his wife Sarah Ann died at a young age in
the summer of 1880 when they had returned to live in London. Her death
left Renton a
widower at a young age looking after the welfare of their 3
sons. This sad event most likely was the reason that prompted him to
return
to Liverpool. He married again, to his late wife’s sister Alice
Dawson and they
had a
second family with 3 girls Minnie, Elsie and Florence.
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Robert
Renton Gibbs 1846 -
1935 was born in the Spring of 1846 in Sheffield Yorkshire, the
third son in the family
of six
children of
William Henry Gibbs a Woollen Draper and Tailor from Peterborough
Northants,
and his wife Isabel Gibbs from Edinburgh Scotland. The children were
then sadly
orphaned at a young age. His grandfather who then became his guardian,
brought
Renton up and organised his education, and later when Renton had
reached
working age, his grandfather encouraged him to enter into an
apprenticeship in
engineering. |
The
firm continued to
expand and by 1881 it employed 32 men and 11 boys. In the census of
1881 Renton has now titled himself as a
Heating and Ventilating engineer and his son Robert Edward Gibbs had
also
joined
the firm as a H&V engineer.
The
firm’s pursuit for excellence won them medals in
four consecutive years from 1881 – 1885 at
engineering exhibitions in
places as
far apart as Liverpool, Eastbourne, Birkenhead
and Antwerp.
Renton
Gibbs & Co appears to
have specialised in manufacturing and installing the High Pressure Hot
Heating
(HPHW) system that was originally designed and Patented by Angier March
Perkins
in 1831. Many photographs taken inside the Mill Street works show the
large
number of furnaces, spiral heating coils and hydraulic tubing that were
made
and then stored ready for the installation of these Perkins type
systems.
As
the firm prospered Renton
registered his company on the 10th August 1892 as a
limited
company.
New branch offices were opened in Ethel Street Birmingham and West
Street
Sheffield, Merchants Place Reading and the firm was also represented in
Madrid
Spain.
THE SPANISH CONNECTION The list of buildings in Spain in which they installed the heating systems, prior to 1898 is impressive. 1. Bank of
Spain (21 systems)
Madrid
2. El Senado (House of Lords) (6 systems) Madrid 3. El Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) (2 systems) Madrid 4. Excmo. Senora Marquesa de Perinat (Residence) Madrid 5. Senres, Moretones y Hermanos Madrid 6. Excmo Senor Marques de Villamejor (Residence) Madrid 7. Senr. Don Jose Xifre (Residence) Madrid 8. Excmos. Sres de Soriano (Residence) Madrid 9. Senr DonFrancisco Sanz (Residence) Leon, Castille Research
carried out by the
Heritage Group has not as yet been able to establish the connection
that
enabled the
firm to make the necessary business contacts to install so many
heating systems
in such
a variety of prestigious buildings in Spain, and why they had a
representative
established there. In 1898 the firm
produced a
reference list of their installations that ran to several hundreds of
premises
including every type of property, Banks, Conservatories, Churches,
Factories,
Mansions, Institutions, Offices, Public Buildings, Railway Stations,
Schools
and Hospitals etc. throughout the country. Visits to many of the
churches named in the list located along the border between England and
Wales have so far failed to find a complete heating system. The only
confirmed Renton Gibbs (Perkins) heating system has been discovered at
the National Trust property of Arlington
Court in north Devon. This system still has the original
furnace installed with its Gibbs company nameplate. Robert Renton Gibbs was amongst the founding members of the IHVE and is one of the names given in the 1899 first list of Members. His address is given as residing in Elgin Drive, Liscard, Cheshire. Renton died on the 21st June 1935 at Gorse-mount
Gwernymyndd Mold Flintshire aged 89. His Will was probated in
London on 27th January 1936. The beneficiarys were Frederick William
Melville Roberts telegraph clerk and Joseph Alfred Whitby retired
Manager in the sum of £3879. Stanley Crane an employee who joined the Liverpool branch of the firm as an office junior in 1940, recalls that his first impression of the firm was he didn’t think the furniture had been changed since the founding of the firm. The firm reached its centenary in 1968. This was celebrated locally by a full-page historical article appearing in the Liverpool Daily Post, in which many local and national H&V manufacturers and suppliers congratulated the firm on achieving its first 100 years. |
