Builder Histories
Francis Morton and Co was founded by Francis Morton (1816-1863) around 1850 and was based in the Naylor Street ironworks in Liverpool. 1853. The company manufactured ‘Fire Annihilator Machines’ corrugated galvanised Iron, fire-proof roofs for mills and boiler-houses. In its early days the company offered ‘strained fences’ as one of its products. When Francis Mortin Snr died in 1863 the firm passed to his son Francis – an engineer - born 1839.
When the Liverpool Overhead Railway was built Morton’s supplied the iron bases for the support columns. The company gradually expanded its range to include fabricating iron girders for bridges – supplying customers as far afield as Mexico. In the early years Morton’s provided ironwork for bridges and street furniture in Little Venice in Paddington. By the they had a foundry in London and were specialising in structural steelwork for Sprung floors.
By 1921 the company the company adverts showed buildings, steel bridges, girders, piers. Jetties, caissons, roofing and structural engineering as the areas and services that it could provide – with works in Garston and Liverpool.
Mortons had been incorporated as a limited company in 1898 and was bought by John Thomas Wood and a group of Liverpool businessmen in 1899. In 1906 the company won the contract for the reconstruction of the Southwold Bridge on the River Blyth.
By 1914 the company described itself as constructional engineers for bridges, girders, roofing, steel-framed buildings, steel telegraph poles, fencing, gates and ornamental iron work. And there were over 600 employees. In 1926 Mortons fabricated the replacement swing bridge for the Halfpenny swing bridge to span the channel between West Float and Wallesey Pool in Birkenhead. < br>
The company was still operating in 1937. Companies House records a company of this name as dissolved in 2017 but I am not sure that it is the same company.
.references: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Francis_Morton_and_Co
