Builder Histories
Westwood and Baillie was a shipbuilding and engineering company based at London Yard in Cubitt Town in London. The company was formed in 1856 by Joseph Westwood and Robert Baillie. Joseph Westwood was born in 1818 in Tipton in Staffordshire – son of a boilermaker. Robert Baillie was also born in 1818 but in Joppa near Edinburgh. Baillie was the son of engineer.
In 1839 Joseph Westwood married Johanna Beckford and Robert Baillie married Johanna’s sister Emma. By the early 1850’s both men were employed as foremen in in the works of C.J. Mares & Co.
The company was originally formed as Westwood, Baillie and Campbell & Co. In 1860 Joseph Westwood’s son Joseph – born 1844 – joined the company. Britain suffered a financial crisis in the latter half of the 1860’s which led to a fall in demand for the company’s products and between 1866 and 1872 Westwood snr and Baillie took managerial posts London Engineering and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd before once again focussing on their own company.
Westwood and Baillie won contracts to manufacture ironwork for a wide range of structures in the British Isles,
in Australia, in South Africa and in India and what is now Pakistan. This included bridges a footbridge at Romford Railway Station, the Attock Khurd bridge in Paksitan and a bridge in Kerala in India all of which were still in use as of 2025. The Lansdowne bridge over the Indus River manufactured in 1887 was at the time the longest rigid girder bridge in the world.
The company also supplied ironwork for a number of ships between 1857 and 1876 including HMS Resistance, HMS Valiant, a clipper called Royal Edward and tugs Powerful, Robert Bruce and Granville.
The company manufactured the ironwork for at least three bridges listed on this website – the Barking Bascule Bridge over the River Roder, the bridge at the west entrance Blackwall Dock and the Southwold bridge on the River Blyth.
Joseph Westwood died in 1883 and his place was taken by his son Joseph jnr. In 1893 the company was wound up and while Baillie was declared bankrupt in 1895 Joseph Westwood jnr continued to trade as Westwood and Co. Ltd.
Joseph jnr. died in 1898.
On a personal note the company was responsible for the iron work for the abbey pumping station in Leicester – the city I grew up in. In the late 20th century the Abbey Pumping Station was opened to visitors by the Leicester Museums Service and I recall taking my 3 young sons to see this wonder of Victorian Engineering.
I have been unable to find any information about James Campbell – the original 3rd partner in the company.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westwood,_Baillie
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Joseph_Westwood_and_Co
Emerald website
