page_title: Ransome & Marles
section_title: A Ransome & Co
hierarchical_section_title: Ransome & Marles / History / A Ransome & Co
caption_attribution_description: English: Battersea: Ransome's Dock (1) This is one of the last surviving docks built off the River Thames upstream of the Tower of London. The dock is dog-legged with a narrow straight section leading off the river, with this wider dock to the south. The 1874 Edition of the Ordnance Survey mapping shows only the straight section, but by the time the 1896 Edition was published this pool is shown too. The brick chimney may have been part of the foundry shown on the 1874 map, while 828344 peeps out behind it. Ransome's Dock Restaurant is on the left.
context_page_description: Ransome & Marles Bearing Company Limited was the owner of a business making ball and roller bearings founded during the First World War to make bearings for aircraft and other engines. Before the war most bearings had been imported and most of those were from Germany.
  The business is now part of NSK UK Limited but Ransome & Marles former plant, Stanley Works, remains in operation in Northern Road, Newark NG24 2JF, Nottinghamshire UK
context_section_description: Ransome & Marles grew from another separate business needing bearings for its own products.  In 1868 Allen Ransome (1833-1913) and Frederic Josselyn (1842-1900) set up A Ransome & Co in Chelsea, London.
  A Ransome & Co designed and manufactured woodworking and timber-handling machinery.
  Later they acquired a foundry in Battersea. Vincent Sydney Woods (1855-1939) joined them at the foundry and the foundry firm's name was Ransome, Josselyn and Woods. In 1893 the two businesses were amalgamated under the ownership of a new incorporated company, A Ransome and Co Limited.
  In 1900 all A Ransome and Co activities were moved to Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire under the management of V S Woods though a London office was retained in Chancery Lane. There was also a tie to Ransomes, engineers of Ipswich and manufacturer of aeroplanes during World War I. Allen Ransome was the younger son of their J A Ransome and retained an interest in that business. Woodworking machinery was needed during World War I, aeroplanes were made of wood and fabric.
  Ransome's Dock. In the mid-1880s Allen Ransome improved the Battersea foundry's surrounds also turning the creek by the foundry into a dock. He was assisted by civil engineer Edward Woods (1814-1903), father of Ransome's partner V S Woods. It was made large enough to take coastal steamers and allow vessels to pass or turn.
  At the turn of the century when Ransome's moved to Newark the foundry became Drew-Bear Perks & Co's Battersea Steelworks. In the 21st century it is a haven for houseboats.
caption: Part of Ransome's dock 2008
  and possibly the foundry's chimney
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