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Beginnings of Perkins Engineering

Information

1858: William Proctor Stanley died on this day. In his will, he left the Queen Street Stanley Iron Works in the trusteeship of his brother-in-law George Maples and John Warren. They leased the property to Thomas Amies and William Barford. In March 1865, one Thomas Perkins became part of the company in a deed of co-partnership. The seeds of what would become Perkins Engineering were thus sown. (Hillier, Richard, Northamptonshire Past & Present Vol. VI, Northamptonshire Record Society, 1983)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

west front

The Building of the Current Cathedral

1118

Information

The current Cathedral building started in 1118 with the rounded apse at the east end, which still survives today. The construction took 120 years – about 5 generations of stonemasons and workmen would have helped with the construction. The men who started the work would have known that they or their sons would not live to see the church’s completion. The Cathedral has a rare example of some of the original winding gear used in the building work still surviving inside the West Front.