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The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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JOHN PETHICK Based on information contributed by Mr Paul Burkhalter John Pethick was born on Thursday July 19th 1827 at Crabtree, in the Parish of Eggbuckland, on the Plym estuary to the east of Plymouth. His father, Richard, was manager of the Dartmoor Granite Works, an operation inextricably linked to the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway, which had been opened just a few years before John was born and ran past the house they occupied. It is interesting that, later, John Pethick was to own the company that his father had managed and Pethick Brothers still owned Swell Tor Quarry in 1910. John left school at 12 years of age and the following year went into employment as a trainee carpenter in Mr Pope’s shipbuilding yard at Turnchapel, on the other side of the Cattewater. His father was listed as a joiner in census returns so this may have determined his choice of trade. On December 27th 1846, at the early age of 19, John Pethick married Miss Maria Oram at Stoke Damerel Church. They went onto have 9 children, one of whom (their first) died in infancy. By the age of 21 he was working for a Mr Phillips on building the Esplanade, a splendid row of houses along the crest of Plymouth’s Hoe. In 1852, at 25, he went into partnership with Mr Benjamin Call, as builders & contractors, an arrangement that lasted until 1871. Call was the son of a Devonport innkeeper and some 12 years older than Pethick. Messrs Call & Pethick engaged in a variety of building projects locally, amongst which were the Duke of Cornwall Hotel and houses on the Hoe and at Mutley. Further afield, the station buildings on the Moretonhampstead branch were constructed and those at Newton Abbot & Exeter St Thomas rebuilt. In partnership they held shares in at least two steam driven sloops, registered in Plymouth, the "Lord Yarborough" (1858) and the "Secret" (1866-1874). After the partnership was dissolved in 1871 (though some works are recorded in joint names until the end of 1872, no doubt finishing off work already in progress), Pethick’s career blossomed. The works he engaged in were many and diverse. Notable projects included the Vale of Rheidol Railway at Aberystwyth; the foundations and piers for London’s Vauxhall Bridge; the widening of London Bridge; and the Plymouth Museum & Art Gallery. It is very interesting that many of his Plymouth works survive today. In 1876 Pethick’s address was Norley Buildings, Plymouth and for many years his depot was at Laira Bridge, on the same site as the granite works that his father had managed. The depot was rail connected to the L&SWR Cattewater branch, and in the Great War, after the demise of Pethick Brothers, was requisitioned by the Ministry of Munitions. The 1881 census records him as employing 576 men. In August 1886, he and Robert Relf jointly won the contract to construct the railway from Lydford to Devonport for the Plymouth, Devonport & South Western Junction Railway Company. The reasons for them coming together are not known. No doubt they came to know each other by working in the same area and possibly from bidding against each other for contracts. They both still undertook contracts separately under their own names. Pethick's philanthropy not only extended to supporting the poor of Plymouth but also in to supporting his workforce on the railway. He formed a welfare club and also entertained some 8-900 navvies to dinner in Tavistock Market. By contrast, Messrs Relf & Pethick had a hard time with the Tavistock Highways Board, with many disputes over damage to the roads of the area. Their joint working arrangement lasted until the completion of the railway from Plymouth to Turnchapel in 1896. Outside his construction activities, John Pethick was also a director of the Plymouth Tramways Company, which was formed in 1889 to take over the former Plymouth, Devonport & District steam tramway network, and , by 1874, a member of the Plymouth Borough Council. He served as Mayor between 1898 and 1900, as well as being appointed a Justice of the Peace. Alderman Pethick was often referred to as “Honest John”, though sometimes his “honesty” landed him in trouble for its forthrightness! Four of his sons followed him into the business in partnership, the firm then becoming known as Messrs Pethick Brothers from sometime in the late 1880s. They were: Mr John Richard Pethick, Mr Arthur Henry Pethick, Mr Benjamin Herbert Pethick (an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects) and Mr Nicholas Frank Pethick. By a deed dated April 6th 1887 he transferred Norley House, the yard and a shop at number 46 Old Town Street to those four sons. .A fifth son, Mr Ernest George Pethick, also served with the family firm. The remaining two sons became a Doctor (Mr Charles Stuart Pethick ) and a Vet (Mr Sydney Robert Pethick), and his one surviving daughter, Miss Edith Pethick, married Mr Clarence Spooner, whose family were owners of one of Plymouth’s largest retail businesses. Arthur is recorded as being the superintendent of much work in Devonport Dockyard, including the laying of the railway through the tunnel that connects North Yard and South Yard. Arthur’s son, Harold W, left for South Africa between 1901 and 1907, where he continued as a railway contractor until sometime in the 1920s. Mr John Pethick died at the age of 76, following an accident on Tuesday March 29th 1904, when his horse-drawn carriage ran out of control in Lockyer Street with him at the reins. Messrs Pethick Brothers continued until the last recorded contract in 1910. In June 1914 an auction sale was advertised, on the instructions of the Receiver, for all the contractors’ plant, machinery, etc., at the company’s works at Laira Bridge. This included three unidentified 4-wheel coupled steam locomotives. John's second son, Arthur Pethick, became the managing contractor for Messrs Henry St. John Dix and Eric Walter Knowles, of 121 Victoria Street, London SW1, Railway and Public Works Contractors. A new company, Messrs Pethick, Dix & Co Ltd, was incorporated on March 19th 1913 and by an agreement of the 25th of that month all the existing contracts were transferred to it. Somewhat dramatically, on October 28th the same year, that Company was wound up on the petition of Messrs Taylor & Parsons Ltd, ironwork contractors of Bradford, over a debt of £400 for bridge works at Beverley, Yorkshire. List of contracts undertaken by Messrs Call & Pethick Soap works, Sutton Road, Plymouth, Devon, after 1852; Rebuilding of Exeter St Thomas Station, 1859-1862; Rebuilding of Newton Abbot station, 1859-1861; Duke of Cornwall Hotel, Plymouth, Devon 1862; Chubb’s Hotel, Old
Town Street, Plymouth, by 1864; South Devon Railway, Kingswear station, opened
16/8/1864; Station on the Moretonhampstead & South Devon Railway
(line opened 4/7/1866); Housing at Hoe Park Place, Elliott Terrace, Headland Park, and part of Clifton Place, Plymouth. List of contracts undertaken by John Pethick solely New Guildhall & Municipal buildings, Plymouth, opened 1874; Admiralty, No 3 Dock reconstruction, Royal Dockyard, Devonport, 1876-1882; Royal Naval Engineering College, Keyham, Devon, 1879-1881; Grand Hotel, the Hoe, Plymouth, 1880; Mutley housing scheme between Ford Park and Mutley Station, Plymouth (became known as Pethick Town), by 1881; Supply of granite for the base & pedestal for the statue of Sir Francis Drake in Tavistock, Devon, 1883; New Docks, Exmouth, Devon, 1885; Stoodleigh Court, Twerton, Somerset, for Ernest George Peto, “nearly complete” Jan 1885; The Admiralty terminated the contract with Mr John Pethick for repairs at Royal William Victualling Yard, Royal Marine Barracks, Royal Naval Hospital, and Devonport Dockyard “after a considerable number of years”, April 1885; Western Idiot Asylum, Starcross, Devon, May 1885; Kelly College, Tavistock, Devon; Plymouth Borough Asylum, Blackadon, 1888; Mansion for Mr Rashleigh at Menabilly, Cornwall; Mansion for the Reverend Hermon at Doublebois, Cornwall; Bickleigh and Riverford viaducts on the Launceston Branch of the Great Western Railway, from circa 1889 (into use 12.3.93); List of contracts undertaken jointly by John Pethick and R T Relf Plymouth Friary to Plymstock Station for the London & South Western Railway Company, 1886-1892; Laira Railway Bridge completed 1887; Lydford Station to Devonport Station for the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Railway Company, 4/1887-6/1890; List of contracts undertaken by Messrs Pethick Brothers Re-erection of Smeaton’s Eddystone Lighthouse on Plymouth Hoe, 1891; Part of the Yeo Reservoir at Blagdon, Somerset, for the Bristol Waterworks Company, 1893; Burrator Reservoir, Devon, for Plymouth Corporation, 1893-1894; Plymstock to Turnchapel railway for the London & South Western Railway Company, 1893-5/1896 (joint with Mr R T Relf) Barry to Bridgend, Glamorgan, for the Barry Railway Company, 1895-12/1897; Lady Windsor Dock, Barry, Glamorgan, for the Barry Railway
Company 1897; Bates’ Buildings, Prince Rock, Plymouth, for Plymouth Corporation, 1897; Pembroke Dockyard jetty & viaduct, for the Admiralty, 4/1897-1901; Reconstruction of Porthkerry viaduct (after collapse) for the Barry Railway Company, Glamorgan, 1898; Demolition of Vauxhall Bridge and provision of foundations and piers for new bridge, London, 1898-3/1904; Outfall sewer for Plymouth Corporation, 1900 Pumping station, sewage works and some work on the reservoir at Blagdon, Somerset, for the Bristol Waterworks Company, 1901 ; Vale of Rheidol Railway, Aberystwyth –Devils Bridge, 1/1901 – c12/1902 Buere(?) asylum, 1901 Widening of London Bridge for London County Council, 1902; Reconstruction of viaducts on the Great Western Railway in Cornwall and on the Plymouth to Launceston Branch, 1902; Unspecified work at Penzance, Cornwall, 1902; Unspecified work at Barry, Glamorgan, 1902; Unspecified work at Colchester, Essex, 1902; Work at Pembroke Dockyard, Pembrokeshire, for the Admiralty, 1902-1904; Extensions to Bodmin lunatic asylum for Cornwall County Council, 1905; Six filter beds at Long Ditton, Surrey, for the Metropolitan Water Board, 1906; Pulpit in St Edwards Church, Eggbuckland, 1906; Sewage disposal works for the Tavistock Urban District Council, Devon, c1907; Twickenham sewerage works, c1907; St Simon’s Church, Plymouth, c1907; Totnes workhouse infirmary, Devon, 1908; Museum and Art Gallery, Tavistock Road, Plymouth, for Plymouth Corporation, 1909; Educational Training College, Brighton, for Brighton Corporation, 1909 ; Dulverton – Exmoor road, Somerset, 1910.
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