| abstract | - The firm was founded by Joseph Shuttleworth (1819-1883) who was the son of John and Rebecca Shuttleworth of Dogdyke, Lincolnshire. He inherited a boat building business, and formed a partnership with Nathaniel Clayton, the owner of an iron foundry in Lincoln. Together they the engineering firm of Clayton and Shuttleworth. The firm then specialised in building steam engines and agricultural machinery. Joseph Shuttleworth married Sarah Grace Clayton in 1841 and had two sons: Alfred and Frank. In 1845 they built their first portable steam engine, and in 1849 their first threshing machine. These products became the mainstay of the firm’s business. Clayton & Shuttleworth became one of the leading manufacturers in the country at the time. They supplied steam engines and threshing machines to other manufacturers, such as Taskers of Andover, as well as selling under their own name. In 1851 they sold more than 200 steam engines, boosted by the Great Exhibition. By 1857 they had produced a total of 2,400 steam engines, and by 1890 total output had reached 26,000 steam engines and 24,000 threshing machines. In 1870 their workforce in Lincoln was 1200. The export trade was important to the firm. A branch in Vienna was established early on, and other branches followed at Pest, Prague, Cracow and Lemburg. The firm became a limited company in 1901, and Alfred Shuttleworth (1843-1925), son of the founder, became chairman. In the twentieth century Clayton & Shuttleworth for a short time manufactured tractors. In 1911 they built a 4 cylinder Oil engine, with car type radiator, sheet metal bonnet, and a cab roof. By 1914 they employed 2,100 persons. 1913-1917 For a list of the models and prices of Steam Motor Wagons, Tractors and Ploughs etc. see the 1917 Red Book. In WW1 they Set up a subsidiary company Clayton Wagons at Abbey works, Lincoln. This firm built a few Steam wagons but by then Internal combustion engineed trucks were starting to gain in popularity. (one of the last Clayton wagons built is in the collection at Thursford Steam Museum, in Norfolk). This was followed in 1916 by a 4 cylinder gas-kerosene engine crawler tractor ("Chain Rail"). This 40 hp. machine lasted till 1929. They also built an 100 hp. gun tractor similar to a Holt machine. They were the first British firm to make a combine harvester. They failed in the depression of the 1920s, The boiler making, foundry and Steam Rollers manufacturing division was bought by Babcock & Wilcox in 1924. They subsequently built several rollers of which only 5 are believed to survive. And the rest of the firm was taken over by Marshalls of Gainsborough in 1929, for the combine harvester technology.
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