William Dilwyn Sims Joins Ransomes

William Dilwyn Sims joined Ransomes around 1851 and was made partner during 1852, the business then trading as Ransomes & Sims. Prior to this the business was trading as Ransomes and Head.

A few years earlier, Ransomes had opened new manufacturing facilities on the east side of the River Orwell.

A brief history up to this point can be found in an extract found at The Museum of English  Rural Life:

Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies was founded in Ipswich in 1789 by Robert Ransome (1753-1830). It was his patents for tempered cast iron plough shares, chilled cast iron and interchangeable plough parts that were to provide the foundations for the firm’s success. In 1812 it became Ransomes & Son and in 1818 Ransomes & Sons as first John Ransome (1782-1849) and then Robert Ransome (1795-1864) joined the firm. 

During the agricultural depression in the post Napoleonic era Ransomes expanded into other areas such as building the new iron Stoke Bridge at Ipswich and a gasometer. Both these projects and others were supervised by the engineer William Cubitt who was connected with Ransomes from 1812 to 1826. In 1830 Robert Ransome died and his grandson James Allen Ransome (1806-1875) joined the firm which was now called J, R and A Ransome.

Ransomes also started manufacturing railway parts under the supervision of Charles May, an engineer who fulfilled much the same function as Cubitt had done. Improvements in the agricultural market led to the company focusing more in this area during the 1850s and 60s. They manufactured ploughs, horse rakes, rollers, steam engines and thrashing machines, amongst others. The railway side of the business was taken over by an offshoot company, Ransomes & Rapier. Charles May left in 1851 and his nephew William Dillwyn Sims joined as a partner so the firm became Ransomes and Sims.

The new manufacturing facilities in Ipswich were completed by 1849. This was followed by the introduction of William Sims as a new director in 1852 at about the same time that John Ferrabee retired from the Phoenix Ironworks in Stroud. It is possible that these three events were all connected to the decision by Ransomes to commence manufacture of lawnmowers in 1853.