The Britannia Foundry, which Andrew Handyside owned, made the Windows, Iron columns, Tracery and railings for St John the Evangelist Church Derby Derbyshire UK in 1827.
Andrew Handyside was the church warden at St Johns church until his death in 1887
This church features lots of fine cast iron windows and also cast iron columns and tracery which you can see in my photographs.
They had also supplied the fashionable iron railings surrounding the church, these have been lost in the last 199 years, probably during the war efforts.
You can see those original 1827 iron railings in my short A.I. video I made from a 1906 photograph :
Andrew Handyside took over the Britannia Foundry in 1848 from Weatherhead & Glover so technically these windows were not made by Handyside but were made at the same foundry. The reputation that Weatherhead & Glover had built up for their fine casting was continued by Handyside.
By 1873 Handyside offered 1500 cast window designs, costing between 15s and 20s per cwt. They produced larger windows chiefly for industrial use and were considerable skill to the firm.
To produce, as they did, a frame 11 feet by 6 feet in a single casting is an undertaking that would tax many present-day foundries.
Mr H. Cordery, who worked for Handyside's in 1926, tells of one ingredient which, together with the fine moulding sand, may have contributed to the quality of the castings.
The first job of the young lads had to do every morning was to fetch manure in barrows which they brought from the railway yard on Mansfield Road over St Mary's bridge ready to be milled up with the sand!
This practice of mixing manure with casting sand still takes place today as confirmed in a recent YouTube video I saw by Tom Scott when he visited John Taylors bell foundry in Loughborough :
https://youtu.be/GpaNijzRaJI?si=QlQfVpk6eSzPVdVk&t=281
Cast iron windows made at Derby's Britannia foundry are all over the world but tracking them down is extremely difficult as detailed records for such things made 200 years ago.
Other churches known to feature their cast iron windows are St James church in Shardlow and St Johns church in Ashbourne.
I made a video for this church last year which shows you inside and out in great detail, do please have a watch :
Please share this post to anyone you think would be interested.
If you know of any items (apart from Post boxes) in the world bearing the Andrew Handyside badge that I have not marked on my world map then please let me know.
My Andrew Handyside world map :
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?hl=en&mid=1OAACWtSS9PyrJqZ5Ebpy1yb527nkRFk7&ll=52.90829433369387%2C-1.4515525777722327&z=10
My Andrew Handyside Blog :
https://friargatebridge.blogspot.com/
My Andrew Handyside Flickr group :
https://www.flickr.com/groups/1531851@N22/
My Andrew Handyside video playlist :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL6EmDnqQPU&list=PLA6EB1C556ABA75AF
Thanks
Andy
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