the medieval village see whessoe deserted village . whessoe industry metal engineering predecessor w & a kitching founded 1890 headquarters darlington county durham uk parent samsung c & t corporation website whessoe.co.uk whessoe is a company based in darlington and on teesside in north east england . it was formerly a supplier of chemical oil and nuclear plant and instrumentation and today is a manufacturer of low temperature storage . contents 1 history 1.1 background w. and a. kitching 1.2 whessoe foundry company 1.3 whessoe lga 1.4 whessoe varec 2 controversies 3 references 3.1 sources 3.2 map locations 4 external links history edit background w. and a. kitching edit the whessoe company traces its origins back to an iron foundry shop founded in 1790 . the family business was inherited by william kitching d. 1850 and alfred kitchin 1808 1882 both quakers who established the hope town foundry in darlington in 1832 . 1 2 map 1 both william and alfred kitching were on the board of the stockton and darlington railway as well as being shareholders or its subsidiaries . 3 and the company built several locomotives for the company including subcontracted manufacturing and repair work from timothy hackworth . 4 0 6 0 hackworth designed tory class locomotive derwent built 1845 is preserved as part of the national collection . 5 in 1860 the hope town foundry site was sold to the stockton and darlington railway allowing the s & dr to extend its own site see hopetown carriage works the works and equipment was moved to another site later known as the whessoe foundry also in darlington . map 2 in 1861 a. kitching was recorded as employing 45 people . 1 the business passed from the kitchings to their cousin charles i anson . 2 6 the term whessoe foundry was first applied to charles ianson & company in the 1860s the name whessoe being a locality name applied to the foundry . 7 from 1850 to 1890 the company expanded into the manufacture of steel structures cranes and gas works equipment . 8 in 1881 the company became a limited liability company . 9 whessoe foundry company edit in 1890 the whessoe foundry company limited was formed and in 1920 the company was publicly listed on the london stock exchange as whessoe foundry and engineering co ltd 8 10 shell acquired 51 % of the shares . 11 from 1890 onwards the company became focused on equipment for the gas and oil industries such as gas holders 8 as well as making tunnel linings for underground railways 9 and later expanded into equipment for the nuclear and petrochemical industries . 8 throughout this period the heavy engineering divisions were major contractors in nuclear power being involved with the design and construction of reactor vessels for most british stations from calder hall to the agr advanced gas cooler reactors at hunterston b and hinkley b. 12 whessoe lga edit whessoe lga gas technology retained its headquarters in darlington no longer with a factory but with construction operations worldwide in cryogenic and lt storage . this company was owned by the german company preussag noell then bought by skanska and later 2008 brought under arabic ownership . 13 in 2013 it was acquired by korean conglomerate samsung c & t corporation and restructured as whessoe engineering ltd. 14 whessoe varec edit in 1997 endress hauser acquired whessoe varec . 11 controversies edit whessoe oil and gas was revealed as a subscriber to the uk s consulting association exposed in 2009 for operating an illegal construction industry blacklist and was among 14 issued with enforcement notices by the uk information commissioner s office . 15 references edit a b sources alfred kitching www.gracesguide.co.uk grace s guide retrieved 17 april 2012 william kitching www.gracesguide.co.uk grace s guide retrieved 17 april 2012 w. and a. kitching www.gracesguide.co.uk grace s guide retrieved 17 april 2012 a b sources british locomotive manufacturers www.steamindex.com kitching w. & a. hope town foundry darlington brief biographies of major mechanical engineers www.steamindex.com kitching alfred & william & family maurice w. kirby 1993 2002 the origins of railway enterprise appendix 2 directors and senior salaried officials of the stockton and darlington railway company 1825 1962 p. 184 ; see also p. 118 188 maurice w. kirby 1993 2002 the origins of railway enterprise pp. 67 104 5 sources chris lloyd 31 march 2010 tracking down the locomotives www.thenorthernecho.co.uk darlington railway centre & museum collecting & disposals policy 2006 2011 www.darlington.gov.uk section 5.5.3 steam locomotive entitled derwent www.nrm.ork.uk derwent darlington railway centre and museum archived from the original on 24 march 2008 british locomotive manufacturers www.steamindex.com i anson c. & co hope town foundry darlington wood r history of whessoe unpublished mss 1954 dcro a b c d company history www.whessoe.co.uk whessoe projects ltd. retrieved april 2012 check date values in access date help a b whessoe foundry www.gracesguide.co.uk retrieved 17 april 2012 whessoe www.gracesguide.co.uk retrieved 17 april 2012 a b whessoe varec europe www.whessoevarec.com retrieved april 2012 check date values in access date help growth in nuclear reactor pressure vessels advert . new scientist . 23 . 3 september 1964 . issn 0262 4079 . whessoe oil & gas ltd archived 18 october 2010 at the wayback machine . history . whessoe.co.uk . retrieved 28 april 2015 . 2013 ... whessoe engineering ltd formed whessoe acquired by samsung c & t corporation ; offering fully integrated solutions including lng across the globe . construction blacklist . ico . ico . retrieved 7 september 2015 . sources edit maurice w. kirby 1993 2002 the origins of railway enterprise the stockton and darlington railway 1821 1863 cambridge university press map locations edit 54 32 11 n 1 33 22 w 54.536278 n 1.556083 w 54.536278 ; 1.556083 hope town foundry original location 1860 hope town foundry original location 1860 54 32 17 n 1 33 32 w 54.538086 n 1.559017 w 54.538086 ; 1.559017 hope town foundry 1860 also known as whessoe foundry hope town foundry 1860 also known as whessoe foundry external links edit official website whessoe foundry co ltd www.aboutdarlington.co.uk about darlington retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title whessoe & oldid 723180211 categories engineering companies of the united kingdomcompanies formerly listed on the london stock exchangecompanies based in cleveland englanddarlington borough hidden categories cs1 errors datesarticles with wayback machine linksengvarb from october 2013use dmy dates from october 2013 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 1 june 2016 at 14 21 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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