Cobbles mark the history of engineering firm after return to Birkenhead

Jan 6 2010 by Alistair Houghton, Birkenhead News

THEY may look like humble stones – but these cobblestones mark the history of a Wirral business that has moved back to where its founder served his apprenticeship.

Engineering supplies firm Heap and Partners has moved from Hoylake to a new home in Birkenhead – which it has named Canada Works after the complex owned by Victorian railway builder Thomas Brassey that used to stand nearby.

Heap was founded in 1866 by William Heap – who worked for Brassey at the original Canada Works.

The company had already laid some of the original cobbles from Canada Works at its former Hoylake head office in tribute to Brassey.

And when managing director David Millar decided to move the company and its 42 staff to Birkenhead this year, he decided to bring the cobbles with him.

Brassey was one of the greatest engineers of the Victorian age and built railways across the globe, including the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada.

Canada Works had long been demolished when, in the 1970s, Heaps’ managers approached the site’s owners to see if they could buy the cobbles that remained.

“We then laid them at our head office in Hoylake,” said Mr Millar.

“Having done that, we thought when we moved to Birkenhead that it would be fun to bring them back here to their original home.”

The cobbles will become part of a water feature at the site.

Mr Millar said: “It seemed fitting both to William Heap and Thomas Brassey to revive the name of Canada Works.”

The company is also planning to install solar panels and wind turbines to help it go green while reducing its energy costs.

Mr Millar said: “This is more than a token gesture. The first phase would be the solar power and this alone would generate one twelfth of our total electrical requirements – in other words for one month of the year we would need nothing from the National Grid. The second phase of a wind turbine would more than double that.”

Mr Millar said the firm had successfully ridden out the recession and said business was starting to grow again as customers began placing orders they had previously postponed.

Heap had been based across two sites in Hoylake, with a small sales office in Manchester.