The Soho Foundry

Description:The Soho Foundry was established by the second generation Boulton and Watt, and in particular by James Watt Jnr as the first purpose-built steam engine manufactory in the world. It was first laid out in 1795-6 about a mile to the west of the Soho Manufactory on the bank of the Birmingham Canal in Smethwick in the parish of Harborne.

The Foundry continued to expand over the next hundred years, but in 1848 the firm of Boulton and Watt folded on the death of James Watt Jnr and it was taken over by James Watt and Co, which, despite the name, had no Boulton or Watt family connection.

In 1895 James Watt and Co was dissolved and the site purchased by W & T Avery Ltd, weighing machine manufacturers, who are still in possession of the site today. Unlike at the Manufactory and Mint, sufficient buildings survive from the Boulton and Watt period to have been recently listed Grade II*.

The Foundry was subcontracted to make machinery for Matthew Boulton’s Mint firm. In 1860 James Watt and Co. re-used the patterns to set up their own mint, which operated for a few decades. The ‘Soho Foundry Mint’ has added to the confusion between the Soho’s. It still stands today, however, although much altered.