The roots of William Foster & Co. Ltd. can be traced back to 1846, when William Foster purchased a flour mill in Lincoln. In addition to running the mill he progressed to the small scale manufacture of threshing machinary and mill machinary.
By 1856 the mill had been converted to an iron foundry, thus giving birth to the original Wellington Foundry. Although never a large scale business in comparrison to the likes of John Fowler & Co. Ltd. and Marshall Sons & Co, Fosters did nevertheless expand from their humble beginings into a producer of steam engines, which gained a reputation for quality and reliability.
This DVD maps out the history of William Foster & Co. Ltd. and shows many products built by the company over the years. See the company's threshing machines, which were quite rightly regarded as one of, if not the best available on the market. Examine the Foster portables, traction engines, the sole surviving steam wagon, the legendary Foster Wellington tractor and of course the showmans road locomotives, which established the company as one of the three main producers of this type of engine.
