Bealby Ploughs

Brook House

Walter Bealby with a work mate and the two elder sons: Jim and Frank, circa 1910

Workshop Plough Maker Tools

Forest Cart

The Bealby Plough family business is a fascinating story of Victorian enterprise which spread over some one hundred years. It was started by George Bealby in 1821. It was a thriving business, supplying ploughs and providing plough maintenance to a wide geography of customers ranging from Kings Lynn (75miles) to Sheffield (56miles). The business premises, built in 1858, is situated at Brook House, North Collingham, Nottingham; the last property as you leave the village on the Besthorpe Road. The property, including the workshop, remains in family ownership, and currently houses the Cat Asylum Brewery.

Forest Cart

1890, built in Workshop

Brook House

The Workshop

George Bealby retired from the business in 1871, and transferred the Business to his two sons James and Benjamin. James had a son, Walter (b 1869). Walter went over to America, to find his fortune. When his father, James died in 1891, Walter was called back from America to run the Business.

Walter married Alice Boon (b 1880) in 1906. They had four sons and three daughters: Jim (b 1907); Frank (b 1908); George (b 1909); Harry (b 1911); Bertha (b 1914); Alice (b1919); and Francis (b 1922).

In its heyday, the Business was prosperous. The workshop consisted of a bellows driven forge, which was surrounded by twelve artisan bench positions, each having their own set of tools. Shoeing horses was also a main part of the Business.

Walter and Alice Bealby ran the Business until it stopped trading around the 1930’s

Brook House

The Workshop

My name is Alan George Bealby. I am the eldest son of George Bealby, who was born at Brook House in 1907 and whose father was Walter Bealby, the last owner of Bealby Ploughs. I visited Brook House in the early 1950s in the summer holidays when my Grandmother (Alice) and my Uncle Frank lived there.

I have always wondered what the wealth of the Plough Business was over the years. I know that latterly the family was very poor. My father talked about sleeping between straw palliasses as a boy, and that they were always in debt to the village shop.

As well as an article from the The Thoroton Society, there are also observations and snippets of information that family and friends have experienced and remembered.