The Ram on the Green

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		On the 24 October 2009, the "Ram on the Green" was unveiled. An explanatory leaflet for you to download together with pictures and more information is available as a PDF. The information below is intended to supplement the leaflet entitled Ram on The Green, which can be downloaded and printed as a pdf document from this site. It would be a good idea to look at the leaflet first as it attempts to explain what hydraulic water rams are and how they work. We are not entirely sure of the age of the ram displayed on Church Green as the identification plate displayed does not belong to this particular model, having been added by Green and Carter during refurbishment in their workshops in 2009.

		There is no doubt that it was manufactured at the Vulcan Iron Works sometime in the late C19th /early C20th. This is inferred by the name Vacher on the casting. Herbert Perkins Vacher (1854 – 1938) was the proprietor of the ironworks from 1888 to 1913. He became Mayor of Winchester in 1923/4. Vacher took over from the Williams brothers who started the iron foundry and engineering works circa 1882/3. They, like Vacher, could be described as gentlemen engineers. The Williams brothers were the sons of Capt. Walter Williams of Worthy Park, currently Princes Mead School. The site chosen was an area to the south west of Church Green and the Jubilee Hall. The western boundary follows the line of the current A34 (which itself takes the line of the old railway).

		To the south it extended to the river, which would have been useful for testing rams, and northwards it fronted London Road. Heavy engineering of the type undertaken here would have been unusual in this area where there were no raw materials and, before the railway came, poor transport links. However, the Williams brothers would have had a clear understanding of the needs and opportunities of country estates and many rams were sold to landowners and farmers before the advent of mains water supplies.

		Whilst the ram was the foundry’s main product they also made turbines for generating electricity from water power.

		The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway, which ran past the site, opened in 1885 but trains did not stop here. The potential business generated by the foundry may have been an important factor in the decision to open a station and goods yard in Kings Worthy in 1909. Whilst the station and the postal address of the foundry was Kings Worthy both are actually within the parish of Headbourne Worthy.

		In 1890 Herbert Vacher took on an apprentice called Robert Green who became works foreman in 1896 and later a partner when Vacher sold the business in 1913. The other partner was George Butler Carter so the business became Messrs Green and Carter Ltd., also trading under the name “The Vulcan Ironworks”.

		A number of setbacks occurred, notably a disastrous fire in September 1907. It is easy to understand that timber framed buildings with wood block floors, which had become impregnated with oil, were vulnerable to fire so the destruction was almost total. The fact that the horse drawn fire engine had to be summoned from Winchester meant that little could be saved. The premises were quickly rebuilt and production resumed at the end of 1908, incorporating improvements to avoid the spread of fire. Further tragedy struck the small business when Carter succumbed to the effects of influenza, dying in 1918 aged only 34 yrs. Robert Green was able to ‘buy out’ Carter’s widow and the business continued with the Green family in control. In 1928 the firm acquired the business of Messrs. Easton and Courtney who, at one time, had held the entire manufacturing rights for hydraulic rams throughout the British Empire. At about the same time Green and Carter was obliged to purchase their site as the lease could not be renewed. The lower portion, extending to the River Itchen, was later to be sold for the construction of the Winchester by-pass. During World War 2 the company undertook contract work for the Air Ministry and the Admiralty. At this time the land nearest the railway station was requisitioned as a site for a National Fire Service maintenance workshop.

		After 1945 a separate enterprise, Kingsworthy Foundry Co. Ltd., headed by Colin Peake, was established. It produced municipal iron castings e.g. gully gratings and manhole covers.

		Their premises were demolished in the 1950’s and replaced by light industrial units. In the 1960’s a precision engineering works and steel fabrication complex run by William Peake was created but finally closed in 1982 as the demand for castings and general recession took it’s toll. In 2010 the Peake family still run the Kingsworthy Foundry Co. which specialises in fireplaces and wood burning stoves but these are manufactured elsewhere. The name Green and Carter lives on and hydraulic ram manufacture and maintenance continue at Ashbrittle in Somerset where the fascinating company records are located. This account is based on more detailed information contained in Tony Dowland’s chapter “A Country Iron Works” in A History of the Worthy Villages edited by Peter Finn & Pamela Johnston ISBN 0 9535146 0 9 published 1999 but now out of print. An Internet search should reveal other sources of information about hydraulic water rams – the most useful being www.greenandcarter.com