Description and History of Site:-
The Gildersome Foundry Works occupied 38 acres alongside the Great Northern Railway with sidings provided for transporting raw materials and finished goods.
The foundry was served by its own internal narrow gauge railway to transport materials around the site.
The works consisted of pattern making shops, a foundry with two Bessemer furnaces, machine shops, erecting shops and a drawing office which turned the design sketches sent from Head Office on Bond Street, Leeds into working drawings.
One of Hudson's most successful products was a small tipping skip rail wagon made from the firms earliest days. In 1875 Robert Hudson patented the 'Rolling Triple Centre Pivot', a system that allowed the skip on the rail wagon to sit securely, the centre pivot being the normal rest position whilst the two outer pivots being used for tipping 90 degrees left or right. The arrangement allowed the contents to be tipped by one man without turning over the wagon. Hudson also introduced the use of hydraulic machinery to form pressed corrugated steel components to provide a thinner gauge steel whilst still being a strong construction thereby providing a competitive edge to his products.
His 'Rugga' tipping wagons were produced in a variety of sizes and rail gauges. The light version could be hand trammed thanks to the axles having roller bearings. His mine tubs were a core product of the business and could be found in most UK collieries and British Empire mines. The National Coal Board eventually adopted his designs and they became the standard coal haulage wagon.
Hudson's produced a vast array of rail track components such as the prefabricated rails themselves in various gauges, point switches, turntables, along with the equipment to build and maintain the rail system, such as gauges, rail benders, rail cutters, rail drills, spanners plus a huge array of bolts and components.

During World War1 the British Army suffered from appalling ground conditions which hampered the delivery to the front lines of materials. A report from Sir Eric Geddes of the North Eastern Railway recommended the implementation for 600mm (1'115/8'') gauge railways. The War Office ordered 7000 miles (11,000km) of prefabricated track, the majority being sent over to France, along with around 6000 tipping wagons and 5000 bogie wagons of various designs. Almost everything was made to Robert Hudson's designs albeit manufactured by many different companies.

Hudson's had been producing wagons that were hauled by hand or animals but the demand for steam haulage was increasing year on year. Robert Hudson decided to leave the manufacture of steam locos to the experts and in 1908 chose the Hunslet Engine Co of Jack Lane, Leeds (see WYK00100) to supply locos to accompany a system being supplied to India. In 1911 they approached Hudswell Clarke also of Jack Lane, Leeds (See WYK01106) to provide a range of locos to feature in Hudson's catalogue. Sixteen designs were produced in various combinations of cylinders, four wheel or six, 2' (610mm) or 2' 6'' (762mm) gauge. The most successful of these was a 0-6-0 Well Tank which was supplied in large numbers to the War Office. It's low centre of gravity and light axle weight made it ideal for traversing muddy battlefield supply lines. One hundred and eighty eight locos were built in the Hudson-Hudswell partnership. Hudson made very few locos themselves, they did make around thirty very small basic petrol powered locos based on one of their standard wagon chassis. When the Fordson petrol tractor became widely available in the 1920's, Hudson's adapted this unit to make a simple loco using a four wheeled cast chassis with a roller chain drive to the tractor rear axle. The gearbox only had three forward speeds and a reverse which was very limiting for a bidirectional loco. Only a few were made. A 2' (610mm) gauge 1928 version is preserved at Armley Mills Industrial Museum, Leeds.
The manufacture of internal combustion engine locos was not pursued, with Hudson's 1915 catalogue featuring a range of five petrol locos being supplied by Avonside Engine Co of Bristol. Eventually the Hunslet Engine Co took over the designs and formed a partnership with Hudson's. The first loco to carry the Hudson-Hunslet name plate was in March 1937 using a 20 h.p diesel engine. Established in 1865 by Robert Hudson, the foundry was situated at Gildersome, Leeds with the Head Office at 38a Bond Street, Leeds close to the Holbeck and Hunslet areas and more convenient for their customers arriving by rail.
The Hudson's were a wealthy family with interests in the mining industry, owning Victoria Colliery, Morley, Leeds.
Hudson would specialise in equipment for the mining industry such as prefabricated narrow gauge rail track, tipping trucks of various designs, wheels and axle roller bearings.
In 1917 Managing Director Robert Hudson was Lieutenant Colonel with the West Riding Regiment, however on 9th October 1917 was killed in action whilst in command of a battalion of men.
By 1922 there were about 1000 employees, Chairman was Percy Hudson, other directors were Walter Hudson and John William-Watson.
1948 The company was incorporated.
In 1950's Hudson's recognised the threat to their business from the road haulage industry. In an attempt to counteract the declining rail equipment work they produced the 'Leedsall' dumper truck followed by 'Kiwi' mobile yard crane, the 'Timiser' low loader trailer and 'Frontomatic' concrete truck mixer.
A contractors equipment division was formed in 1964. In 1968 a seperate building was opened on the main Wakefield-Bradford road with showrooms and land for demonstration purposes. With the demise of the Gildersome Works the company had become a Sales and Service organisation for Ford, Barford and Kubota etc.
In 1982 the Gildersome Works were sold off with the firm moving to Mill Green, Holbeck, close to where Matthew Murray's first works had been.
1984 The company was bankrupt.
1985 The remaining plant machinery, stores and equipment was auctioned off on January 31st at the Mill Green Works. The Goodwill passed to NEI Becorit and then Clayton Equipment of Derby who used the Robert Hudson name in their marketing of rail equipment.

An interesting but unfortunate accident report involving Hudson's can be read here; http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_Longniddry1953.pdf

Further Reading and References:-
http://www.leedsengine.info/leeds/histhud.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hudson_(company)
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Robert_Hudson_and_Co

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Key Words :- railway works engineers foundry

Address :- Stone Pits Lane , Gildersome, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS27 7JR
Grid Ref :- SE 24817 28237
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.749917 , Long -1.625143
Local Authority :- Leeds Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site demolished or no longer extant
Site Condition :- Site in alternative industrial use
Record Date :- 18 November 2019

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Andrew Garford