Wyn's Wickham Story

Laura Bateman 1617 days ago

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Throughout my career, I have been involved with Wickham pump spares. We have sold four lug diaphragms for over 45 years. One customer, John Hayes, owner of JFH Plant in Bristol, would purchase 20 diaphragms at a time due to his large fleet of these four lug Wickham pumps.

I remember him discussing a steel processing company that hired the Wickham 3-4” Lift and Force pump on a permanent basis. The liquids pumped by these machines would corrode the main castings within a couple of months, rendering them porous and unusable. To address this, the steel company and John Hayes collaborated to produce main castings from phosphor bronze, effectively solving the issue.

This brings us to D Wickham, the founder of Wickham Engineering Co Ltd. Initially, they manufactured bottle equipment for the brewing industry before expanding into hoists and pumps for construction and other contractor plants. Wickham was also known for their cranes and the 'Wickham Trolley' used on British Railways.

Wickham was later acquired by Benford, the dumper and mixer manufacturer based in Warwick.

Images found on Graces Guide (https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Main_Page)

While reviewing our archive, we discovered this instruction manual for the Wickham Lift & Force Diaphragm Pump.

We still have stock of some parts for the pump unit, including part numbers: 38 (P25), 50 (WE900), and 55 (P21).

The Wickham Lift & Force Double Diaphragm pump featured various engine types. Popular brands included Petter/Lister Petter, Ruston, and Wolesely, as shown in the images below.