Brotherhoods, Engineers for Power, Transport & Weapons

Rowland Brotherhood founded this engineering dynasty in 1842 and was the contractor for much of the Great Western Railway main line from London to Bristol. Maintenance contracts followed and he set up the Chippenham Railway Works. At first they manufactured materials but later expanded to construct rolling stock and locomotives. His son Peter left to found Peter Brotherhood Ltd in London and there radial engines used to propel the Whitehead Torpedo were made as well as engines for other uses on naval ships. The company was inherited by his son Stanley who moved the business to Peterborough where it made motor cars. The First World War saw it producing armaments and engines for tanks and aircraft. Post-war the company made steam turbines, steam lorries and tractors, canal boats and engines and compressors. The Second World War involved a return to armament manufacture and after the war it developed heat recovery systems on ships. The company is still in business.