E & H Roberts' Products
To many the name of E & H Roberts is synonymous with the manufacture of high quality ploughs.
Above is the famous Mephisto

plough and to the right is a

closer, more detailed picture.
Supplying local farmers was one of the mainstays of the business but was by no means the only outlet for the Roberts range. The company regularly exhibited at Agricultural shows around the country and at the Altrincham Agricultural Society's 1910 show, displayed 69 different ploughs, selling over 150.

Sir Gordon Roberts talks about his father

Over the years the company produced several hundred types and the 1926 catalogue claimed that it had been making ploughs for over 100 years and that they were "unrivalled for efficiency, wearing service, durability and general excellence in design, construction and finish.
Early Roberts ploughs would have been the wooden beam type with iron fittings such as the 'Dane Plough' which was still being produced in the first years of the twentieth century.

To complement the ploughs, the company also produced a large selection of other implements. Hoes, scarifiers, rollers, harrows, clod crushers, cultivators and horse rakes were advertised in profusion.
Clippings from the

E&H Roberts Ltd

Catalogue.
Another of the Roberts lines which greatly enhanced its reputation was the range of 'Premier' and 'Litelift' elevators. These were very popular with the farmers. They sold for between £45 and £50.

William Foddy talks of when he was a boy

Along side the iron foundry Roberts developed a large wheelwrighting workshop, combining the skills of the workmen to produce a small range of well-built carts and wagons. Hay, tip and water carts, flat bed wagons and delivery vans in a range of sizes appeared in advertising literature from the 1880's onwards and were soon receiving many prizes. A typical light "strongly made" farmers wagon, with oak framing and plank sides sold for about £35.
More Roberts products including photographs from Milton Keynes Museum

Return to Roberts Ironworks: Contents Page