Joseph Blenkinsop & Ralph Harle

On Saturday 4 April 1741, the Newcastle Courant newspaper published two notices concerning the foundry at Skinners Burn, Newcastle.

It appears that the foundry at Skinners Burn had been in existence for some years prior to 1741 and that Joseph Blenkinsop had started the business on his own, then gone into partnership with Ralph Harle.  Then, on the 29th May of that year, Ralph Harle dissolved the partnership so that he could started his own competing business at his new foundry near the Folly in Sandgate, Newcastle.  There was obviously a degree of animosity between Blenkinsop and Harle as they each fought for their existing customers’ patronage.