Foster, Rastrick and Company

Foster, Rastrick and Company was one of the pioneering steam locomotive manufacturing companies of England. It was based in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, now West Midlands. James Foster, an ironmaster, and John Urpeth Rastrick, an engineer, became partners in 1816, forming the company in 1819. Rastrick was one of the judges at the Rainhill Trials in 1829. The company was dissolved on 20 June 1831.

James Foster was the half-brother of John Bradley who founded the company John Bradley & Co, taking a lease on land near the canal at Stourbridge in 1800 with the aim of developing an ironworks. The deed of partnership for the company was drawn up in 1802 which granted a share in the company to Bradley's six half-brothers and sisters. By 1813 only John Bradley and James Foster had shares in the company and on Bradley's death in 1816, James Foster took control of the enterprise, which included the Stourbridge Iron Works.

John Urpeth Rastrick was an engineer born in 1780 at Morpeth in Northumberland. After finishing an apprenticeship with his father, which included work on steam engines, he worked first at the Ketley Iron Works and subsequently worked in partnership with John Hazledine of Bridgnorth. In 1808 he constructed a locomotive for Richard Trevithick and subsequently constructed a bridge at Chepstow (opened 1816). Shortly afterwards (1817) Rastrick left the partnership with Hazledine's company and moved to West Bromwich.

In June 1819 Rastrick and James Foster agreed to form the firm Foster, Rastrick & Company at a site next to the Stourbridge Iron Works.

The company produced a variety of engineering products including steam engines, proving machines for chain cable, saws, mills, and boilers. It also produced structural components for buildings, bridges and gas works. It had the facilities to produce cast industrial components including beams, cylinders and flywheels as well as some household items. In 1825 it listed railway components in a catalogue of products including rail, railway sleepers and railway chairs.

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