Lister Blackstone

Blackstone & Co Ltd

Blackstones original company building Broad Street, Stamford
Industry	Agricultural engineering, diesel engines
Fate	Sold to MAN SE
Predecessor	Rutland Ironworks
Successor	Mirrlees Blackstone
Founded	January 29, 1889 (1889-01-29)
Founder	Edward Christopher Blackstone
Headquarters	Blackstones, Ryhall Road, Stamford, Lincolnshire, Stamford, England
Key people	Edward Christopher Blackstone Thomas Ashby
Products	Diesel engines
Parent	Lister Hawker Siddeley MAN Diesel

Blackstone & Co. was a farm implement maker at Stamford, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.

Edward Christopher Blackstone was born in 1851. In 1877 he became a partner in Jeffery and Blackstone This company became the limited company Blackstone & Co on 29 January 1889.

In 1896 they built lamp start oil engines. By 1912 they had developed a new internal combustion engine that ran on vaporising oil and was fired by a spark. It did not need a hot bulb like most engines of the time. By 1919 they had mounted a 25 hp 3-cylinder version in a crawler tractor, which they built till 1925.

By 1929 they were building diesel engines for the Agricultural & General Engineers (AGE) group. Richard Garrett & Sons assembled some of these tractors. They were similar to an International 15/30. AGE collapsed in 1932.

AGE collapsed in 1932, after which Blackstone & Co. continued as an engine builder and was taken over by R A Lister and Company in 1937 to form Lister Blackstone.

The Associated British Oil Engine Company (ABOE) was a British engineering company. In 1945 Mirrlees, Bickerton and Day joined the group.

R A Lister & Company was taken over by the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1965 and, in a later re-organisation, Lister became Lister Petter and Blackstone became Mirrlees Blackstone.

Mirrlees Blackstone Limited was formed on June 1, 1969 by the merger of Mirrlees National Limited (formerly Mirrlees, Bickerton and Day) and Blackstone & Company Limited. All were, at the time, members of the Hawker Siddeley Group.