The iron foundry of Bodley & Co was located on Commercial Road in Exeter, Devon. Much archival material, relating to mills for which parts were made by Bodley & Co, was rescued by Reading industrial archaeologist Cyril McCombe from the ruins of the demolished Bodley Foundry.
The drawings were passed to the Mills Archive for scanning and cataloguing before the originals were deposited at the Devon Record Office in Exeter.
We have high quality laser copies available for inspection in Reading, featuring small sketches on scraps of paper and much larger detailed drawings. All of these records were digitised by two of our expert volunteers, David Nicholls and David Neaves, and can be viewed online here.
For more information about the work of Bodley & Co., visit this website.
Design for metal ‘fender’ at Silverton
No. 3438a. Coloured design for a metal sluice gate (or ‘fender’). Undated.
Section through a water turbine at Exwick Barton
No. 847. Section through a turbine with written details of how it is to be overhauled. Undated.
Rack and pinion details
No. 2730. Details of a rack and pinion mechanism for a sluice gate. Dated 16th November 1898.
Blueprint for water turbine
No. 9058b. Blueprint for part of a water turbine. Undated.
Waterwheel design
No. 7134. Design for waterwheel with elegant curved starts and floats, mounted on circular (possibly wooden) wheel shaft. Undated.
Cast-iron ring for waterwheel
No. 6997. Design for waterwheel with slotted cast-iron ring to take wooden starts. Dated 15th October 1894.
Wooden sluice gate
No. 5641. Section and plan of wooden sluice gate (‘fender’) for waterwheel.
Dimensioned sketch of gear teeth
Small dimensioned drawing showing pitch measurements for teeth of a cast-iron spur pinion. Date indecipherable – possibly 1901.
Outline for turbine repairs
No. 5475. Handwritten description of the method by which a turbine should be repaired.
Bearing brasses for waterwheel shaft
No. 9142. Sketch of bearing ‘brasses’ for one of the cast-iron journals of a waterwheel shaft. Dated 22nd June 1889.
Sections through a waterwheel
No. 8344 – Shroud and Arm details of a cast-iron waterwheel on a metal shaft. Drawing dated 1895
Nave casting detail
No. 2355. Casting detail drawing for split waterwheel centre [nave]. 27.5 inch overall diameter. Drawing dated 1909
Waterwheel details
No. 8282. Sketch details of 18′ 0” dia waterwheel, shaft and hub. Also ring gear detail. Drawing dated 1886
Waterwheel sections
Right-hand segment of larger diagram of an overshot waterwheel with bucket details. Drawing dated 1895.
