The Portway Company, Halstead, Essex
There is no new information on this page. The interest is probably due to that there is a current Portway Stove Company.
Portway Foundry, Halstead
As I was saying on my page on the Tortoise stove there is no addtional information on the Tortoise stove on the current Portway website.
Charles Portway operated out of Halstead, Essex
There is a Tortoise stove in the Parish church of Belchamp Walter, Essex
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SLOW BUT SURE: A history of the Portway family and the Tortoise Foundry at Halstead, by Adrian Corder-Birch
"
The book is a history of the Portway family and their industrial interests in Halstead. Charles Portway was
an ironmonger with a large shop in the High Street and a warehouse in Chapel Street.
In 1877 he patented the Tortoise Stove, which became famous worldwide and in 1882 established the Tortoise
Foundry, located adjacent to the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway with its own siding.
In 1938 two companies, Charles Portway and Son Limited and The Tortoise Foundry Company Limited were
incorporated and continued production until 1975. The book also includes details of successor companies,
which operated until 2004.
The numerous employees of the shops, the foundry and other businesses are provided
together with details of the prominent part, which members of the Portway family have taken, in many Halstead
organisations.
"
Halstead & District Local History Society
There is more information on the Charles Portway company on the Halstead & District Local History Society
website.
The book "SLOW BUT SURE: A history of the Portway family and the Tortoise Foundry at Halstead, by Adrian Corder-Birch"
is available for purchase by following a link from there. £14.95 - cheaper than link below.
The Portway Website
tempusfugit.me.uk has NO CONNECTION to the Portway Company and is not in
the business of wood-burning stoves.
portwaystoves.com now redirects to another website.
About Portway Stoves
"
Portway multifuel and wood burning stoves began in the early 1800’s when the owner of an ironmongery store took inspiration from the very first enclosed metal stoves which first appeared in North America at the end of the 1700’s and custom built his own stove to heat his Halstead based store.
Charles Portway’s design proved to be so successful that a neighbouring shopkeeper asked Portway to build a stove to heat his store also. Soon afterwards Portway set up a small foundry manufacturing solid fuel stoves that were so successful they lasted up to the 1980’s almost without any change.
The beauty behind the success of Portway’s stoves was in their efficiency. The stoves burned so slowly that they extracted the maximum amount of heat from the fuel. The stoves were named ‘Tortoise’ stoves and proudly produced with the motto ‘Slow but Sure’ displayed on the front. It was the first heating appliance to offer fuel efficiency as a major selling point making its role in the development of our industry of great significance today. Robert Higgs, the chief executive of the Heating and Ventilating contractors association argues the Portway was the “founding father of energy efficiency”.
Portway’s stoves were used to heat churches and halls as well as homes and 19th Century stoves displaying the iconic ‘Tortoise’ trademark can still be found today, making it one of the oldest, most resilient products in the history of heating.
