Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon, known as Gilkes, is an English hydropower engineering company based in Kendal, Cumbria, founded in 1853.[1][2]
The company makes hydropower turbines and engine cooling pumps. One of the company's notable products is the Turgo turbine, invented in 1919 by Eric Crewdson whose grandson Charles Crewdson OBE is, as of 2021 the company chairman.[3]
History
In 1853 two brothers named Williamson established a company at Canal Head, Kendal.[4] The first turbine they built in 1856 was installed at Holmescales Farm at Old Hutton and powered farm machinery there for more than a century. This, the "Williamson Bros Vortex Turbine No. 1", survives and is in the collection of Lakeland Arts